TWO
MEXICAN AMERICANS,
THE BORDER, AND BRACEROS,
1961-1965
LOS ANGELES TIMES

Mexican-Americans Move into New Era of Political Awakening January 8, 1961

LOS ANGELES—Lorenzo Marquez, a 30-year-old Mexican-American who lives on Brooklyn Ave. in East Los Angeles, is experiencing a political awakening.

Until recently, Marquez, a mechanic, thought a workingman's business was that of doing his job well and taking care of his wife and children. But on Dec. 1, at a hearing before the Board of Supervisors, Marquez carried a placard which read:

"Have a heart. Let East Los Angeles Incorporate."

Taking time off from a greasy transmission which he was repairing, Marquez recently mused:

"You know, my father lived in East Los Angeles for 45 years. He never became a citizen of the United States and never even learned to speak English. I remember once after I got back from the Army I asked him why he never learned English."

Things Are Different Now

He answered half seriously, "Who wants to speak to these gringos?"

"Well, my good father belonged to another generation. Things are different now and I very much want to talk to my neighbors, no matter what their national origin is."

"I'm working for the incorporation of East Los Angeles because I know that Mexican-Americans can progress only if they participate in civic affairs. Though my father worked here for almost a half a century, his heart was really in Mexico. I know nothing about Mexico, but I know something about East Los Angeles. It's my home and I want it to get better. If we make it into a city we Mexican-Americans will at last have a voice in our civic affairs."

Others Have Their Objections

At the meeting in which Marquez carried his incorporation placard, another man was there with different ideas about East Los Angeles. He was George Hansel, president of the East Los Angeles Improvement Assn., who told the lawmakers that he represents property owners on Atlantic Blvd. and that 85% of them are against the incorporation.

Hansel, who said East Los Angeles now enjoys a tax rate of 17th from the lowest among 80 communities in the county, told the hearing in part,

"(There) seems to be an awful lot of money spent for the incorporation of East Los Angeles, but we don't know where the money is coming from . . . ."

"We feel that with the revenue of a million to a million and a half dollars at stake that we should have better control and a better accounting of who is going to be city manager, the city government and what they have in mind."

(Charges have been made, though not by the official opponents, that if East Los Angeles is incorporated it will become another Gardena-type gambling town and that gangster elements will move in.)

East Los Angeles is a workingman's district with the reputation of being more wicked than it really is. It has the police problems characteristic of low income communities in large metropolitan areas.

Gang riots, dope peddling and shootings have marred its character in the eyes of people outside East Los Angeles.

Has Better, Less Spectacular Side

But the East Side has its better though less spectacular side. Mexicans love big families and like to raise their children without moving around. The many modest, but well-kept, homes attest to the Mexican-American's love for the "hogar" (family home). Most have been there for generations and intend to stay there, unlike their higher income brother who hopes sometime to buy a larger home in a "better neighborhood."

East Los Angeles' old business districts along Brooklyn Ave. and 1st St. could be something out of Chihuahua City or parts of Mexico. There is everything from chorizo (Mexican sausage) factories and tortilla factories to used clothing stores and cobbler shops where worn shoes are remade from top to soles.

Then there is the "new" East Los Angeles in the northwestern side.

There, West Bella Vista, with its new tract homes, and Atlantic and Whittier Blvds., with their supermarkets and car dealers, point to what all of East Los Angeles would like to be. New East Los Angeles is flanked by Monterey Park and Montebello, two communities which eye the territory as possible revenue-producing annexation land.

Decision Thursday

Next Thursday, the Board of Supervisors will decide whether an election should be called on the proposed incorporation of East Los Angeles and, if so, what the boundaries would be.

On the surface, the squabble centers on two basic issues:

The proponents of the new city, in which the 60,000 to 70,000 residents would be overwhelmingly Mexican-American, claim they seek a long-overdue community identity and that the run-down sections of their area would improve under home rule.

The opponents, business interests along Atlantic and Whittier Blvds. and some property owners in West Bella Vista, argue that a new city would only bring new taxes. This new burden, they contend, is unnecessary because they now receive excellent services from the county government.

The Citizens Committee for Incorporation of East Los Angeles knows that if it excluded West Bella Vista and Atlantic and Whittier Blvds. from its incorporation plans, there would be little trouble in forming the new city.

Integral Part

But the committee feels that these areas are an integral part of the proposed city and that businesses on Whittier and Atlantic Blvds. owe any economic success they might have to the support of the Mexican-American population in the East Side.

However, the hundreds of signatures on petitions filed with the supervisors which ask that East Los Angeles not be incorporated or that their section be excluded attest to the great concern many have over the proposed creation of the new city.

The Rev. William Hutson, a top Catholic Youth Organization official, who was influential in the recent incorporation of Pico Rivera, feels that opponents to the new city "suffer from vain fears."

"I know and have worked with East Los Angeles people for years,"

Father Hutson said. "I trust them without reservation. In no hands would democracy be safer. In a time when Fidelismo (Castroism) is making strides among Latin Americans, I see the reverse trend in East Los Angeles. In the future, East Los Angeles will be not only an economic asset, as it is now, but also a social and political asset in Los Angeles County. Besides, the incorporation of East Los Angeles would make the residents better Americans."

The map filed with the supervisors by the proponents of the city of East Los Angeles is of a 38-sq-mile area containing about 17,000 dwelling units. The 1959-60 assessed valuation of the area is approximately $27,661,570, according to the tax division of the auditor-controller of Los Angeles County.

The incorporation position, signed by at least 25% of the property owners representing at least 25% of the assessed property valuation, describes the proposed city as follows:

Bounded on the north by Floral Dr. and a line approximately one-half mile north of Brooklyn Ave., bounded on the west by the city of Los Angeles north of 3rd St. and by Eastern Ave. south of 3rd St., bounded on the south by 3rd St. west of Eastern Ave. and by Telegraph Rd. east of Eastern Ave. and bounded east by an irregular line along Goodrich Blvd. and in the general vicinity of Atlantic Blvd.

Proponents say that the city of East Los Angeles would not fall into the category of industrial cities that incorporated to keep out homes, so school taxes could be avoided, or dairy cities, which were created to protect milk farms from urban development.

"These are not true cities, as East Los Angeles would be," an incorporation tract reads. "These are nothing but incorporated tax loopholes . . . . The incorporation of East Los Angeles is a dramatic story of a people, who once controlled California, and now want to enjoy self-government."

Over the years several groups have attempted to incorporate East Los Angeles without success.

Speaking at a Public Relations Counsel Conference in 1956, councilman Edward Roybal observed:

"One of East Los Angeles' biggest failures is a lack of coordination among Eastside Organizations."

This does not hold true anymore. Twenty-three Mexican-American organizations have a co-ordinating group called the House of Delegates. The membership includes such organizations as the Council of Mexican-American Affairs, Catholic Youth Organization, Inter-American Club,

Inter-American Library Assn., Lulacs^[*] and the Mexican Civic Patriotic Committee.

Not Directly Involved

The House of Delegates is not directly involved with the incorporation as some of its member groups lie outside the proposed boundaries. But it encourages all Mexican-Americans to exercise their civic rights and obligations.

It is estimated that there are from 600,000 to 750,000 Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles County and politicians drool when they dream of controlling this group as a bloc.

The East Side of late has been able to point with pride to one of its own, Judge Carlos Teran, who was appointed municipal judge by Republican Gov. [Goodwin] Knight and later superior judge by Democratic Gov. [Edmund G. "Pat"] Brown.

Political Victory

But East Los Angeles only recently tasted its first real political victory when attorney Leopold G. Sanchez, a novice politician, beat incumbent Judge Howard H. Walshok by a vote of 23,767 to 20,519 in the East Los Angeles Judicial District.

In part, it is this political consciousness on the part of the East Los Angeles Mexican-Americans that disturbs some anti-incorporation petitioners.

"It's not that I want to deny anyone the right to democratic process," a West Bella Vista resident said. "It's that I feel that they're forming a bloc and I wonder whether they have my interests in mind, too."

Complaints by anti-incorporation East Los Angeles residents might be summed up by a letter which appeared Dec. 23, in the East Los Angeles Tribune:

"I am opposed to East Los Angeles' incorporation," it read. "I have lived here many years. My folks moved out here in 1922. The majority of the people I talk to are satisfied the way we are now."

"I think a few aspiring young men are looking for a city job. Several of them aren't even property owners, so why should they be concerned. It's for a selfish reason."

* League of United Latin American Citizens.

Movement Leader

Leader of the incorporation movement is Joseph Galea, an attorney. Among the advantages listed by his committee are:

There would be no new property tax in the new city with income coming from gasoline tax returns, in lieu of tax returns, sales tax, county gasoline tax returns and liquor license fees. These would provide a surplus over expenditures. The "Lakewood Plan" would be used, with municipal services being furnished by the county on a lease plan.

Businessmen along 1st St. and Brooklyn Ave. are generally for the incorporation because they feel a closer affinity to the old "East Los Angeles." The businesses on Atlantic and Whittier Blvds. are generally bigger and have more modern facilities.

Alfred Paquette, who operates a sportswear factory at 3545 E. 1st St. which he says grosses about $2 million a year, puts his faith in the proposed new city.

"My business has been here for about 15 years and I am for the city of East Los Angeles because I'm interested in this area from a business standpoint."

John Siegwein, a property owner in West Bella Vista, thinks it's a mistake to think of East Los Angeles, especially his area, as strictly a Mexican-American section.

Cosmopolitan Group

"The falseness of this statement becomes readily apparent when Bella Vista is included in this area. Here we have a very cosmopolitan group of home owners and they are all Americans. There are people of various European, Latin and Oriental ancestries here and they embrace a large variety of religious beliefs and are living in harmony."

"We enjoy excellent county services and we want to continue to enjoy them. Should we become part of a new city, a city council could change all this. We feel that the city property tax is inevitable if the proposed area is incorporated, and we feel that this tax will be particularly oppressive on the 653 parcels in West Bella Vista."

But to Mrs. Elizabeth Porras, also of West Bella Vista, the fact that her area and the Atlantic and Whittier Blvds. business houses are the "nice parts of East Los Angeles and most prosperous proves why they belong to the proposed City of East Los Angeles."

The Board of Supervisors has a tough job cut out for it on Jan. 12. The supervisors must decide whether West Bella Vista and Whittier and

Atlantic Blvds. should be included in the proposed new city. If these areas are excluded, the proponents of the city of East Los Angeles will complain that they have been robbed of much of the tax base required for the city and of the added prestige which West Bella Vista would bring the new city.

If the supervisors approve the tentative boundaries, businessmen will protest that they are headed for higher taxes and a group of homeowners will complain that they are being forced into a community for which they feel no affinity.^[*]

No Troops Line Border that Has Become Big Business; Changes Loom
January 7, 1962

LOS ANGELES—One hundred and forty miles south of Los Angeles and only 16 miles south of San Diego, although it is often difficult for Californians to remember, lies a foreign nation.

Its northern border snakes 1,800 miles from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico; yet, in that entire length, no troops stand guard on either side of the international line. A chain link fence is all that separates the two nations for about half that distance; the waters of the Rio Grande do the job for the rest of the way.

Across this friendly border, like neighbors everywhere, the United States and Mexico eye each other with equal mixtures of toleration, good will, mystification and cautiousness.

Such an atmosphere happily has minimized friction but has not eliminated important differences in race, culture, outlook and ways of life. For more than a century, this casual intermingling was taken for granted.

Now It's Big Business

But in recent years, the border has become big business. About 16 million Americans live in what we might call "borderland" on our side of the border, and 5 million Mexicans on their side. According to Mexican government figures, their border cities, towns, and villages have grown by more than 83% in population in the last 10 years as compared to 34% in the rest of Mexico.

So the border has become big enough to be vitally important not only to the adjacent communities but to the two nations themselves.

* The incorporation of East Los Angeles has never been approved.

In 1960, for instance, American "turistas" spent $520 million in the interior of Mexico.

In monetary terms, the people of Mexico's northern border strip which includes nine cities facing American "sister" communities—had an annual income in 1959-60 of $652 per person, 135% higher than the average of $280 per person in the interior of Mexico.

Prosperity Can Be Deceiving

Statistical prosperity, however, can be deceiving. For those border Mexicans who are engaged in selling services and goods to the ever-increasing numbers of tourists, life is pretty good.

For many, including the peasants, the unskilled and the thousands of interior people who are flocking to the border looking for the Yankee dollar—and not finding it—life has an ugly side obvious to anyone who explores outside the "tourist zone."

Because the Mexican federal government is aware of this, it has initiated an ambitious project, "Programa Nacional Fronterizo"—the National Border Program.

Before getting into the details of that ambitious plan, a little more about the border itself:

The present international line was established following the Mexican-American war. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe [Hidalgo], signed Feb. 2, 1848, Mexico lost the land that now constitutes Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, and parts of adjacent states—an area of 851,598 square miles, or about half of Mexico's territory. Later, the United States bought from Mexico for $10 million, through negotiations with Gen. Santa Ana, 54,532 square miles between the Gila River and the Rio Grande—now part of New Mexico and Arizona.

