24 September 2010 presentation at the annual meeting of the Missouri/Oklahoma Councils of History Education, Springfield, MO

1. Mexico in the Midwest? Making the Borderlands Meaningful to Students Borderlands: Regional Encounters and Forgotten Histories Joint Conference of the Missouri and Oklahoma Council for History Education 24-25 September 2010, Springfield, Missouri

2. Overview Explore Mexican and Mexican-American migration northward to the Midwest Explore tools to help students understand that the Borderlands do impact them Classroom-ready handouts Online presentation slides www.slideshare.net/kellyinkansas/

3. Migration Mexican migration Major area of contention for US-bilateral relations since 1900s Shared interests in promoting migratory flows Today, US immigration legislation has become more restrictive Reflects concern for high level of Mexican immigration Nevertheless, Mexico continues to be the leading country of origin for migrant workers Legal and Illegal

4. Migration (cont’d) Mexico cannot be ignored Share the same 2,000 mile border Closer proximity=domestic events affect one another NAFTA Mexico is the second largest US trading partner

5. Migration – 19th century Hispanic Americans made up a significant number of workers railroad mining industries Especially in southwestern U.S. led to the growth of communities throughout region Added to existing Hispanic populations in SW

6. Migration – 19th century - Railroads Railroad industry Employment needs brought more workers from remote parts of Mexico New systems integrated the border regions of the United States and Mexico.

7. Migration – 20th century Railroad also led to the economic development of SW US drawing Mexican immigrants in large numbers into agriculture Early 20th century Established a pattern that continued thereafter colonias Established by primarily male Mexican immigrants Railroad employment took them further into the US early 20th century Chicago Kansas City

8. Migration - Mexican Revolution 1910 - Mexican Revolution began 20th Century’s first modern social revolution, destined to change Mexico’s society and economy flood of Mexican immigrants into the US Choices were simple for Mexicans who opposed the fighting: hide away leave the country

9. Migration – Mexican Revolution (cont’d) Many of the Mexican citizens chose to head north the turmoil of the war the danger the economic catastrophe social chaos surrounding the revolution

10. Migration – Mexican Revolution (cont’d) Some revolutionaries fled to the United States to plot further incursions into Mexico Kansas City a prime example

11. Migration – Mexican Revolution (cont’d) Over 890,000 legal Mexican immigrants (1910-1920) The Revolution had created a state of turmoil to the south Mexicans sought the peace of the north Railroads hired a bulk of the Mexicans construction Maintenance 1st mostly poor and sick came Then upper class

12. Migration – World War I Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants also moved north in large numbers during WWI Denver San Francisco Bay area steel and auto industries Others began migrating from South Texas to work in cotton fields elsewhere in Texas Oklahoma

13. Migration – Great Depression U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service adopted a policy of repatriation deported more than 250,000 Mexicans Texas used Rangers to forcibly evict Mexicans who refused to accept voluntary repatriation Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan paid for special trains to take Mexicans to the border

14. Migration – World War II Bracero Program initiated in August 1942 allowed importation of temporary contract laborers from Mexico Over the following two decades, more than 4 million Mexican farm-workers arrived in the U.S. under this guest worker program, most of them destined for the cotton-fields and orchards of California and the Pacific Northwest and the ranches and sugar beet farms of the Midwest.

15. Migration – World War II (cont’d) At its height, over 437,000 guest-workers entered the U.S. annually discontinued in 1964 invention of a mechanical cotton harvester reduced labor needs Scandals over “slave labor”

16. Migration – Post-World War II The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 set strict quotas on the number of persons who could legally enter the U.S. from Latin American nations most new Mexican migration to the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s was temporary and short-term.

17. Migration - 1970s - present Beginning in significant numbers in the 1970s, Mexican immigrants have moved in large numbers to the Midwest U.S. attracted by jobs in the packinghouse industry

18. Migration – 1980s Since the 1980s, Mexican migration has increased dramatically Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who had resided in the U.S. before 1982 while imposing penalties on employers who hired illegal immigrants. Several factors led to an increase in Mexican immigration to the U.S. The Latin American Debt Crisis of the 1980s led to high rates of unemployment in Mexico destroyed the savings of a large portion of the middle-class

19. Migration – 1990s 1991 - Mexican president Salinas dismantled the communally-owned ejidos one of the most important legacies of the Mexican Revolution Distributed land ownership 1994 – NAFTA brought a flood of subsidized U.S. corn into the Mexican market, drove down grain prices Forced hundreds of thousands of people from rural areas to migrate in search of better economic opportunities.

20. Migration – 2000s The 2000 Census showed that the foreign-born population of the U.S. increased by 11.3 million people in the 1990s and Mexican immigrants accounted for 43% of that growth. The region which had the fastest-growing immigrant population was the Southeast Construction, migrant agricultural laborers, textile mills Chicken processing plants. Latino populations of GA, NC, SC, and Arkansas increased between 300 and 400 per cent from 1990 to 2000. Also impacted SW Missouri

21. Common Core State Standards Both Missouri and Oklahoma have adopted (2010) Handout OK PASS Standards – audience query

22. Border – Mexico and the United States

23. Another View of the Border

24. US-Mexico Border 2012 (EPA)

25. Then and Now (1980 / 2010)

26. Census Quick Facts http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html

27. Immigration Explorer (NYT) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html

28. Visualizations (Many Eyes) http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/us-latino-hispanic-population Students can create their own visualizations on this site Site data sets Upload data sets

29. Diversity in the Classroom http://projects.nytimes.com/immigration/enrollment

30. Remade in America (NYT) http://projects.nytimes.com/immigration/

31. Census Atlas: Race and Hispanic Origin http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/censusatlas/pdf/3_Race-and-Hispanic-Origin.pdf

32. Spanish’s Gifts to English http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/mexican_voc.html

33. What Makes Us Americans: http://www.communityeducationcenter.org/print/education/what-makes-us-american-video-montage

34. Additional Information Kelly A. Woestman Assistant Chair and Professor of History – Pittsburg (KS) State University woestman@pittstate.edu http://www.slideshare.net/kellyinkansas A copy of this presentation will be posted here