SWORK 350 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Bracero Program, Mexican Americans, Operation Wetback
Part 3
Chapter 7
Hispanic Americans:
Colonization, Immigration, and Ethnic Enclaves
Students should understand key concepts related to Hispanic Americans including but not limited
to the following:
ethnic minority group
• Hispanic American are partly an ethnic minority group (identified by cultural
characteristics such as language) and partly racial minority group (identified by their
physical appearance)
racial minority group
• Latinos bring a variety of racial background to US society
• Mexican americans combine European and native American ancestries and are
identifiable by their physical traits as well as by their culture and language
• Puerto Ricans, in contrast, have a mixture of white and black ancestry
Chicanismo
• Protest movement
• Encompassed a variety of organizations and ideas, united by a heightened militancy and
impatience with the racism of the lalrge society and strongly stated demans for justice,
fairness, and equal rights
• Questioned the value of assimilation and sought to incrase awareness of the continuing
exploitation of Mexican Americans
• The solution to these problems lay in group empowerment, increased militancy, and
group pride
o Very masculine dominated
o Idea that Mexican male are dominant
o Puerto Ricans came to the mainland in the 40s and 60s
Latino
• Stressed the common origins of these groups in Latin American and the fact that each
culture is a unique blend of diverse traditions
Hispanic
• Highlights Spanish heritage and language but does not acknowledge the roots of these
groups in African and Native American civilizations
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• Hispanic and latino label were invented and applied by the dominant group and may
reinforce the mistaken perception that all Spanish speaking peoples are the same
repatriation
• A gov campaign begun during the great depression of the 1930s to deport illegal
immigrants back to mexico
• Campaign also caused some legal and native born Mexican Americans to leave the US
• Result: Mexican American pop declined by 40%
bracero program
• Initiated to permit contract laborers, usually employed in agriculture and other areas
requiring unskilled labor, to work in the United States for a limited time.
• When their contracts expired, the workers were required to return to Mexico
• In 1960, braceros supplied 26% of the nations seasonal farm labor
• Generated millions of dollars of profit for growers and other employers, because they
were paying braceros much less than they would have paid American workers
Operation Wetback
• a program under which federal authorities deported almost 4 million Mexicans
• 1950’s
• raids on Mexican American homes and businesses were common, and authorities often
ignored their civil and legal rights
• in an untold number of cases, us citizens of Mexican descent were deported along with
illegal immigrants
• these violations of civil and legal rights have been a continuing grievance of Mexican
Americans
Immigration Reform and Control Act
• this legislation allowed illegal immigrants who had been in the country continuously
since 1982 to legalize their status
• about 3 million, 75% of them mexican, took advantage of this provision, but the program
did not slow the volume of illegal immigrants
League of United Latin American Citizens
• founded in texas in 1929
• promoted Americanization and greater educational opportunities for Mexican Americans
and worked to expand civil and political rights for Mexican americans
• fought numerous court battles against discrimination and racial segregation
Chicano
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