The loss of these territories to the Americans still rankles many Mexicans. Even today they argue that they were "robbed." Mexicans, like many diehard Dixieites, often view the United States as a nation which took advantage of them through an unjust war. And this perhaps has warped their view of the "colossus of the north."

Line Follows Devious Course

The international line itself starts from a point just west of Tijuana. From there the border runs straight east to Yuma, where the line starts sloping southward at about a 30-deg. angle between Arizona and Sonora, Mex., until it reaches the twin cities of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mex.

The international line, all a chain link fence so far, runs straight easterly again from Nogales until it reaches New Mexico and Chihuahua states, where it shoots out in a northerly direction for about 30 miles. It then becomes easterly for 100 miles to El Paso, Tex., and Juarez, Mex.

From El Paso on eastward to Brownsville, on the Gulfof Mexico, the border is the winding Rio Grande—called the Rio Bravo del Norte on the Mexican side.

Bordering States

On the American side of the border lie California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. On the Mexican side are the states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, a tiny section of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

Topographically speaking, the border wends its way through the arid deserts and mountains of California, Arizona and New Mexico, the rugged, uptilted terrain extending from El Paso almost to Laredo, and, from there to the Gulf of Mexico, the lush lower Rio Grande Valley.

Of the National Border Program, the face-lifting project, President Adolfo Lopez Mateos has said: "Due attention must be given to the anxious desires of the border population to improve and develop their communities, and to increase and modernize the public services at the border cities."

Leader Heads Program

Chosen to head the program was Antonio Bermudez, ex-head of Pemex, Mexico's nationalized oil industry, and former mayor of Juarez, the largest of the border cities.

Bermudez, whose good name gives the program both respectability and strength, sees the border as a "great show window, 1,800 miles long, facing the country (the United States) with the highest economic potential in the world."

"We want to transform the border into a great commercial, recreational and cultural avenue," Bermudez told the Times . "Through this great show window we must display what Mexico really is; it should be taken as an example to the world of friendship, of good neighbor relations and co-operation in every respect."

Teacher's View

Said a young, modern teacher, concerned with the "psychological effects of tourism" on border Mexicans: "The Mexican side of the border is a

place where free-spending Americans go to do things they're not allowed to do at home. Loose money always attracts persons of questionable character, and the border cities have plenty of these."

"But the problem lies deeper than even the prostitution, dope traffic and extreme poverty indicate," he continued. "Paradoxically, though border town people know the economy is greatly boosted by the tourists, they somehow resent these free-spending pleasure-seekers."

"You see, you cannot have real self respect if you know you're making your living by selling services and merchandise which tourists themselves don't really respect."

Geared to Pride

The National Border Program's official goals, then, are geared to Mexican pride, and include the "improvement of the general environment of the border cities, their physical appearance and condition, that they may fulfill efficiently their urban functions both on behalf of their inhabitants and of national prestige, since they are entrance gates to the country."

"This means bluntly," the young teacher said, "that the federal government wants very bad to unsaddle the bad guys on the border and get the good guys in the saddle."

To do this, Bermudez emphasizes "creating the necessary conditions for the increase, in particular, of tourist family travel along the border."

Change Sought

"A change in the recreational aspect of the border cities must come about to include cultural festivals, high-quality Mexican movies and educational centers where foreigners may find evidence of our culture," a program report says.

The report admits that the program is ambitious, but says it is not unrealistic. Business is already booming in the area, it points out, but much of the profit goes back to the United States, which even sells U.S. gasoline to border cities—in a nation where the industry is nationalized.

"Products from Mexican industry in the interior must reach the border area in proper conditions of timeliness, quality and price," the report says.

"This must be done so that the dollars invested in our country by border visitors will not return instantly to the United States." With this added income the National Border Program (at least theoretically) can pay for itself.

Tijuana Gaudiest

What are the conditions on the border now? What are our neighbors like? Why must it be our business to seek answers to these questions?

I travelled the border from Tijuana to Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico to find some of the answers. All of the big border cities were visited, plus many of the startlingly different smaller communities.

They include Tijuana, perhaps the gaudiest of all; Mexicali, a town whose people hold firm opinions concerning their American neighbors; Palomas, across from Columbus, N.M. (where a park has been dedicated to the once feared Pancho Villa); Juarez, the largest of the border cities, which in spite of all the Yankee dollars pouring into it is going broke; Ojinaga, where Mexico's newest and most exciting railroad begins; Santa Elena, a communal farm community across from the spectacular Big Bend National Park in Texas; and Matamoros, a city with a blighted beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Murder of a Crusader Underlines Tijuana Choice: Reform or Go Red January 8, 1962

TIJUANA, Mexico—The recent murder of a crusading local columnist has stirred the conscience of this gaudy town.

It was not only because the chief of police was jailed in connection with the killing that three state policemen were formally charged with the crime.

This, of course, was sensational enough, even in this naturally "wild" town.

But the thing that most disturbed Tijuana was the realization that journalist Carlos Estrada Sastre, columnist for Noticias , was apparently killed simply because he was writing about the city's most obvious problems—problems which were news to no one, but which were being glossed over by officials.

For weeks, now, the murder has been discussed by the people along Tijuana's Revolucion Ave., the city's main street, by people living in the exclusive residential area on the scenic hills just outside the city, by those living in the poor "colonias," by the peasants in the surrounding communal farms, by the many squatters in the city's foothills, and even by the tourists who can read the screaming headlines in Tijuana's newspapers.

One good thing has come out of the murder: it has given news impetus to the public's demand that the National Border Program be speeded.

This is the program which the federal government, under the revered President Lopez Mateos, says will change the 1,800-mile border into a "show window" of what's best in Mexico.

Improve or Go Red

"Either this program will be put into effect soon to bring about some dignity and respectability to Tijuana or we're headed for communism or anarchy," a worried businessman said recently.

Estrada Sastre, in his muckraking way, wanted everything the National Border Program stands for. He long ago associated himself with Tijuana's most controversial subject: the water problem.

The problem does not exist in the night clubs, bars or at the sports facilities frequented by tourists. These attractions have helped Tijuana close to the California dollar—to achieve Mexico's highest "average" income.

But the people living in modest lodgings, the people living in poverty-stricken "colonias," and the squatters who came to Tijuana looking for the Yankee dollar and found nothing but a city already choked with too many people knew what Estrada Sastre was writing about.

Water Lack Desperate

Tijuana, with 166,000 population, has a water system adequate for a town of about 30,000 according to experts, and most people must buy water—if they can afford it—from "piperos"—water truck salesmen.

In what might be described as the "wettest" town in Baja California—alcoholically speaking—most of the residents ration their household water almost by the drop.

Columnist Estrada Sastre attacked this situation again and again in his pieces for the independent newspaper Noticias . He also wrote against a state law, Decreto 75, which was to finance the "permanent" solution an aqueduct from Mexicali carrying Colorado River water, at a cost of $32 million.

Estrada Sastre wrote that Decreto 75 taxed most those who could least afford it. The Federal Supreme Court apparently agreed and declared Decreto 75 unconstitutional.

Police Corruption Hit

During the first two weeks of November, Estrada Sastre began attacking the state and local police for what he called "their active participation in the drug and prostitution rackets."

On Nov. 26, Estrada Sastre was killed in his hotel room with blows from, ironically, a length of water pipe. A few days later the chief of police found himself deposed and in jail and three state policemen were formally charged with the slaying and held without bail.

Border people often lose faith in local officials, but rarely in Mexico City. In travelling from Tijuana to Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico, I often heard bitter criticism of local and state governments, but never once did I hear anyone say anything against President Lopez Mateos.

Water Please

The president has personally listened to Tijuana's desperate clamor for water.

When he toured Tijuana last May he saw the mayor's speech interrupted with yells of "We want water, not speeches!"

He also saw a weeping, elderly woman break through police lines during the presidential parade to approach Lopez Mateos' open car and plead: "Please give us water, Mr. President."

The president shook his head sadly and said: "We'll do everything we can."

Tijuana, according to Mexican government figures, has grown from a town of 30,000 in 1940 to a city of 166,000 in 1960. The "average" income of Tijuana's population is estimated at $980 per person, as compared to the national average of $280. The rub, of course, is that the "average" figure does not show that most of the money goes to a very few at the top of the economic ladder.

Job, Housing Shortage

Tijuana has an annual income of more than $160 million, yet the city cannot afford an adequate water system. It also cannot provide jobs, much less housing, for the thousands who pour in from the interior, thinking Tijuana is a city of gold.

"The gold is there," an economics professor from the University of Baja California said recently. "But social justice is not. There also is not

a fair tax structure. American businessmen would drool at the thought of paying the low taxes Tijuana businessmen pay. But perhaps, most of all, we lack honest leaders on a local and state level."

In far-off Mazatlan, an editorial writer for El Sol , who—perhaps because of the distance—could be more objective than the economics professor, recently summed up the Tijuana situation this way.

Slap at Authorities

"In the northwest where life is easier, and where people should benefit from its advantages and so contribute to the national progress, it looks as if the opposite is true because of its people in authority who are going from bad to worse."

"(The development of Baja California) would have taken a better turn if it weren't for the absurd attitude of the successive authorities who, instead of helping, disrupt and frustrate the efforts of the federal government and private individuals."

"Two examples should suffice. One, the stubborn action of the state government to enforce at all costs the absurd and abusive Decreto No. 75 (the tax law designed to finance a water program), which has just been declared unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court."

"The other, the criminal attempts against four newspapermen who dared censure this and other actions by authorities, attempts which culminated in the murder of columnist Estrada Sastre."

Local Officials Fail

"It hurts and causes indignation that the efforts and sacrifices of President Lopez Mateos and the Mexican public to solve the problems of the nation are being frustrated by the people, the state and local officials, who are the ones who should be helping the most."

"These bad functionaries, with their selfishness and corruption, are merely opening the doors to Communist agents. . . ."

Juarez Falters Despite Yankee Tourist Dollar
January 10, 1962

JUAREZ, Mexico—As the largest Mexican city along the 1,800-mile U.S.-Mexican border, this community of 300,000 gets a big slice of the $520 million spent annually in border cities by American tourists.

Yet the town seems to be going broke.

Recently a 25% reduction in salaries of all city department heads, including Mayor Humberto Escobar, was approved at a special session of the Juarez City Council.

The mayor's expense account of 2,500 pesos a month ($200) was abolished altogether, and the police chief's salary was reduced from 3,000 to 2,000 pesos a month ($165).

Protest Late Pay

Policemen, teachers and city employees have complained that they are not paid for as long as 90 days at a time. Reformers claim that policemen make up for it by "mordidas" (bribes) from tourists, and point out that many teachers have been driven to part-time bartending and city employees to driving taxis.

Juarez is the national headquarters of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), a right-wing political party which charges that Juarez' government is spending all its money for projects which "smack of Russian ostentatiousness but which do not help the average citizen one bit."

"We have one of the fanciest and most expensive sports arenas in the world in Borunda Park," a PAN official said recently. "It's like the Russian subway—all show but with no direct benefit to the people."

Won't Answer Charges

The federal government will not answer PAN's charges, but points out that the National Border Program, which is supposed to "face-lift" and "clean up" the border, is providing a good look at the economies of the border towns.

"There are many reasons that border towns should be the most prosperous in the nation, and the border program will correct bad administration to bring this about," a program spokesman said.

Juarez, like Tijuana, suffers because its population ballooned faster than the city could successfully absorb it. Its dependence on the tourist dollar rankles many of the educated Mexicans and some insist that somehow the United States is to blame.

'Keep Your $2.50'

Jose Ramirez Sepulveda, a senior engineering student at the Juarez Agriculture College, explained it this way:

"What do you think of Kennedy's Alliance for Progress?^[*] I think I would say, in all respect: Mr. Kennedy, keep your $2.50. You see, as I understand it, the plan will be initiated with $500 million. There are 200 million Latin Americans. If the 500 million is distributed equally, each Latin American would get 31 pesos and 25 centavos—or $2.50 American money.

"As I say, I think I would tell Mr. Kennedy to keep his $2.50. I would offer Mr. Kennedy a better solution. If he wants to sleep well, and not worry about communism in Latin America, I offer him free of charge this simple solution: Persuade his millionaires to stop buying our products so cheaply and selling theirs for so much. This theory of buying cheap and selling high is not conducive to good relations."

Juarez has had the border's biggest anti-American demonstrations in the wake of the abortive Cuban invasion, but Juarez and El Paso, Texas, across the Rio Grande, enjoy better relations than such sporadic demonstrations might suggest.

El Paso a Model

One of the reasons lies in the improved lot of El Paso's large Mexican-American population since the end of World War II. A town in which, for example, Mexican-American children were not allowed to swim in the same public swimming pools as "Anglo"-American children before the war, El Paso is now a model of democratic living.

