Moving to Texas and the US
Consensus on Mexican migration to Texas following the conclusion of Texas’ War of Independence from Mexico in 1836 is that not much was documented and of the migration that did happen, most people went to and lived around the Texas-Mexico border (Rich 167). Immigration from 1900 onward was completely different. In the first decade of the 20th century, the population of Mexicans living in Texas increased from 71,062 to 120,704 (Rich 171). Rich claimed that immigration to lands further from the TX-Mexico border was facilitated because of a rail line that started running from Brownsville, TX (the very southern tip of Texas) to St. Louis (Rich 171). The Mexican Revolution that started in 1910 was a major factor in a further increase in migration from Mexico into Texas, with 219,004 Mexicans entering Texas between 1911 and 1920 (Rich 173). Up until 1921, undocumented immigrants in Texas had a right to vote in Texas (Menchaca 235). No Fort Worth source mentioned this.
Mexicans living by the US-Mexico border usually worked in the railroads, fields, mines, and construction sites while earning lower wages than other employees and facing housing discrimination from landowners (Zamora 29). Regardless of citizenship, skills, and experience, Mexicans in the Texas in the early 20th century “suffered the same fate as exploited workers” (Zamora 92). The instability of the Mexican Revolution, industrialization’s impact on the work force in Mexico, and discrimination in labor, housing, and education in the US led some immigrants and US born Mexicans to organize mutual aid societies (Zamora 93).
The increase in Mexican immigration to the United States during this time also increased the stereotypical and exaggerated claims white Americans have used against Mexican immigrants such as lowering wages, displacing white workers, and being scabs (Zamora 46). These claims, Zamora noted, only seemed to be raised and get popular when there is an increase in immigration (Zamora 53). The US and Texas governments deported about 5,000 Mexican immigrants in San Antonio in April 1921 then about 350 Mexican immigrants in Fort Worth in May 1921 – 60,000 people had been deported across the US by this month (Menchaca 242). These operations ended in July after the US had negotiated for its oil companies to recover oil fields in Mexico (Menchaca 243). Tensions rose again during the Great Depression when the US government deported 400,000 Mexican immigrants between 1929 and 1933 (Menchaca 253).
Menchaca, Martha. Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants a Texas History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011.
Rich, Harold. Fort Worth: Outpost, Cowtown, Boomtown. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.
Zamora, Emilio. The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1993.