Ethnic Mexicans' Labor Activity in Texas: Class, Citizenship, and Americanization in the 1930s

ABSTRACT ETHNIC MEXICANS’ LABOR ACTIVITY IN TEXAS: CLASS, CITIZENSHIP, AND AMERICANIZATION IN THE 1930s by © Junko Miura 2011 Master of Arts in History California State University, Chico Summer 2011 The Pecan Shellers’ Strike occurred in 1938, in San Antonio, Texas, with the participation of laborers who had been forced to work at a lower wage and under poor working conditions. Many scholars have pointed out the significance of this strike from several perspectives. As those studies argued, the strike has been considered historically important as the greatest victory of labor unions in Texas. Moreover, by focusing on the fact that the laborers who forced this strike were Mexicans, scholars attribute this event not only to their labor activity, but also to the ethnic Mexicans’ political and civil rights movement. Although Mexicans’ labor activities in San Antonio have been critically argued by many scholars, previous perspectives do not shed light on the overlapping functions of labor activity with immigration issues and ethnic identification with Americanization. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to reexamine the attempt of ethnic Mexicans to stimulate their labor activities in San Antonio, Texas, and their perspectives toward the immigration question and Americanization issues. This thesis reevaluates the link between ethnic Mexicans’ labor activities and the effort to encourage their Americanization. The controversy which questions the complex linkage between labor activity and the civil rights movement still leaves room for explanation in light of the diversity of ethnic Mexicans. The central goal of this thesis is to reconsider the ethnic collective identity through the lenses of ethnic Mexicans’ labor activities. This illuminates the understanding of how America constructed ethnic and class differences to define what America was in the 1930s.