Another example: ex-El Paso mayor Raymondo Telles, a Mexican-American, was the first member of his race to become mayor of an important Texas town—a thing undreamed of before the war—and is now President Kennedy's ambassador to Costa Rica.

The southwest is the area in which the American and Mexican cultures can blend most successfully because the Mexican side and the American side of the southwest are geographically really one. The only thing that divides the nations physically is an easily crossed bridge or a border line.

Seek Closer Ties

And ever since the war, both Mexicans and Americans seem to be looking for a closer association—perhaps as a result of mounting world tensions.

* The Alliance for Progress, initiated by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, encouraged political and economic reforms in Latin America as a way of countering potential revolutionary movements such as the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

Take the case of Columbus, N.M., a small border town about 60 miles west of El Paso.

The dedication of a state park to Pancho Villa in Columbus a few years ago was roughly akin to honoring the Mexican army at the Alamo. Yet it has happened—45 years after Villa's army raided Columbus, killing 16 Americans and burning part of the town.

The day after the Columbus attack, President Wilson ordered a punitive expedition of 15,000 men under Gen. Pershing to go into Mexico and get Villa.

Hoped for Help

Wilson and Pershing had reason to believe that President Carranza would co-operate with the expedition for Villa was fighting Carranza's forces.

The Americans, though, didn't consider Mexicans' supersensitivity about having foreign troops on their land. (There was historic reason for the feeling: The French once attempted to put a dictator in Mexico. The Americans had taken about half of Mexico's territory after the Mexican-American War, and during the 30-year reign of dictator Porfirio Diaz, foreigners ran almost everything.)

Anyway, President Carranza voiced his objection to the entrance of U.S. troops—even if they were out to capture his deadly enemy—and on June 17, 1916, notified Gen. Pershing that further invasion would be resisted by arms.

The American troops withdrew without accomplishing their mission.

Forty-five years later, on March 18, 1961, the Pancho Villa Park was officially dedicated in Columbus.

Bill McGraw, outspoken editor of Columbus' The Southwestern , said of the dedication: "There's been rumbling that it shouldn't be named the Villa park at all. By some obscure reasoning, they say it honors Villa, a bandit, etc."

"Well, then, by the same spurious logic, I want the name of Virginia changed, because it honors a British queen and I am a democrat . . . and don't want New York to be called New York because it honors the Duke of York and I'm against him and his kind, too . . . ."

No Pollyanna Park

"If they want to build a Pollyanna State Park, let them put it in Santa Fe, or California, or Texas, or wherever else these 'fairweather' patriots are living."

"We in Columbus want it the Pancho Villa State Park for the simple reason that it is the only one that makes sense. Sabe?"

At the dedication ceremonies, however, Gov. Teofilo Borunda of Chihuahua tried to express more noble sentiments concerning the new park's significance. He said,

"You (people of Columbus) have risen above bitterness which came about as a result of times of violence experienced by all nations at one time or another. You have risen above any thought of revenge because you not only know democracy—you practice it."

Civic Leaders Troubled by School Dropouts October 22, 1962

LOS ANGELES—Pablo Mendez, 17, who dropped out of high school this semester to keep his summer job, giggled nervously as he talked about his first brush with the law.

"Yeah, I was drunk. They told me at the lumber yard they would have to replace me with a union guy. They gave me my check and I got drunk with some buddies."

Pablo was in trouble only one week after he decided not to return to high school.

He says he quit school so he could work, but social workers, professors and law enforcement officials say the reason is much more complicated.

Many Reasons Cited

"The reasons for dropping out of school are many and complex, but it is certain that the 'official' reasons given are of little or no value in explaining the actual processes at work," Paul Bullock, researcher for UCLA's Institute for Industrial Relations, told an assembly subcommittee here last week.

"The simple fact is that the Board of Education either does not know or does not publicize the real factors underlying the high dropout rates in many of the schools, particularly in minority-group areas," Bullock said.

"Local school administrators unhesitatingly confirm that a significant proportion of the so-called dropouts are either encouraged or invited to leave school. These are not 'dropouts,' they're 'kick-outs.'"

In some schools, the number of pupils asked or required to drop

out exceeds the number voluntarily quitting despite the fact that the school records themselves list only half of the total drop-outs as being "uneducable."

Productivity Wasted

Speaking before the Employment Opportunities Education Conference here earlier this year Dr. George R. Borrell said:

"At this very moment, the productivity of 350,000 Mexican-Americans is being wasted. This is the number who did not finish high school. They are caught in the age of mechanization, technological advances, and automation."

Pablo's father, Benito, knows his son is caught in a potentially tragic situation. What does he think of it?

"My son should never have gone to high school in the first place," Benito, a laborer, said. "Now he thinks he's too good for working with his hands like I do."

"School is all right if you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. But look at this house, do you think I could ever afford to send him to college? He should have gone to grammar school and then started working."

Big Ideas, Then Job

"Instead, he gets big ideas at high school, then quits, then is thrown in jail as a drunk. Is this what his mother and I deserve?"

Pablo, with a little urging and only if you speak to him in Spanish, will probe a little deeper into why he quit school.

"I wanted to work . . . and I kept thinking about that damn algebra book. I kept saying, 'What has algebra got to do with me?' To me algebra always seemed to belong to the gringo world."

East Los Angeles is Pablo's world and he thinks it far removed from the rest of the United States.

Dr. Borrell touched on this problem when he said:

"What we need is the inclusion of that basic element that has been conspicuously absent in these discussions, the Mexican-American himself."

"For how can we presume to know what his needs, his fears, his problems, and his hopes are, unless he tells us? How can we even attempt to help, encourage and understand him, unless we are able to communicate with him?"

'Can't Get Through'

Ralph Poblano, president of the Council of Mexican-American Affairs, says the reasons for dropouts among Mexican-Americans revolve around "bilingualism and culture."

In terms of Pablo Mendez, Poblano makes sense.

Though he looks like a Mexican, Pablo is not. He's an American, but doesn't think of himself as one, and in many respects is not looked upon as one by non-Mexican-Americans.

Pablo's Spanish would sound ridiculous in a group of Tijuana high school students. And Pablo's English causes snickers among his "gringo" acquaintances.

For Pablo speaks a mixed Mexican-American lingo heavily peppered with "pachuco" slang.^[*] He would be at home in any border town but a "foreigner" in either Guadalajara, Mex. City, or Des Moines, Ia.

According to Donald N. Michael, dropouts have the following choices: going back to school, "for which they are unsuited either by motivation or by intelligence; they can seek training that will raise them out of the untrained work force; they can compete in the growing manpower pool of those seeking relatively unskilled jobs; or they can "loaf" as Pablo is doing now.

"If they loaf," says Michael, "almost inevitably they are going to become delinquent. Thus, without adequate occupational outlets for these youths, cybernation (his word for both automation and computers) may contribute to further social disruption."

Lost to Further Schooling

Pablo has already caused some "social disruption." Because of his father's attitude, and because Pablo's mind is forever closed to the "gringo world of algebra," he is not likely to return to school.

Drop-outs and unemployment due to automation are a countrywide problem, but the Pablos of Los Angeles (and Mexican-American girls drop out as often as do boys) present a unique problem, according to Dr. Paul Sheldon of Occidental College.

* Beginning in the late 1930s in cities such as El Paso and Los Angeles, pachuco was the term for alienated young Mexican Americans who, besides facing poverty and lack of educational opportunities, also experienced the cultural tensions of being Mexicans and Americans. In response, the pachucos forged their own identity and street style. This included the invention of street slang called caló and the use by some of the zoot suit. Their defiant attitudes were often used by the police to justify police abuse in the barrios, most notably in the Los Angeles Zoot Suit riots of 1943.

In his report, "Mexican-Americans in Urban Public High Schools," Dr. Sheldon and colleague E. Farley Hunter pose the problem this way:

"Mexican-Americans in Southern California are represented in the higher levels of education and in the professions in much smaller numbers than their proportion in the population would warrant."

24% Dropped Out

Of the 2,061 students for whom the data was available, 403, or 24.4%, dropped out of school, Dr. Sheldon reports. Among the 94-7 Mexican-Americans, there were 294 dropouts, or 31%, as compared to 207, or 18.8% of the 1,114 non-Mexicans.

Of the Mexican sample, 42% graduated, as contrasted to the non-Mexicans, of whom 61% graduated.

". . . On the whole, Mexicans . . . are the ethnic group who do not accept the public school system as the ladder to climb within the social system. . . . The Mexican-American segment stands alone in having a school dropout rate in excess of its percent in the population, even below that of immigrants to the cities from Southern rural areas."

". . . The holding power of the school program is not as great for the Mexican-American as for other students."

Different Culture

Some educators, especially those who are Mexican-American, say teachers must bear in mind that Mexican-Americans are bilingual and of a different cultural background.

But, with a trace of impatience, one principal commented,

"First the minority groups want to be treated like everyone else and now they want to be treated differently. The experts should make up their minds."

The "experts," of course, realize the contradiction. Dr. Sheldon explains it this way:

"Interviews with Mexican-Americans also indicated a preference for the patterns of culture of the older generation, although many young people are now breaking away."

"While the Spanish background of the local culture and the proximity to Mexico are doubtless significant factors, this desire to cling to the old ways might be interpreted basically as a rejection of Anglo culture."

How to prevent more Mexican-Americans from becoming Pablos is called East Los Angeles' most important problem.

The experts know that the Pablos of Los Angeles hurt more than themselves. They hurt the whole community.

Commuting Mexican Farm Workers Stir U.S. Dispute 'Invasion' by 60,000 Every Day 
November 25, 1962

SAN YSIDRO—Every workday from 4:30 to 7 a.m. an army "invades" the United States along the 1,800-mile Mexican-American border.

It is a friendly army of workers, many of whose 60,000 members wear the familiar straw sombrero of the Mexican farmhand. They are not to be confused with the 200,000 braceros who have worked across the vast farm areas of America this year.

The braceros (Mexican citizen farmhands contracted under Public Law 78) and this additional foreign labor force do, however, have something important in common.^[*]

They are the objects of a far-reaching controversy which has sharp political overtones.

The controversy is, perhaps, more pronounced in California because the stakes are so high.

Essential to Farms

"Agriculture in California annually produces more than $3 billion in new wealth—an amount greater than the value of all gold mined in the state since the gold rush," according to 0. W. Fillerup, executive vice president of the Council of California Growers.

The bracero and the "international commuter farmhand" are essential to keep our lush agriculture industry—the biggest in the state—going, most growers agree.

Yet on Oct. 4, 1961, President Kennedy reluctantly signed a bill extending the bracero program which he said does not include provisions "which I believe necessary to protect domestic farm workers."

The President said studies show that the Mexican labor program "is adversely affecting the wages, working conditions and employment opportunities of our own agricultural workers, large numbers of whom are unemployed or under-employed."

* The bracero program, which commenced in 1942, was a binational labor contract system whereby Mexico furnished field workers and common laborers to work principally in U.S. agriculture. The program, a World War II measure, was extended until 1964 at the request of U.S. agribusiness.

But he signed, he said, because he was aware that some Mexican workers still will be needed in some areas in 1962-63 and "am also aware of the serious impact in Mexico if many thousands of workers employed in this country were similarly deprived of this much-needed employment."

Because of the President's feeling, and pressures being applied by many diversified groups to end the bracero program, many, including State Senator Aaron Quick (D-Calexico), say the law probably will not be extended after it expires on Dec. 31, 1963.

The emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers, formed in Los Angeles, however, says there is "an ominous" move by "certain self-interest groups" who not only want to retain the bracero program but increase it. The Rev. John G. Simmons, a Lutheran minister, is chairman of the committee.

But even should the bracero program—which Catholic Archbishop Robert Lucey of San Antonio calls "an international racket"—end, the more complex part of its controversy remains along the border states.

It is that of the "international farmhand commuter," the member of the labor army which crosses the border every daybreak.

Many are "green-card" carrying legal residents of the United States. However, they do not reside in the United States but use their highly privileged status to work for American wages and live cheaply in Mexico.

Labor Fights Them

The Texas state AFL-CIO has filed an injunction suit to end the international labor commuter, claiming the program is illegal and causes unemployment.

The litigation, Secretary of State [Dean] Rusk has told the U.S. District Court in Washington, is "jeopardizing the Alliance for Progress in Mexico and thus in all Latin America."

But first, who is this international farmhand commuter?

One is Rosario Contreras, 34-year-old native of Ojinaga, Mex., who became a legal U.S. resident because "I couldn't afford to be a bracero."

Also, though he holds the "green card" of an immigrant—with most privileges of an American citizen except voting—Contreras lives in Tijuana because, "I can't afford to live in the United States."

Contreras first worked in the United States as a "wetback" illegally sneaking across the Rio Grande, in the days when about one million desperate Mexicans bid against each other for jobs in this country.

On his return to Mexico he married, acquired a family of six and spent all his American earnings. By this time the U.S. Border Patrol had intensified its crackdown on wetbacks, and Contreras decided to become a bracero.

