Takaki Ch. 12 "El Norte"

In Chapter 12 of Takaki’s book “A Different Mirror” he discusses the history of the Mexicans and their immigration into America. The chapter is entitles “El Norte” which translates to The North. Takaki discusses the struggles that Mexico was entering and the Civil War that was at hand. During this tough time in Mexico, nearly half a million Mexicans crossed the border into something in which people described as “the wonderful estados unidos” (312). Takaki emphasizes the strong nationality the Mexicans had towards Mexico and how they were only traveling to America for their own protection and would soon return. The waiting soon stretched into years. The civil war was devastating and everything in Mexico was being shutdown. This is what accelerated the movement to the U.S. One thing that triggered the Mexicans was also the railroad and the development of transportation. Mexicans were being stuffed in the train cars and crossing the boarder. Mexicans were now the primary work force in the construction industry. Some Mexican women even were given domestic jobs like the Irish except they did not generally work on a live-in basis. The Mexicans even migrated north to Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania. People liked the Mexican workers because they were seen as docile, patient, orderly in camp, obedient and cheap (320). Most Mexicans however, worked in agriculture. Land owners then began discouraging them to owning cars and tried to use debt to keep them from leaving. Some then began to go on strike when land owners wanted to lower their wages. To break the strike, employers dumped their belongings on the highway and evicted them from their camps. The Mexicans soon found out that integration did not mean equality. Sometimes they were even considered colored people and had to obey by the rules of the Negroes. The Mexicans fought for their education for their children and were told that they can go to school but to make sure they know that they will never be as “good as a white man” (327). They were told that educated Mexicans were the hardest to handle. The teachers were fighting for the learning of the Mexican children but the superintendent and the school board wouldn’t have it. One Mexican father in specific stated “I would rather die than take my children out of school” (329). At this time Mexicans were not only entering the country in great numbers but also had a very rapid birthrate. Clearly race was being used as a weapon by the American Federation of Labor; Mexicans not only constituted “cheap labor” but were regarded as incapable of becoming fully American.

Takaki makes a clear relation to the immigration of the Mexicans from those of the Japanese and the Irish. It is almost the exact some tactics the whites used on the Irish that they used on the Mexicans, considering them to be on the same status level as the blacks. But why did they see the Mexicans as being better for physical working environments than any other nationality? The difference is compared to maybe the Irish is that the Mexicans had somewhere to go back to if they needed to. The Irish or the Japanese would have a more difficult time returning home.