Catching Greasers with Red-Bait

     Those that hold the educational and political power are the same that hold the economic power as well. And who knows why this happens, but those that hold the economic, political, and educational power tend to deny the rest of the citizenry the opportunities that they have. School budgets across the country are constantly being cut. They say it is because the funding is lacking or diminishing so fast that trying to fund it now would be unsustainable. Well that’s easy for them to say. If not that, then what is being funded must be more important. What ever the case may be, the fact of the matter is that public education is the only way for the huge majority of the middle and lower class to send their kids to school. Which numerically, comes out to be most of the country. If most of the country is less educated, that means that diminishes the chances of those classes to become professionals in the future and in turn diminishes their chances of becoming financially stable and/or independent. I’m not saying that there is a conspiracy behind all of this. What I am saying is that it is easy to forget those in need when one’s everyday life is full of success. Historically, however, the process of eliminating the competition (if there was any to begin with), was not so innocent. Euro-America was down right oppressive. This was especially true of the 1930s, during the Great Depression. Mexican Americans struggled for better wages and working conditions during that era; The successes were few and far between like the forming of large unions; the failures were many like the militant tactics imposed by farm owners and their organizations.

     Mexican Americans in the 1930s experienced, some successes in their struggle for better wages and working conditions mostly due to the fact the they began to organize unions. The unions provided a voice of many grouped together to form one loud roar, rather than individual squeaks. In 1937, 1500 walnut workers were forced to crack nuts with their bare hands because, “they were ‘making too much money.’” Less than one year later, they joined the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA-CIO). The reason they joined wasn’t because they were being wimpy about their hands hurting; They joined because their “individual integrity” was being threatened. They joined because the “ragged and jagged” work benches tore their silk stockings. Even though they worked in sweatshops, they would not “surrender their self-esteem as evidenced by their collective action and personal appearance.” With the union they maintained their integrity as they had a voice to which the employer had to listen to. A few years before this, in 1933, in California twenty-four of thirty seven strikes occurred. The Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) “[Dared] to organize some of the most disenfranchised people in the United States, [they] enjoyed... [a] success rate, winning partial wage increases in twenty-one of twenty-four disputes.” That year, they took on the difficult task of leading the large San Joaquin Valley Cotton Strike of between 12,000 to 20,000 people that worked the expanse of 120-mile area. The strike resulted in another success as growers “reluctantly accepted a fifteen-cent wage increase.” Mexican Americans in san Antonio “generally fared better than the new immigrants.” Also, the Great Depression helped the Mexican American community in that it was used as a pretext for deporting Mexican immigrants, thus eliminating their competition for jobs. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) advocated such practices. LULAC even “successfully sued the Social Security administration regarding requirements that Mexicans designate themselves as Mexican and not ‘white’” in order to be able to get the privileges that whites were alloted. Another organization that helped the Mexican American community was El Congreso de Habla Espanol. It had huge support from movie stars. “Members pushed the rights of farmworkers to organize and demand the extension of the benefits of the National Labor Relations Act to Farmworkers.”

     Mexican Americans experienced many many failures in the 1930’s during the Great depression. One of the strikes mentioned above, The San Joaquin Valley Cotton Strike, although ending in a slight increase in wages, by mere cents, the losses were much greater. As “violence marred the labor dispute... Farmers killed three people, including one Mexicana.” The Value of human life is priceless and a few cents per day per worker, I’m assuming, will never be enough to repay the invaluable lives of those whom lost it. Even the idea of putting a price-tag on life, as being calculated in terms of “potential earning power in a life-time,” is not and never will be enough to measure the value of individual lives. Red-Baiting occurred during this era; this is when individuals or organizations claim that other individuals or organizations are communists. Growers grouped and created an organization called the Associated Farmers (AF) in an effort to combat the unions. The AF caused huge upsets within farm workers’ unions. The AF was in cahoots with the County law enforcements to red-bait the unions in order to squash any request for wages increases that families could live on. “A private investigator meticulously recorded in his mileage reports the names of various Mexican Cafes he considered ‘Communist and CIO’ hotbeds.” This was a huge loss for the unions asking for better wages as the AF continuously resorted to violence against picketers by “[sprinkling] tacks onto road ways and [beating] picketers with clubs and chains” during the Madera Cotton Strike that began on October 12, 1939. UCAPAWA held a peaceful rally to bring public awareness that many families “had nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat.” In support of the growers, 200 vigilantes attacked the families. And so did the police. The vigilantes “‘hunted, shot, and [beat]’” the poor families and the police helped the attackers by routing the families with tear gas. Such disregard for human life and greed by the growers resulted with “nineteen union members [requiring] medical attention,” when all they wanted was “wages they could live on.” The Massive repatriation of Mexicans that occurred during the Great Depression was devastating to their community, as even Mexican Americans were rolled into the same classification, resulting in the deportation of Mexican Americans as well. Nativist mentalities, like that of C.P. Vise, the Los Angeles local coordinator for unemployment relief, who sent reports to Washington that stated that “local citizens needed the jobs the undocumented Mexicans were taking.” He even “circulated leaflets that did not differentiate between legal and illegal Mexicans, [warning] ‘20,000 deportable aliens [are] in the Los Angeles Area.’” Meanwhile, during this year of 1931 in Pacoima and San Fernando, things got so out of hand,  that “Authorities pressured even the naturalized U.S. citizens to repatriate.” The above mentioned organization, El Congreso, had it’s setbacks as well. El Congreso, again because of red-baiting, at one point had to move from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Los Angeles. However, news papers continued to label the organization a “‘subversive gathering.’” El Congreso did take a stance that was radical, and thus “opened itself to intense red-baiting, and the FBI harassed its members.”

     The 1930s brought great challenges to Mexican Americans as they struggled for better wages and working conditions. The successes they experienced were minimal compared to their losses. For the most part they were oppressed by the the Euro-American growers, their organization, the AF and the police (whom were supposed to protect, not attack them). Even though only the oppressive measures regarding labor and wage improvements were illustrated in this writing, you, the reader, can be assured, that those measures went the full gamut. From school segregation, to political exclusion. Looking into this part of history speaks volumes to the actions of todays leaders and power brokers; The Arizona, anti-immigration laws recently passed, and anti-gay laws recently passed in California. So when we vote, to deny the civil rights of a specific group in our society, let us keep in mind that the only ones really benefiting from this are those whom are already in power, and don’t really need the help. To add to this, right and wrong is not always what someone else tells you it is.