Had To Pay Bribes

"The mordidas (literally 'bites,' that is, bribes) I had to pay Mexican bureaucrats came to 600 pesos, but luckily I was able to borrow it from my brother who had just returned home from Texas as a mojado (wetback)," Contreras said.

"My bracero days 10 years ago were good. Americanos are muy extranos (very strange) to me, but they're generous. That's why I always wanted to return. I applied to be a bracero again, but I found out the mordidas were getting too expensive—1,000 pesos they wanted this time."

"So I again became a mojado, though this time I didn't wade the Rio Grande. I climbed the fence (on many parts of the border only a chain link fence separates the countries) and went to my old patron (boss)."

"When he heard I had jumped the fence he got paler than he usually is. He said he was glad to see a good worker back, but that he wanted no trouble with illegal workers. He told me to go back to Tijuana, and he would sponsor me with papers and everything."

"I finally got a tarjeta verde (green card) and was made emigrado (immigrant). I could live in San Diego, but who can at those prices? So I cross the line every morning at 4:30, am picked up on the American side by a truck from my patron's farm, and taken to work in the lettuce field. It's not too bad, except that by the time I get back home to Tijuana all I'm good for is bed. I have to get up at 3 a.m."

Contreras' right to be a legal U.S. resident, an actual resident of Tijuana and a worker in San Diego County irks domestic farmhands, especially the unemployed, and those who feel the letter of the immigration laws is being abused.

The San Diego Superior Court has ruled persons like Contreras are on good legal grounds. In 1961, some members of Laborers Local 89, AFL-CIO, picketed their hiring hall protesting the hiring of noncitizens. The union brought suit for an injunction to stop the picketing.

Judge Eli Levenson ruled that "the fact that a man is or is not a citizen of the United States . . . has no materiality. His membership in the local rises out of the type of work he does."

"The fact remains," says Kenneth Wilson, a San Diego merchant, "that these people, though legal U.S. residents, have no intention of ever living here and what's more never even buy anything here with their American wages."

On the other hand, many feel that international commuter workers are a natural phenomenon of border living. Rusk told the U.S. District Court in Washington that neighboring border cities "have grown into single economic communities."

Many who agree with Rusk say the issue is not one of whether these commuters have the right to work in the United States. The issue, they argue, is the effect these international commuters have on the economy of American border cities and what to do about it.

Pros and Cons

"If we cut out the resident aliens, we could not get enough Americans to replace them," says a farmer association official. "The more immigrants who come across the border and work, the less the number of braceros we import."

Dionicio Morales, former Labor Department compliance officer and Los Angeles Mexican-American leader, disagrees.

"The commuter worker and the bracero are killing employment opportunities for many, including Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles who are now in the position of having to compete for jobs against Mexican nationals with green cards who have wandered up from the border," he said.

"Just how long is the American public going to buy the idea that a foreign labor force is needed? We have vast unemployment in San Diego county and throughout the Southland. Automation is upon us and yet the foreign unskilled and farm workers are getting the jobs that American-born workers should get."

"Why? Because braceros and international commuter workers are willing to work for less."

Farm Workers' Lot Held Worsening in Southland
November 27, 1962

EL CENTRO—The farm worker has never been admitted to the "American Affluent Society."

In fact, the lot of the domestic farm worker "is worse now than

20 years ago," according to Catholic Archbishop Robert Lucey of San Antonio.

The reasons are so complicated that only dogmatic unionists, politicians and naive "do-gooders" claim to have pat answers to the problem.

2 Million Workers

Dr. Henry Anderson, labor expert, testified last year before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry that there are "at least 2 million American agricultural workers in the United States."

"With their dependents, they represent perhaps 6 or 7 million human beings," Dr. Anderson testified.

California's biggest industry is agriculture and it points out with pride that the state "annually produces more than $3 billion in new wealth—an amount greater than the value of all gold mined in the state since the gold rush."

Yet, Malaqueo Garcia, with a farm at San Ysidro, on the U.S. side of the border at Tijuana, says he can't make the grade and is about to give up his life's work.

He hires some domestic workers and Tijuana farmhands, but the latter usually find better work on bigger farms, where "green-card" holders (Tijuana's commuter workers) and braceros are hired.

Garcia could never hire braceros because he would never meet the standards set by Public Law 78 in order to get the much-wanted bracero.

Garcia's workers eat and sometimes sleep in a wooden building right out of "the Grapes of Wrath." Garcia admits that the structure is filthy, but says he's too poor to do anything about it. Besides, he has no fear of getting in trouble over unsanitary conditions.

Hires Americans

He doesn't hire braceros so he's not afraid of a visit from a federal compliance officer who would order him to clean up. He hires U.S. citizens—and no one seems to look out for them.

Scandalous sanitation in domestic agricultural workers housing is nothing new in California. Following World War II, the number of domestic agricultural workers increased and nationwide publicity was focused on the San Joaquin Valley, when 28 infants, mainly from families of agricultural workers, died. The deaths, the investigation showed, were due chiefly to diarrhea and pneumonia.

At that time Gov. Warren set up a committee for an intensive study of agricultural labor in the San Joaquin Valley. The committee noted that "the infant mortality rate is higher in the San Joaquin Valley than elsewhere in the state" and that "the problem, in addition to improving environmental conditions, is also related to inadequate health resources, and lack of maximum availability and utilization of medical facilities."

In July, 1960, Gov. [Edmund G.] Brown ordered the State Department of Public Health to study current health conditions and services for seasonal agricultural workers and to propose specific solutions. Dr. Malcolm H. Merrill, state director of public health, appointed Dr. R. Bruce Jessup of Stanford University School of Medicine to conduct the investigation.

How are things today?

Shocked at Conditions

Speaking at a California Farm Bureau Federation meeting in San Diego Nov. 13, Dr. Jessup said in part:

"After three years work, I, though filled with astonishment and profound respect for your accomplishment, remain at the same time shocked at the poverty, disease, and living standards which you still tolerate in many of your labor camps and rural fringe areas, housing an important segment of your seasonal farm workers' families. I am shocked at your apparent attitude of defeatism—with some notable exceptions—in not launching an attack with modern tools on basic farm labor problems in California."

"I refuse to believe that, notwithstanding your many problems and the difficulties involved, you cannot with your demonstrated heart and brains, develop over the next five years, with assistance from workers representatives and community representatives, a satisfactory, reliable domestic California farm labor force to meet the industry's needs."

Migration Unneeded

"This could be a work force with a truly adequate annual family income; whose families would not have to migrate and thus fall heir to the inevitable hazards and disruptions that will always attend family migration. With your programs for foreign workers and annual worker plans over the last decade you have proved that a work force of this type can be kept

working, can be recruited, transported and that it can fulfill the industry's demands."

"It can be done with domestic California workers; further, it can provide a force in the future; with increasing mechanization—but inevitably continuing need for unskilled hands."

Argument Given

California farmers say they can't get along without braceros and "international commuter farmhands" because there is no domestic work force to do the work. Domestic workers are called lazy and undependable. Besides they won't do "stoop" work such as picking lettuce, they add.

There is a garrulous and angry physician in Brawley who disagrees with the fury of a crusader. He is Dr. Ben Yellen, who claims the "domestic farmhand was forced out of his home and job."

"In the old days, there were labor contractors who would bring crews of domestic farm workers to different farms," he told the Times . "These domestic farm workers had their permanent homes in the Valley. In the summer they left to work in Northern California."

"But the big farmers did not want to pay decent wages, so they started a campaign of propaganda saying that there were not enough domestic farm workers and they needed to import Mexican farm workers."

"This amounts to a government handout to the big farmers, the handout being Mexican labor. You do not see the government importing Mexicans to factories so that the manufacturers can have low labor costs. If the lettuce growers need farm workers, let them pay decent wages and they will get farm workers. But they do not want to pay American wages. They want the cheap labor from Mexico."

Two Worlds Seen

Mike Miranda, 89-year-old Brawley patriarch, puts it another way:

"I have seen two worlds in my lifetime of farming. In the old world, the good world, the little guy like me had a chance. In the new world, now, you're discriminated against because you're an American citizen."

Miranda says that "50, 30, 20 years ago the little guy could make a good living. My wife Benita and I used to pick figs for $30, $35 each week," Miranda said. "Twenty years ago that was good money. Then I started contracting workers, Brawley people mostly, and at one time furnished from 300 to 500 workers to the farmers here. Just last year I lost

the housing in which my workers used to live in the old world—because I couldn't pay the taxes."

Can't Compete

"Who can compete with the braceros and the people that come from Mexicali to work for cheap wages? Mexicali is swallowing us." (The Mexicali area has a population of about 250,000 compared to Imperial Valley's 75,000.)

"They say they must hire Mexican nationals because there are no domestics to do it. They're right. There are no domestics because they forced us out of business. They say domestics won't do stoop labor like the braceros. I ask you, who did all the stoop labor when the Imperial Valley was just starting. We, we Mexican-Americans, Japanese and the Chinese before that. But they all lived here. They were part of the valley. They weren't brought in like machines and sent back to where they came when the harvest was done . . . ."

Good Old Days

Luis Cureil, a friend of Miranda, also talked about the "old, good days in the valley."

"You see East Brawley, now," he said sadly. "Well, it was not this run down in the old days. When we did the picking in the valley, we weren't rich but our town looked better, because we had the jobs and they paid pretty good."

"It could be like the old days if they wanted. The war is over, the boys are back. But the braceros and Mexicali people have forced us out."

How about those 2 million migrant workers who are still supposed to be roaming about the country looking for jobs in the fields? Where are they? Why don't they come to California any more?

In October, the Bread of Life Rescue Mission in Brawley served 2,316 meals to 758 men, women and children. Many of them were migrant families from Texas, Oklahoma and the deep South.

One was Robert Louis Kramer of East Texas, father of two. "We came to the Imperial Valley 'cause they told us it was the land of plenty," he said.

"We got jobs, OK. The law says we domestics must get the jobs before foreign people. But I didn't last. You can't keep up with these Mexican nationals. They work harder and for less than anyone else. Maybe

they can live on $1 an hour and can work without stopping for a little rest."

"I have nothing against the Mexican nationals. All I'm saying is how can domestics compete with guys who will work harder and for less?"

Negro May Win Roybal Seat in City Council
December 16, 1962

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles councilman Edward R. Roybal, for 13 years the "Papacito" of local Mexican-American politics, may be replaced by a Negro because of a lack of Latin etiquette.^[*]

When Roybal moves to Washington in January as the new Democratic congressman from the 30th District, he will leave the 9th Council District in a radically different situation than when he first took over.

Once inhabited predominantly by Mexican-Americans, the 9th District—bounded roughly by Main St. on the west, Valley Blvd. on the north, Indiana St. on the east and Slauson Ave. on the south—is fast becoming another Los Angeles Harlem.

According to recent estimates, of the more than 260,000 persons residing in the 9th District, 50% are Negro, 35% Mexican-American and the remainder are Oriental, Jewish and other ethnic groups.

Roybal Aware

No one is more aware of this than Roybal, who recently warned a large Mexican-American political meeting that Latins should stop thinking of the district as their very own.

However, the meeting, called by Juan Acevedo, vice president of the statewide Mexican-American Political Assn., unilaterally chose its candidate—Richard Tafoya, Mayor [Sam] Yorty's field secretary for Latin American affairs and Roybal's cousin.

"This was the biggest mistake a Mexican-American could have made," Roybal told The Times . "It probably hurt Tafoya's chances to succeed me."

The meeting of about 250 Mexican-Americans at the Alexandria Hotel not only incensed some Negro leaders, but split the Mexican-American vote as well.

* Roybal was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1949, the first Mexican American to serve in that council since the nineteenth century. In 1962 he was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served until 1992.

Tafoya, 38, personable, and reportedly favored by Mayor Yorty, already is making speeches as the Mexican-American community's favorite son.

Claims Enough Votes

But Gilbert W. Lindsay, 62, a Negro deputy to Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, says he may not "be making as much noise now as Mr. Tafoya but I have the votes, the support and the council's ear."

"If a showdown came now in the City Council, I would win the appointment," Lindsay says. "The council knows that it's about time the 400,000 Negroes living in the city of Los Angeles should get some representation."

Lindsay says Tafoya's selection by a strictly Mexican-American group "was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"It only unified the Negro vote that much more," Lindsay said.

Other Negro leaders point out that though Mexican-Americans have about 50 Mexican-American organizations throughout Los Angeles County, the Negroes have a "large and powerful organization in the NAACP."

Negro leaders say they got a "fast shuffle" when Joe E. Hollingsworth, a Caucasian, was appointed 10th District city councilman Aug. 25, 1961, to replace Charles Navarro, now city controller.

Solid for Lindsay

Hollingsworth won appointment by an 8-6 vote after a bitter debate in the City Council. At that time, Councilmen Roybal, James Harvey Brown, Everett G. Burkhalter, John S. Gibson, Jr., Gordon R. Hahn and Mrs. Rosalind Wyman voted for the appointment of George Thomas, a Negro.

