Becoming Mexican American

The chapter begins with an anecdote illustrating the community’s dire need for public assistance, allowing Sánchez to characterize the era of the Great Depression as one defined by the conflict between the personal choices of Mexican immigrants and the governmental policies set in place to promote mass repatriation campaigns. He points out that, by the close of the Depression era, nearly a third of the Mexican population of Los Angeles had departed. Those who chose to remain in LA, Sánchez argues, became “ambivalent Americans, full of contradictory feelings about their place in American society” (210).

The majority of the chapter is dedicated to exploring the various waves of Mexican repatriation that occurred during the late 1920s and early 1930s, as well as how the responses of the American and Mexican governments compounded the community’s already dismal financial situation. Due to the decline in seasonal and agricultural jobs leading up to the 1929 crash, Mexican immigrants were among the first in LA to experience an economic decline. Those who had the means to return to Mexico earlier on, including a wave of repatriates from 1929 to 1930, were more likely to translate their success to their new (or old) homes, as they were able to bring American consumer products with them.