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1.) LONG THREAD: Mexican Lynchings, Segregation, and Mass Deportations in the South
The history of systemic mistreatment, lynchings, segregation, and mass deportations of Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants is a forgotten one in the United States of American.
The history of systemic mistreatment, lynchings, segregation, and mass deportations of Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants is a forgotten one in the United States of American.
2.) Sadly, the history of we Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants is placed under the rug as a history that’s important, but not “that” important. This is why many (not all) don’t know the history itself.
3.) However, what’s often overlooked–and shouldn’t be anymore, is that lynchers targeted many other racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, including my people—Mexicans-Americans and Mexican Immigrants. Many of my people have died at the hands of lynchers.
4.) Many are largely unaware that Mexicans and Immigrants were frequently the targets of lynch mobs, from the mid-19th century until well into the 20th century, second only to African-Americans in the scale and scope of the crimes.
5.) One case, largely overlooked, is that of seven Mexican shepherds hanged by white vigilantes near Corpus Christi, TX, in late November 1873. The mob was probably trying to intimidate the shepherds’ employer into selling his land. None of the killers were ever arrested.
6.) From 1848 to 1928, mobs murdered thousands of Mexicans and even Mexican Immigrants, though surviving records allowed us to clearly document only about 547 cases—some committed at the hands of Texas Rangers.
7.) These lynchings occurred not only in the southwestern states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas but also in states far from the border, like Nebraska and Wyoming. All to Mexicans and even Mexican Immigrants.
8.) As I’ve dug deeper into this study, what’s import to note is the fact that if Anglo mobs killed African-Americans for alleged offenses that challenged white supremacy, Anglo mobs also lynched Mexican-Americans and Mexican-Immigrants to police citizenship and sovereignty.
9.) And although Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants were “white by law” since 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo granted citizenship to the Mexican inhabitants of the newly acquired territory, Anglos viewed Mexicans as “greasers/wetbacks” undeserving of equal rights.
10.) Furthermore, in Texas, when Anglos were unable to impose Jim Crow policies on Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants legally, a less formal “Juan Crow” pattern of prejudice and racism and xenophobia emerged.
11.) In 1893 and 1905, Texas passed a series of English-only laws that paved the way for the segregation of Mexicans in public schools. But, segregation extended past public school—Mexicans experienced segregation in restaurants/water fountains/buses, deportations/bathrooms.
12. For example, my abuelita (grandma) told me that when she was younger, Mexicans in Texas were often sitting next to African-Americans on buses and sharing the same bathrooms and water fountains.
13.) My abuelita (grandma) also told Anglos often yelled, “Beaner”, “wetback”, and “Alien” to Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants in Texas. While “Jim Crow” existed to segregate and dehumanize African-Americans, “Juan Crow” existed to segregate and dehumanize Mexicans.
14.) There’s a lot more I’m reading on the discrimination Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants have faced. Sadly, however, this discrimination continues today through the dehumanization of Immigrants primarily through policies, separation of families, racism, and xenophobia.
15.) We must begin to read the history of Mexican-Americans and Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Our history is a forgotten one and it shouldn’t be. Our history has been overlooked and put under the rug. We must shine a light on the history of my people.