Norman O. Houston, president of the Golden State and Mutual Insurance Co., largest Negro insurance company west of Chicago with a home office here, says Negro leaders "are watching very closely to see we're not neglected again."

"We've got more votes than the Mexicans in this area and I think the Negro community is solidly behind Mr. Lindsay," Houston said. "The Sentinel and the California Eagle (Negro newspapers) are for Mr. Lindsay and also such leaders as Dr. H. Claude Hudson, president of the Broadway Federal Savings & Loan Assn. I don't think we can or should be ignored this time."

Wants All Represented

Mexican-Americans and Negroes might have backed a single candidate, acceptable to both groups, if that meeting of Mexican-Americans at the Alexandria had listened to reason, Roybal now says sadly.

"I told them that they should think of ways to select a liberal candidate to succeed me," Roybal told The Times . "I warned them against selecting a candidate unilaterally."

"I told them they should select someone who would represent all groups—not just Mexican-Americans. I even went so far as to say I would prefer a liberal Republican candidate for the post than a reactionary democrat."

Tafoya, caught in the middle, says he doesn't feel his selection by a Mexican-American group should isolate him from other ethnic groups. "I agree with Congressman-elect Roybal that who-ever gets the post should represent all ethnic groups, and that's exactly what I intend to do should I be appointed or elected to the 9th District's seat."^[*]

Parley Airs Problems of Mexican-Americans
January 18, 1963

PHOENIX—About 500 community leaders are gathering here to spell out why they think the American Dream has eluded most of the 3.5 million Mexican-Americans in the five southwestern states.

The conference, mostly of educators from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, will air theories on why Mexican-Americans generally are doing poorly educationally, economically and socially.

With emphasis on education, the seminar will probe causes of school drop-outs among Mexican-Americans, who, according to statistics, quit school earlier and in greater numbers than any other ethnic group.

Remains a "Foreigner"

In a paper submitted to the conference, Marcos de Leon, teacher of Spanish at Van Nuys High School, said educators "can no longer accept the school's usual educational program . . . developed for the English-speaking student as a valid educational approach with the Mexican-American."

* Gilbert W. Lindsay was elected to replace Roybal on the city council.

He charged that even though the Mexican-American tries to "identify himself with the representative culture, he still remains a foreigner, a stranger and, for all intents and purposes, a 'Mexican' with the common stereotyped connotations brought on by some 100 years of cultural conflict."

"Moreover," de Leon said, "the partial disintegration of the parent culture and the fact he has been taught through social pressure to be ashamed of and even to disown his ethnic ancestry, has made the Mexican-American a victim of confusion, frustration and insecurity."

Census Analyzed

In an analysis of the 1960 U.S. census for the conference, University of Notre Dame sociologist Dr. Julian Samora said that Spanish-speaking people in the United States number "at least 6 million."

He reported that in the past 10 years the number of Spanish-speaking people has increased 88% in California, 41% in Texas, 8% in New Mexico, 6% in Arizona and 5% in Colorado.

According to Dr. Samora, the census shows 1,426,534 persons with Spanish surnames in California, most of whom live in the Southland. And, he adds, only 24.4% of these have a high school education or more, as compared with 54.8% for the "Anglos" and 39.8% for the non-whites, including Negroes.

Much of the blame for the large [number of] school drop-outs among Mexican-Americans must fall on the schools, Dr. Samora charged.

"The lower-class and the minority students who do not fit the mold are less likely to be educated and more likely to become dropout statistics."

Few school systems can, or do, gear their curricula to the needs of the Mexican-American, Dr. Samora said.

"It is easier and safer to prohibit the speaking of Spanish on the school grounds and in the school (the need being to learn English) than to take the imaginative step of teaching both English and Spanish to both Anglos and Spanish-speakers beginning in the elementary school," he said.

Spanish-speaking Angelenos: A Culture in Search of a Name
February 24, 1963

Los Angeles has one of the largest Spanish-speaking urban populations in the Western Hemisphere. Most are "Mexicans," but historians tell

us this does not accurately describe these people because in many respects they are "indigenous" to Southern California and the Southwest. Though they also help make up what generally is known as California's "Spanish heritage," Spain is not their "mother country." They are so highly heterogeneous they can not be adequately understood by studying the cultures of Spain or Mexico. This is an attempt to trace where they came from, what they are and where they are going—first of six parts.

Three guys were arguing in an East Los Angeles bar and one said angrily: "The trouble with you is you're just a Mexican with a gray-flannel serape."

"That's better than being a cholo who professes love for 'la raza' and Mexico and yet came here to live, work and have your children," was the heated retort.

The third man argued against all such "self-defeating" terms as Mexican-American, cholo (slang for a Mexican immigrant), pocho (slang for an American-born Mexican), Spanish-American and Latin American.

Being from Texas he especially resented the last term because in parts of Texas a saying goes that a "a Latin American is a Mexican who has paid his poll tax."

"No, you're both wrong," he said. "We're American. . . . We're Spanish-speaking Americans."

Demonstrate Problem

However ludicrous such arguments may seem, they demonstrate how difficult it is to pinpoint just what more than 700,000 Los Angeles area residents really are. The complexity of definition is further aggravated by those who speak of Los Angeles' "Spanish heritage."

Romanticists like to think that El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula was settled by Spanish grandees and caballeros, sophisticated descendants of the "conquistadores."

Some story-tellers assure us that Spanish Gov. Felipe de Neve, leading a detachment of soldiers proudly bearing the banner of Spain, and followed by the original settlers, entered our city on Sept. 4, 1781, in a flurry of glory.

Not so, says Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, OFM. In his authoritative "San Gabriel Mission and the Beginnings of Los Angeles," a Mission

San Gabriel historical work published by the Franciscan Herald Press, he writes:

"It is a pity, and rather cruel, to spoil this [romantic] description of the founding of Los Angeles; but our duty is to supply accurate information and to correct misstatements or errors."

Lacked Enthusiasm

According to Father Engelhardt, Gov. de Neve had hoped to settle Los Angeles with Spaniards, but being unable to muster any enthusiasm from them he ordered the settlement made by whoever was available.

As a matter of fact, continues the Franciscan priest, the "sorry crowd of settlers" were led practically at gunpoint by a "corporal and three soldiers."

Father Engelhardt says Los Angeles' first settlers were "Jose de Lara, 50, a Spaniard, with an Indian wife and three children; Basilio Rosas, 68, an Indian, with a mulattress wife and six children.

"Antonio Mesa, 38, a Negro, with a mulattress wife and five children; . . . Antonio F. Felix Villavicencio, 30, a Spaniard with an Indian wife and one child; Jose Vanegas, 28, an Indian [Los Angeles' first 'alcalde' or mayor], with an Indian wife and one child."

"Alejandro Rosas, 25, an Indian, with an Indian wife; Pablo Rodriguez, 25, an Indian, with an Indian wife and a child; Manuel Camero, 30, a mulatto, with a mulattress wife; Luis Quintero, 55, a Negro, with a mulattress wife and five children; and Jose Moreno, 22, a mulatto with a mulattress wife."

Of the original settlers, then, including their wives, there were two Spaniards, one mestizo, two Negroes, eight mulattoes and nine Indians. Their children were four Spanish-Indian; five Spanish-Negro; eight Negro-Indian; three Spanish-Negro-Indian and two Indian.

Overshadowing Aspect

All of this, of course, is nothing to raise the eyebrows of anyone living in a democratic society. But it is curious how the "Spanish heritage" of Los Angeles has overshadowed all other historical aspects concerning the founding [of] our city.

Dr. Paul M. Sheldon, director of the Laboratory in Urban Culture, Occidental College, calls this "Spanish heritage" the "patina of romantic misinformation which attributes to the Spaniards a venture which was

essentially Mexican-Indian and remained substantially so until the village (Los Angeles) and surrounding 'ranchos' were taken over lock, stock and barrel by Anglos during the years from 1818 to the 1880s."

California itself was discovered by a Portuguese, Juan Cabrillo, who was in the employ of Spain. He came here in 1542, but it was not until 1769 that Father Junipero Serra came to establish the famous missions.

All told, however, only a few hundred Spaniards settled. Since then immigration from Spain has been negligible. (For 120 years— from 1820 to 1940 — the total Spanish immigration to the United States was about 175,000, most of which came after 1900.)

Historians say that though the Spaniards transplanted their language, their religion and many of their institutions in the Americas, they did so through other groups. Spanish culture, they say, was superimposed and inflicted on native peoples in the Americas, some of whom already were in the Southwest.

Even so, "Spanish heritage" is always stressed when the history of Mexican-Americans is honored in Los Angeles. Last year at an Olvera St. fiesta, for example, a much respected hotel owner and descendant of Hernando Cortes was named "padrino" or protector of the Mexican-American colony.

This was a well-intentioned gesture meant to please the many Mexican-Americans (for lack of a better term) in Los Angeles. But a Mexican-American community leader called The Times to complain that this was "historically grotesque."

"Naming a descendant of Cortes as a 'protector' of the Mexican-American population is like naming a descendant of King George as a 'protector' of the descendants of American revolutionists," he said with a chuckle.

Question Rises

If Mexican-Americans in Southern California are not "Spanish" or even their first cousins, then what are they—besides being Spanish-speaking Americans?

The Times asked this question recently of Dr. George I. Sanchez, University of Texas expert on ethnic groups in the Southwest.

"They defy categorical classification as a group and no term or phrase adequately describes them," he said.

"Biologically, they range over all the possible combinations of first their heterogeneous Spanish antecedents and, then, of the 'mestizaje'

(interbreeding) resulting from the crossing of Spaniards and various indigenous peoples of Mexico and the Southwest."

Were Already Here

(That in many respects the Mexican-Americans are "indigenous" to the Southwest is often mentioned by historians. They like to point out that the Spanish-language minority did not come from Spain and Mexico. They were already very much a part of the Southwest when the Anglo-Americans arrived here, experts tell us.)

"Historically," continued Dr. Sanchez, "they are both old and new to this region—some came with Onate in 1598, others with missionaries of the 18th century; some were part of the gold rush of '49, others came to build railroads a few decades later; many came as contract-labor during World War I."

"Culturally, reflecting their varied biological and historical backgrounds, they are many peoples—the 'californios,' the 'hispanos,' the 'mexico-tejanos,' and numerous other cultural personalities produced by the range of their antecedents and their environments, by their occupations, by their culture-contacts."

Language Not Single

Even their language, Dr. Sanchez points out, is heterogeneous.

"Their mother tongue, their vernacular, is usually Spanish—of every conceivable variation, that is. In fact, for some the home-language is English; for others a part-English, part-Spanish vernacular is the rule."

The reason the "Spanish heritage" is propagandized out of proportion at the expense of the Mexican-Indian heritage is the Anglo-American's attitude toward the so-called non-white races, several educators charged at a recent Mexican-American seminar in Phoenix.

"The Mexican-American is a victim of confusion, frustration and insecurity because he has been taught through social pressure to be ashamed of and even disown his ethnic ancestry," says Marcos de Leon, teacher of Spanish at Van Nuys High School.

Road to Disaster

"A very practical teaching of mental hygiene is that one cannot run away from himself, or what he is. To do so is to invite disaster."

"Somewhere along the way the Mexican-American must make a stand and recognize the fact that if there is to be progress against those barriers which prevent and obstruct a more functional citizenship, he must above all retrieve his dignity and work as a person with a specific ethnic antecedent, having a positive contribution to make to civilization."

"No man can find a true expression for living who is ashamed of himself or his people."

Leader Calls Effort to Aid Mexican-Americans Failure
Second of a Series
February 25, 1963

Salvador (Macho) Chavez, 19, is Mexican-American, anti-social and a bum.

Los Angeles taxpayers have provided him with schools, four of which have kicked him out; rehabilitation centers, where he scoffed at sincere attempts to help him, and jails, where his criminal habits were fired up.

Gov. (Edmund G. "Pat") Brown wishes he could do something for Macho. Mayor Samuel W. Yorty is on record for uplifting him. All city councilmen have supported legislation tailored to help Macho out of the gutter. All members of the County Board of Supervisors work hard to answer his dilemma.

There's only one thing these officials have not done, charges Dr. George R. Borrell, East Los Angeles physician active in MexicanAmerican affairs. They have not really communicated with Macho.

"It's not only that these officials don't speak Spanish," Dr. Borrell said, "though that presents a problem in understanding this complex bum."

Sense of Fair Play

"It's that, ironically, because of their sense of fair play and democratic feelings they refuse to think of Macho as anything other than 'an American boy of a minority group in trouble."'

"If Macho had been born Irish, Negro, Hungarian, Anglo or Italian he still might have grown up to be a bum."

"But because he's a Los Angeles-born Mexican-American bum, his problem is unique."

"There's no panacea for all diseases. Each has to be looked at separately."

Militant Hate

His admirers tagged him Macho, a nickname derived from "machismo" (which has been defined as a feeling of overwhelming masculinity), because of his militant hate of the established order.

Is it so important that Macho is a bum?

Aren't things better generally for the Mexican-American?

Haven't more Mexican-Americans assimilated successfully since the end of World War II?

Haven't the freeways done away with many East Los Angeles slums?

And isn't it significant that you no longer see pachucos walking the streets in their zoot suits?

Standing in Hoyo Mara ("Marvelous Hole"), a "barrio" (neighborhood) in unincorporated East Los Angeles, Dr. Borrell made a wide arc with his arm as if to introduce someone to the slums around him.

"Look at this," he said. "Also listen to this. In the 1950 census it was determined that three-quarters of the Mexican-American population had not finished high school. In the 1960 census it was determined that three-quarters of the Mexican-American population had not finished high school."

"You call that progress?"

"Surely there must be something radically wrong with our leadership—including, of course, our Mexican-American leadership—when in 10 years there has been no improvement in our school drop-out problems."

Tuberculosis Threat

"And do you know that tuberculosis is a serious threat in Mexican-American ghettos? Yes, in our space age, tuberculosis is a serious problem among Mexican-Americans."

"Crime? Ask the police if it's not too high in Mexican-American ghettos."

"Narcotics? Recently released statistics show 54% of all Californians in institutions for dope addicts are Mexican-Americans. Who do the dope peddlers prey on if it's not the frustrated, uneducated and unhappy?"

"No, things aren't as peachy as some of our so-called leaders would like to make us think. Look around you."

(Dr. Borrell's contentions were checked with city, county and state statistics. They mirror the doctor's facts if not his feelings.)

To look at the problems of the Mexican-Americans "separately," Dr. Borrell, chief of staff at Bellavista Hospital, has helped form the Equal Opportunities Foundation.

Officers Installed

Working in conjunction with UCLA's Institution of Industrial Relations, the foundation's officers recently were installed by George Siros, representing President Kennedy's Committee on Equal Opportunity.

Dionicio Morales, the foundation's consultant, is a longtime Mexican-American leader in Los Angeles. He has been executive director of the Council for Mexican-American Affairs and has been honored by the Board of Supervisors for his "outstanding service to the Mexican-American community."

"When I look at the beautiful scroll the supervisors gave me I feel a tinge of frustration," Morales says. "Somehow I feel we so-called Mexican-American leaders have failed seriously. I worked hard to form this new foundation because it seems to me Mexican-American community problems will never be solved by certain professionals, would-be politicians and the perennial self-appointed leaders who do nothing but sit on their hands and give this huge minority sugar-coated lip service when called upon to help."

Problem Urgency Felt

Others feel the urgency, if not the passion, about bringing swift action in tackling Mexican-American problems.

Supervisor Ernest Debs has gone on record for scrutinizing the problems of Mexican-Americans apart from those of other minorities. He has pledged that he will work to see that funds available to the Youth Opportunities Board of Greater Los Angeles will go to that end.

Occidental College, whose Dr. Paul M. Sheldon and E. Farley Hunter have published a study on Mexican-American school dropouts, has announced a spring conference on "Educational and Social Problems of Urban and Rural Mexican-American Youth."

Many of the experts who will take part at Occidental attended the recent conference on "Mexican-Americans in the Southwest" in Phoenix. At that conference a new approach was much discussed under the pedagogic title of "Acculturation."

Dr. George I. Sanchez of the University of Texas explained, smiling, that acculturation means Mexican-Americans have the obligation to be-

come Americanized and "Anglos have the obligation to become Mexicanized gringos."

The Southwest, educators pointed out in Phoenix, means not only the Southwestern states of the United States but also northern Mexico because both "are one geographically, climatically and in many respects culturally."

After The Times printed reports of the Phoenix conference a reader wrote the newspaper in part:

"This country has been settled by foreigners from all over the world. Excluding those from England (even they had some adjustments to make) their children had to adjust themselves. The parents, for the most part, went to night school, read our English newspapers, spoke English at all times . . . . Furthermore, supposing for instance, the Chinese and Japanese among us wanted their language spoken on the school grounds . . . ?"

"Do the Mexican parents go to night school: Do they read the English newspapers?"

Wrong Perspective

"Why do Mexican parents speak Spanish in public . . . . I hear them around the shopping centers. Why do they give the children tortillas, etc., for their school lunches? Why do they not give them the kind of sandwiches, etc., that the other children have so that they do not feel embarrassed when they take out their lunches? The parents could do a great deal to help the children feel 'American' by themselves adopting the American way. You know, when in Rome . . . ."

"This reader," claims Dr. Borrell, "looks at the problems of the Mexican-Americans from the wrong perspective. Many well-meaning people like him are saying in effect, 'All you have to do is be American, speak American.'"

"Hell, Mexican-Americans aren't interlopers. They were in the Southwest and borderlands hundreds of years before the descendants of the people who now tell Mexican-Americans to 'Americanize."'

"Mexican-Americans are not immigrants to the Southwest in the sense that Japanese, Chinese, Irish, Anglos, Italians, Jews, southern Negroes, etc., are immigrants. Mexico, after all, is part of the Southwest. How can you blame Mexican-Americans for in many ways rejecting the Anglo culture when theirs was here first?"

"How can we ever understand Latin America and woo her away from communism when many of us don't understand that Mexican-

Americans are bicultural, not through accident but through nature? The two cultures have fused in them and nothing is going to tear them apart."

"Why is it all right to continue to call many of our cities and streets by Spanish names, encourage Mexican-Spanish architecture, praise and eat Mexican food and still expect Mexican-Americans to become wholly Anglicized?"

"And how is a person who in his youth was not allowed to enter certain restaurants and movie houses going to feel 'American' now just because he is being told things are different now?"

Serape Belt Occupies City's Heart  Third of a Series
February 26, 1963

The heart of Los Angeles could be called the Serape Belt.

Here in a six-mile-square area live most of metropolitan Los Angeles' 700,000 Mexican-Americans.

You can stand at Brooklyn and Rowena Aves. for an hour and not hear a word of English. In a neighborhood church the mass is celebrated in Spanish.

Handmade tortillas are bought here by people who don't think of them as exotic food. And at night you can go to a cantina to drink tequila con limon and listen to a mariachi band, relatively certain that no tourists will gape at you.

The Serape Belt is bounded by the Los Angeles River, Broadway, Huntington Dr., Alhambra Rd., Garfield Ave. and the Santa Ana Freeway.

Included are parts of the city of Los Angeles, all of the unincorporated county section known as East Los Angeles and parts of such adjoining communities as Montebello, Monterey Park and Alhambra.

In the heart of the Serape Belt, encircled by the Golden State, San Bernardino, Long Beach and Santa Ana Freeways—are a dozen census tracts with a population from 75 to 99% Mexican-American. Surrounding tracts vary from 30 to 74%.

Sarita, age 2, lives there. She has tuberculosis.

In her area, 440 cases of tuberculosis were recorded by the City Health Department in 1962. It is the same in other parts of the Serape Belt.

In Sarita's neighborhood last year 32 cases of TB were discovered in the age groups of 1 to 4. Twenty-seven cases of active tuberculosis were reported in the 5 to 9 age group. Nineteen teenagers were found to be tuberculous.

Live Close Together

Other TB statistics for the same neighborhood: 68 active cases in the 20 29 age group; 88 in the 30-39 age group; 64 in the 40-49 age group; 62 in the 50-59 age group; 50 in the 60-69 age group; and 27 in the 70 and over group.

"This is only the number we know about," emphasizes Al Torribio, assistant to City Health Officer Dr. George M. Uhl. "Who knows how many others go undetected? Mexican-American families are large. TB is infectious, and East Los Angeles families live close together from infancy to old age."

Because of ancient prejudices, uneducated Mexicans consider tuberculosis something to be ashamed of, Torribio says. It's a word to be whispered, something somewhat sinful. And so, in many cases, it goes undetected.

"We're trying to educate these people to take advantage of free chest X-rays yearly," Torribio said, "But old ways, old prejudices are hard to overcome."

These are crowded neighborhoods with many children. Sarita once lived in a house with 12 other persons whose ages ranged from one to 68. A Regional Planning Commission study shows that of the total East Los Angeles population 14.6% were under 5 years of age, as compared to 10.1% for the rest of Los Angeles.

East Los Angeles Trails

The study also shows that in the 20-64 age group East Los Angeles is behind the rest of Los Angeles by 7%. One explanation: The age group able to acquire better jobs moves away.

Sarita's father, a laborer, made $4,689 in 1962. The average for East Los Angeles is higher, $5,434—but even this is far below the city average of $7,066.

Sarita's grandfather is a university man, but he never made it above pumping gas and writing letters for a fee. To escape the Mexican Revolution he came here from Guadalajara in 1911. But he never was assimilated in the Anglo world. Why?

"When I came to Los Angeles I discovered I was thought of as more or less a peon," he says. "I learned that the word Mexican was kind of a dirty word . . . . You know. I was treated like my class in Mexico treated and treats the peon. So I guess I kind of gave up. It's hard to progress, when no one around you is . . . ."

Elsewhere in the county are other—and interesting—Mexican-American areas.

Another Large Area

One is a section north of Pico Rivera bounded by Whittier Blvd. on the south, Whittier narrows on the north, Rio Hondo on the west and the San Gabriel River on the east. Four census tracts there vary from 35% to 90% Mexican-American.

Other heavily concentrated areas: Los Nietos (south of Whittier), up to 59% in some tracts; in the San Gabriel Mission area (south of Las Tunas Dr.), up to 44% in one tract; in Wilmington (between Pacific Coast Highway and Cerritos Channel), up to 74% in one tract; in San Pedro (between Miraflores Dr. and 10th St.), three tracts with up to 59%; and in South Azusa (between Foothill Blvd. and Arrow Highway), one tract with up to 59% Mexican-Americans.

In most of western Los Angeles County the Mexican-American population is under 3%. The same holds true in Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. In the extreme eastern part of the county (La Puente, Covina, Glendora) the percentages run from under 3% to 20%, the latter in one or two census tracts.

The second largest concentration of Mexican-Americans is in the San Fernando-Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley. A large tract there has 60% to 74% concentration with street boundaries sharply dividing Anglo and Mexican neighborhoods. Other tracts, including the San Fernando Mission area, are from 45% to 59% Mexican-American.

Similar to Sonora

The intersection of Hewitt and Kalisher Sts. in San Fernando reminds one of San Luis in the Mexican state of Sonora. There is no hectic movement so characteristic of big cities. There is a tortilla factory, a Mexican record and magazine shop, a dreary cantina. Children play quietly in the sidewalks.

You have to remind yourself that you're in the San Fernando Valley, the fastest growing area of Los Angeles.

But things are not all placid in this Mexican-American pocket in the valley, according to the Rev. Luis Sada, pastor of the Iglesia Metodista (Mexican Methodist Church) at 467 Kalisher St.

"There must be 10,000 Mexican-Americans in my area and they all seem to be living in the past—or in a modern hell," says Mr. Sada. "Most of the people here are good, but they seem to have given up. There seems to be no opportunities for them because they're Mexicans. And the young! Drunkenness, narcotics, crime."

"Sometimes I can't believe I'm in a modern city. We seem to be forgotten."

Speaks in Spanish

Mr. Sada spoke in Spanish, his only language.

Mexican-Americans, then, live all over the county, but the vast majority can be found almost exactly in the center of Los Angeles County the Serape Belt.

They most certainly are the least mobile of Californians.

Buy why?

Dr. Paul M. Sheldon, director of the Urban Culture Laboratory, Occidental College, thinks he knows:

"Between 1910 and 1930 the population of East Los Angeles was increased by an influx of Mexicans fleeing the revolution," he says. "Many of these were middle or upper class businessmen and ranch owners who left behind business and property in communities where they have been citizens of high status."

"In Los Angeles, as in other cities along the Mexican border to which they came, they were faced with prejudice, loss of status, and inevitable poverty since only menial labor was available for Mexicans."

Within the Mexican-American community was established a way of life which involved little participation or interest in the larger Anglo-dominated community, Dr. Sheldon says.

"A stereotype grew up, a concept of the Mexican as an unskilled laborer, uninterested in education, political activity or union membership."

"The long history of disenfranchisement of the Mexican-American reached its depth during the depression. Faced with a heavy relief load, Los Angeles officials sought to solve the problem, by rounding up hundreds of thousands of Mexican-Americans, men, women, and children—with dogs, cats and goats, half-opened suitcases and rolls of bedding and shipping them back to Mexico."

"All this tended to bring about attitudes of resignation and hopelessness," Dr. Sheldon claims and long-standing bitterness broke out with the "zoot-suit" riots on June 3, 1943.

(The racial riots were between Mexican-American youths, wearing outlandish "pachuco" clothing, and Anglo servicemen.)

"On June 11, a formal inquiry by the Department of State, requested by the Mexican Ambassador in Washington and followed by the action of the Navy in declaring downtown Los Angeles 'out of bounds' finally brought the local press and city officials to the realization of the disastrous international effects of the riots and the consequences of their own actions," Dr. Sheldon said.

"We're still trying to correct complicated consequences of past actions which have tended to isolate the Mexican-Americans."

Mexican-Americans Lack Political Power Fourth of a Series
February 27, 1963

Politically, our Mexican-Americans are like a fighting bull—but a fighting bull made of paper. On paper their political potential appears fierce—they are the largest minority group in California.

But, unlike the Negroes, the second largest minority in California, Mexican-Americans have no real political cohesion.

"Unity, my friends, what you need most is unity," former Supervisor John Anson Ford recently told a Mexican-American banquet.

On issues concerning all of the more than 1.5 million Spanish-speaking population in the state, their political force invariably crumbles like a "piñata" struck with the stick of feuding factions.

This is not true in Texas and New Mexico where Mexican-Americans have been elected to municipal, state and federal offices for many years.

Ezequiel de Baca was elected governor of New Mexico in 1916. The late Dennis Chavez was elected a U.S. Senator from that state in 1936 (he was U.S. Representative before that) and remained in the Senate for more than two decades.

1962 Victories

Raymundo Telles was elected El Paso (Tex.) county clerk after World War II, later became mayor and now is our ambassador to Costa Rica. Henry Gonzalez was elected to Congress from San Antonio during the

Eisenhower administration even though the President campaigned for Gonzales' [sic ] Republican opponent.

It was not until last year that California, supposedly more "liberal" politically than Texas and New Mexico, started catching up.

In 1962 Councilman Edward Roybal, a Democrat, was sent to Congress and John Moreno (D-51st District) and Phil Soto (D-50th District) were elected to the state legislature.

Even so, the Mexican-American political "piñata" often crumbles because they can often agree on the worth of Anglo politicians, but rarely on the worth of their own.

When Roybal was elected to Congress he left a local political vacuum for the Mexican-Americans. For 13 years their political "papacito," Roybal warned a large political gathering of Mexican-Americans that "unity" in the endorsement of a candidate to run for his place was very important.

He also reminded them that his 9th Council District was not to be considered exclusively Mexican-American, as in the old days. Negroes are there in great numbers, now, and they must be considered when selecting a candidate, Roybal told the meeting.

List Approved

Nevertheless, the informal gathering went on record supporting a list of Mexican-American candidates because, as Mayor Samuel W. Yorty put it in a television interview, "Mexican-Americans have always thought of that district as their own."

The "piñata" really crumbled a month later when a Negro, Gilbert W. Lindsay, was appointed by the City Council to take Roybal's place.

Angry, hurt and anxious to take some kind of action, leaders of the statewide Mexican-American Political Assn. (MAPA) called a meeting which they hoped would endorse a strong Mexican-American candidate to run against incumbent Lindsay.

The MAPA endorsement meeting was held Feb. 8 in the Alexandria. After a spirited all-night caucus at which charges of everything from "packing the house" to "Communist techniques" were made by various factions, the meeting ended with no endorsement.

None Strong Enough

None of the several Mexican-American candidates could muster the necessary three fourths of the total votes.

MAPA, however, which is pledged to raise the Mexican-American political star, did endorse—by acclamation—an Anglo candidate for the City Council in the 12th District.

The lack of unity was perhaps best dramatized in 1961 when the proposed incorporation of East Los Angeles failed in an election.

MAPA claims that Mexican-Americans have a better than average record in registration and voting. In the April 25, 1961, election to incorporate East Los Angeles—populated mostly by Mexican-Americans—only 46% turned out to vote.

At a time in Southern California when new cities are popping up like toadstools after a rain, East Los Angeles—which perhaps had better reasons to incorporate than other areas because of its supposed homogeneity—turned down incorporation by 340 votes.

Too Many Factions

Some of the reasons, pundits said later, were that too many fighting factions were running candidates for the city's council, the Citizens Committee to Incorporate was overly confident, that Mexican-Americans would realize it was "natural for them to vote yes," and the opposition of the Committee on Political Education (COPE)—political arm of the AFL-CIO.

(COPE said at that time that it opposed all new incorporations because "rapid growth of cities has resulted in great confusion and overlapping of services at an increased cost to the taxpayer.")

The vast majority of Mexican-Americans are Democratic and helped substantially in the "Viva Kennedy" and the "Re-elect Gov. [Edmund G. "Pat"] Brown" campaigns. Recently, however, some rumbles of dissatisfaction with the Democrats have been coming from Mexican-American leadership.

The Mexican-American Committee to Re-elect Gov. Brown reorganized as the Mexican-American Citizens Committee of California. At an open meeting, members of the committee charged that Gov. Brown had not appointed enough qualified Mexican-Americans to positions in his administration. This, they charged, was not in keeping with Gov. Brown's campaign promises.

Dr. Francisco Bravo, adviser to the committee and a Los Angeles police commissioner, later said members of the committee "met with two top officials of Gov. Brown's office in a very amicable and understanding meeting. This committee agreed to assist Gov. Brown in filling present

and future state vacancies with qualified persons of Mexican-American descent on the basis of merit and qualifications only."

'Image at Stake'

Another member of the committee, however, Municipal Judge Leopoldo Sanchez, said the problem of the Mexican-American "image" was at stake and should not be discussed with "a governor's aide; but rather with the governor personally."

Sanchez, first Mexican-American to be elected municipal judge in East Los Angeles, says a meeting between Mexican-American leaders and the governor "is important now if the amicable relationship with the governor is to continue."

MAPA, from Sacramento to Los Angeles, has gone a step further and charged that the governor's office is throwing a "smoke-screen" to hide the growing dissatisfaction of the Mexican-American population with the Brown administration.

Arthur Sutton, who served as Richard M. Nixon's campaign consultant on Mexican-American affairs in 1962 and was active in the movement to incorporate East Los Angeles, says it is his studied opinion that "neither the Democrats nor Republicans take Mexican-Americans seriously."

"In their more honest moments, leaders in both parties will admit off the record, of course—that the Mexican-American is far below the Negro as a figure of political importance, as a group whose wishes must be respected and whose views must be heard," Sutton said.

Born in Port Limon, Costa Rica, and a writer on Latin American affairs, Sutton is a member of the board of directors, Community Council for Greater East Los Angeles, Inc., MAPA, and the Council of Mexican-American Affairs.

"Riddled with bitter feuds, sour jealousies and deep rivalries, Mexican-American leadership has failed to unite in a solid front dedicated to the advancement of the Mexican-American community at large," he says.

Sutton, who is working on a new attempt to incorporate East Los Angeles, said the "fragmentation of the Mexican-American community has been a gold mine for the Democratic Party."

"It has allowed Democratic leaders to count on Mexican-American votes without the bother of having to take their views into consideration when making party policy, or, it might be added, when passing out patronage."

Few ethnic groups in the United States supported Kennedy in 1960

as did the Mexican-American communities in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, according to Sutton.

"But is there any substantial evidence of appreciation from the Kennedy Administration? There is not. Sure, a few Peace Corps positions, a judgeship or two. But nothing really important. And many of the Kennedy appointees that the administration points to as 'honoring the Mexican-American people' are, upon closer examination, men and women of Puerto Rican or Spanish extraction, not Mexican-Americans."

The Republican Party, Sutton claims, long has written off the Mexican-American vote as "lost." And he adds, "Thanks to the Birch issue,^[*] the California GOP is itself in a hopeless mass of internal feuds, too."

Sutton, a lifelong Republican, says that Nixon made "a real bid for Mexican-American support last November but even that was a case of too little and too late." ^[**]

"The budget for the Mexican-American approach was $5,000—a mere pittance—and the East Los Angeles Republican Center closed down right after the election," Sutton said.

"The political aspirations of the Mexican-Americans are grossly misunderstood, perhaps understandably so, considering the many feuding factions involved."

"But not even people who should make it their business to know what these aspirations are take the trouble to find out. Test my theory."

The Times did by asking a high elected official what he thought of the Mexican-American Political Assn. He answered:

"The stressing of the words Mexican-Americans strikes me as an organization much like the Muslims" (the white-hating Negro group).

And in the next breath he said:

"The Mexican-Americans need a strong organization which will help them present a solid front."

Mexican-Americans Succeeding Fifth in a Series
February 28, 1963

"They're building Mexican-Americans better than ever."

The East Los Angeles car dealer got up from his desk, chewed on his cigar and walked to the large show window.

* The John Birch Society is a right-wing political group that was especially active in the early 1960s. The "Birch issue" to which Sutton refers was the rise of the ultraconservative group, which had a greatly disruptive effect on the California GOP.

** In 1962, Richard Nixon unsuccessfully ran for governor of California.

"There are too many sobbing do-gooders, piddling politicos and lazy opportunists saving we've got to do this and that for the Mexican-Americans," he said puffing clouds of smoke.

"Nobody ever helped me. I'm a Mexican-American. I made the grade. But I didn't do it by sitting on my behind thinking up ways of chiseling the public. I worked for what I got. Many others are doing the same and they'll get there. Anybody can make it in this country."

"Just don't use my name—it's not good for business."

Statistics show Mexican-Americans ARE "being built better than ever."

Spread Over County

Though most live in the eastern part of the city and county and in the Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley, some Mexican-Americans live in every part of the county.

There are rich Mexican-Americans. There are Mexican-American movie stars. Mexican-Americans are also doctors, dentists, musicians, scientists, police and sheriff lieutenants and captains, businessmen, insurance men, educators, building contractors, government officials, etc.

Mexican-Americans can be found in almost every walk of life which spells the American Dream.

Successful Named

To name a few, an impressive list of successful Mexican-Americans here would include:

Superior Judge Carlos Teran; movie star Anthony Quinn; Arthur Rendon, civic leader and architect; Municipal Judge Leopoldo Sanchez; Juan Acevedo, director of the California Youth Authority Board; Ray E. Gonzalez, chief of replacement and recruitment for the civilian personnel division of Space Systems Division, U.S. Air Force; and Dr. Francisco Bravo, surgeon, rancher and Los Angeles police commissioner.

The rub is, according to Occidental College's Laboratory in Urban Culture:

"The low ratings of the majority of Americans of Mexican extraction in Southern California on the usual socioeconomic scales despite their long residence and the high achievements of some members, has been a major concern in the Los Angeles community."

"Mexican-Americans in Southern California are represented in the

higher level of education and in the professions in much smaller numbers than their proportion in the population would warrant."

Many Are Agreed

Many who have succeeded, however, agree with the East Los Angeles car dealer that a great number of Mexican-Americans are coming up in the world and that if you'll just let nature take its course they'll continue to do so.

Since the end of World War II, they argue, the Mexican-American has made great strides. Why all this soul-searching over the lack of Mexican-American ethnic power?

"The price of assimilation, after all, is the loss of ethnic identification," said a journalist. "And it's a cheap price to pay."

Carlos Borja, who has made the grade, doesn't agree.

"We should assimilate socially but not politically," he says.

Borja was born in central Los Angeles and attended grammar school there.

"My father and mother came from Mexico and were very proud of the named Borja," he said. "The name dates back to Rodrigo de Borja, a Spanish noble, who in 1492 became Pope Alexander VI. Before he became Pope he fathered Cesare Borgia, the famous Italian politician and art patron, and his sister, Lucrezia."

"Don't let the name throw you, though. My father was a waiter."

Unique Problems

"But he was a Borja and was determined to see that I succeed. When I was a boy I belonged to a Mexican-American gang—my school used to be where the freeway cloverleaf is now—and we used to fight Anglo gangs. But we didn't live as ethnically isolated as some Mexican-American boys now live in parts of East Los Angeles."

"I went to Hollywood High and then to USC—thanks to the sacrifices of my parents."

Carlos Borja, now a deputy attorney general of California, who has been investigating alleged harassment of Mexican-American voters in Imperial County, says Mexican-Americans have "unique" political problems.

"Many of us, after all, are of peon stock and have remnants of a folk culture in which the family and one's little clique are more important than the populations as a whole," Borja said.

Ethnic Pull Used

"Mexican-Americans need political education. Many of them, for instance, do not complain about abuses against them because they don't really feel themselves part of our whole political structure."

"That's why I'm for Mexican-Americans banding politically. They best know their problems and if they gain political strength they can best solve these problems themselves. That's the American way."

"American electioneering has always given special attention to the ethnic and religious interest of the voters," according to "Our Own Kind," a pamphlet published by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.

"History demonstrates that Americans bring to the polls their special backgrounds and pull down the levers congenial to their national origins and religious ties."

Some who have made the grade—especially the younger successful Mexican-Americans—feel an urgency to identify themselves with the less fortunate by attempting to help them.

"Too many times Mexican-Americans who become successful suddenly become 'Spanish' and forget about their brothers in Mexican-American ghettos," one said.

Not Realizing Dream

Frank Macias, a biochemist and micro-biologist at Northrop Space Laboratory, says Mexican-Americans are not fulfilling the American Dream in as many numbers as they should.

"Those of us who have a good education and economic stability have an obligation to help others of our kind who are less fortunate," he says. "We, who are on our way up, so to speak, must continue to associate ourselves with the problems of those who for many reasons are stagnant—in order that they realize that they too can make it."

A sociologist told The Times that successful Mexican-Americans who talk about "working for the good of all"—as compared to tackling Mexican-American problems separately—are "naive do-gooders."

Groups Differ

"Answers to problems of one group are not necessarily transferable to another group," he said. "The importance of solving Mexican-American problems unilaterally can not be overemphasized."

According to Municipal Judge Leopoldo Sanchez, what bothers many young Mexican-American leaders is that "the image of the Mexican-American is not good and must be improved."

Dr. Ruth Landes, former professor of anthropology at Claremont Graduate School, puts it another way:

"The Russian threat and the election of an Irish Catholic President have made racial prejudice unfashionable, but the supposed beneficiaries don't know about it."

"Today in our California, docility is no longer wanted by Anglos or younger Mexican-Americans. This is the newest evidence of American 'equality.' Public opinion in advanced responsible groups—education, government, social work—is for this equality and the law says that it must come about."

Understanding Needed

The educated and the economically stable must be trained to understand the "personal and group dynamics of relationships with the underprivileged" and the responsibility—of the educated and economically stable—to the underprivileged, she continued.

Dionicio Morales, consultant to the Equal Opportunities Foundation, likes to quote William Saroyan on this subject:

"'Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior,' Saroyan wrote. 'Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart . . . .'"

"The isolation of the Mexican-American must be broken, for his own good and that of the community," sums up Morales.

Mexican-Americans Have Culture Protected by 1848 U.S. Treaty Last of Series
March 1, 1963

In the peculiar pedagogical language of some educators, impoverished Mexican-Americans are "culturally deprived."

Presumably they want to save these poor people from this terrible void by giving them culture.

What they don't seem to realize is that Mexican-Americans have a culture, one that is protected by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Signed on Feb. 2, 1848, after the Mexican-American War, the treaty

guarantees Mexicans, who become Mexican-Americans, the right to retain their language, religion and culture.

A close study of the treaty and of the Southwest could clear up a lot of misunderstanding in Anglo-Mexican relations, some scholars say.

It also could give the Mexican-American the status he so desperately seeks.

"When I was very young and discovered at school that I was a Mexican-American and consequently 'different,' I vowed to become an American without the Mexican part," says Jesus Hernandez, a Los Angeles social worker.

"I systematically forgot any Spanish I knew, I even changed my name. I soon discovered, however, that even though I knew no Spanish and though I had a ridiculous new name—Joe Hernan—I was still thought of as a Mexican. After all I look like a Mexican."

Unique Position

"So one day I said to myself: So I'm a Mexican—so what? What's wrong with that? Nothing, I discovered. I relearned Spanish, I went back to my old name and found out that I could still be a good American and have my Mexican cake, too . . . . Being bicultural can be an advantage in this complicated new world, you know?"

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo clearly shows why the Mexican-American minority is "unique" and why Mexican-Americans can not be thought of as "foreign."

Mexicans, with the exception of the American Indians, are the only minority in the United States who were annexed by conquest. The rights of Mexicans, again with the exception of the Indians, are specifically safeguarded.

The fact that Mexicans lost the Mexican-American War—a war, incidentally, called "unjust" by generals from U.S. Grant to Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy—does not change the fact that Mexicans are very much of the Southwest. They are no more foreigners to the Southwest than the cactus that grows there.

Rankled by Loss

It still rankles Mexicans that this "unjust" war cost them California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas—half of the territory of Mexico in 1821 or an area larger than Germany and France combined.

Educators who abhor the term "culturally deprived" prefer another pedagogical term: "Acculturation."

That, says Dr. George I. Sanchez of the University of Texas, means that Mexican-Americans should become Americanized and that Anglos should become "Mexicanized gringos."

People who have given Anglo-Mexican relations a lot of thought feel strongly that "acculturation" is the answer. The best way for Mexican-Americans to become Americanized, of course, is to leave the Serape Belt of eastern Los Angeles and really integrate in the community.

Eventual Change

This eventually can be done, according to Paul Bullock of UCLA's Institution of Industrial Relations, by ending the de facto segregation in the schools.

"Observation would indicate that most of the elementary and secondary schools in the Los Angeles system—at least three-quarters—contain few, if any, Negro or Mexican-American students," Bullock says.

"Examination . . . shows that four of the Los Angeles high schools are overwhelmingly Negro, and two are overwhelmingly Mexican-American."

"There is no doubt that housing segregation is responsible for much of the segregation evident in the schools. The San Fernando Valley (outside of Pacoima), west and northeast Los Angeles, and other parts of the city contain so few minority-group residents that there is little possibility of integrating the schools. . . ."

"Acculturation," if it is to come, is in the future.

What is important now, according to the Council of Mexican-American Affairs (CMAA), whose president is Edward Vega, is doing something about problems facing Mexican-Americans today.

The CMAA lists the most pressing problems as:

Children of "countless Mexican-American families present challenging problems in education" and need "special attention which elementary school teachers are not always trained effectively to meet."

Highest Dropouts

Junior and senior high school dropouts among the Mexican-Americans "in most Los Angeles metropolitan areas are the highest of any other ethnic or racial group."

The County Probation Department, in a 1961 survey, determined that

the Mexican-American youth is the most gang-minded, and commits more killings than any other group.

The California Adult Authority revealed that 54% of the adult narcotic addicts in California institutions are of Mexican background.

Some of the reasons for these problems, the CMAA says, is that "too frequently the community agencies and institutions do not reach the citizen of Mexican background and so he becomes 'isolated.' This isolation deprives him of having proper social values."

Salazar Praised and Panned for Articles on Mexican-Americans
March 4, 1963

It certainly is a commendable thing for The Times to publish the factual series on the Mexican-American problems. Ruben Salazar has done a tremendous job on his research and unbiased factual presentation. My friends and I have found this series to be very interesting and educational.

I believe that those of us that follow this series will broaden our minds in the overall problems and will motivate us to try to help solve those of our community.

Some of us may not like the opinions on some of the issues that have been brought to light. When the nerve of a tooth is tapped, we feel the pain. Therefore, it will tend to motivate us to take better care of our teeth. Perhaps this series will have the same effect to those who are really interested.

Rafael C. Flores, Pico Rivera

The series that The Times ran on the dimension of contemporary Mexican-American life has been called to my attention by many of my supporters in the last supervisorial election. In describing the manner in which the East Los Angeles community is presented, I would consider myself conservative in using the word outrageous.

Your reporter managed to "poison the well" before he even developed this presentation by using a barroom dialogue as a point of departure. The second article was also of poor journalistic vintage—describing an alleged "Mexican-American bum" of 19 years of age who is anti-social. The reference to the "Hoyo-Mara neighborhood" was very vulnerable to a hasty generalization by the reader who is not acquainted with East Los Angeles. It is a very insignificant and inarticulate section of East Los

Angeles. The third article was a Cape Canaveral flop in that it was entitled "The Serape Belt."

Manuel Lopez, Los Angeles

I have read the Ruben Salazar series on the Mexican-American of the Los Angeles area with interest, and I must say that a great service is being done on our behalf by the writer.

The Salazar series shows what we have always known. The opportunities that this country has given us have been a sorry waste of time and energy. It is easy to crucify the political parties for our plight, the blame lies wholly on us individually and as a community.

Carlos B. Gil, San Fernando

In reference to your article pertaining to so-called "Mexican-Americans," I am very much in favor of any means that might advance the social and economic standing of Americans of Mexican ancestry. I do not believe that your articles are accomplishing these ends.

I am aware that these articles are not intended to be derogatory in any way, but they are giving an incorrect picture of the American of Mexican ancestry in this area.

We, of Mexican ancestry, born in the United States, are Americans. "Mexican-Americans" implies dual-citizenship, and nothing could be farther from the truth.

We, in East Los Angeles, resent our area being referred to as "Little Mexico." This is an American community, lived in by Americans.

Richard L. Valdez, Los Angeles

The articles written by Mr. Salazar have motivated me to anxiously await the next article daily.

We in Pico Rivera are tremendously thrilled at the articles' content, for we feel that in Pico Rivera we are to set the tone for the rest of the Mexican-American community in terms of unity, cohesiveness, cooperation, and desire.

Mrs. Margaret Perez, Pico Rivera

I have been reading your articles and want to let you know that they have been very informative, and I certainly hope that Mr. Salazar keeps on writing such articles. I know there are a lot of people that do not like the truth to be printed or that it be revealed openly, but it's about time

most of the other people really find out the truth about the MexicanAmerican and his many problems.

Mrs. Dolores Cendejas, Los Angeles

This is the first letter I've written to a newspaper but I feel I have to thank Ruben Salazar for the articles he has written. I am glad he works for a newspaper such as The Times that allows him to write blunt truth.

Mrs. Julia Cereceda, Montebello

'Uneducable' Get Assist in Fighting Frustrations, Gaining Some Success  April 8, 1963

It was "War Ball" time at Jackson High School. Thirty boys, evenly divided on each side of the basketball court, were throwing volley balls at each other with a vengeance.

Wham! One got clobbered and retreated. The impact of the speeding ball shook him a bit but didn't hurt him.

The thrower smiled. Wham! The ball struck him right on the mouth, wiping off his smile.

"You know, we've never had a fight resulting from our weekly War Ball?" school coach Pete Martinez said proudly. "It helps them work off their frustrations."

The boys at Jackson High have many frustrations to work off.

They are youthful failures in the eyes of a society hell-bent on its idea of success.

Work Against Dropouts

They are the prime candidates for the newest badge of dishonor, the school dropout.

Andrea Jackson High School, 2821 E. 7th St., is dedicated to the idea that a high school diploma, in many cases, is not as important as saving a boy's self-respect.

Not that Jackson High doesn't pass out diplomas. Twelve boys, kicked out of other schools as uneducable, were graduated in February.

The present enrollment at Jackson High is 379, but principal Wendell Lorbeer doesn't like to think in terms of numbers.

"I think of them individually," he says. "You name any problems—from family trouble to narcotics—and these kids have had it."

Lorbeer says problem children are often spotted as early as in the second grade, but that our schools are not geared to help the "unaverage" child.

Give Them Credit

"The reason they are at Jackson is that they didn't understand what was going on in their regular schools," Lorbeer said.

"But at least they had the spunk to raise a ruckus so someone would know they didn't understand. You've got to give them credit for that they raised hell instead of just sitting there daydreaming."

"They have to succeed at something, even at raising hell, and they need the recognition of their classmates as much as anyone else. When they come here and discover there's no 'stage' or 'audience' for them they settle down and start to learn."

Manuel went to Jackson High in 1960 because, according to a teacher's report, "he is not benefiting from his high school attendance."

"Manuel has been in my class for one year and has not progressed at all, either socially or educationally," the report says. "He has made no friends in class . . . . In my opinion he is uneducable and should be excluded (from school)."

Shows Progress

Jackson High vice principal William L. Van Sistine didn't agree in 1960 that Manuel was a hopeless case and this year wrote a report pointing out his progress.

Manuel's grades, according to Van Sistine, were: leather shop, B; crafts, B; English I, B; physical education, A; and math, B.

"He never could have made those grades in his old school, of course," Van Sistine says. "But we grade him in relation to his own intelligence, not on what a manual says he should be doing."

The rub, according to those who oppose schools such as Jackson, is that the school is a six-year high school and that teaching Manuel simple things which his intelligence can grasp cost $1,186 last year as compared to $604 for the "average" student.

The Difference

"But it must also be kept in mind that if Manuel had not been helped and if he had gotten in trouble with the law, it would have cost the taxpayers $3,000 a year to keep him in custody," Lorbeer says.

The reason it cost so much is that Jackson High must, of necessity, have very small classes and special teachers.

"But it keeps them off the streets and gives these boys self-confidence and ability in at least one trade," Van Sistine emphasizes.

Though Jackson High is in East Los Angeles, students come from as far as West Los Angeles, Hollywood, South Gate, El Sereno, Highland Park and other parts of Los Angeles.

All ethnic groups are represented at Jackson, where the curriculum is mostly vocational geared to non-academically inclined boys.

When a boy is just about to drop out or be expelled from high school, he may be sent to Jackson.

Favorable Environment

"Boys referred to Jackson are sent here because of a need for a change of school and instruction," principal Lorbeer says. "The primary purpose of Jackson is to provide a favorable environment for the pupil with problems in which he may be helped and to experience success instead of failure. We have small classes and provide a wide choice of industrial arts and other activities."

Lorbeer says the disadvantages and dangers in such schools as Jackson could be that "adjustment schools" might be used as threats or punishment.

"Improper screening of placement cases has brought us students with high IQs, health problems and habitual truants," Lorbeer says. "We feel these children should be dealt with in their own schools."

Other "adjustment center high schools" are Ramona, Betsy Ross and Garden Gate Schools for girls and Jacob Riis and William T. Aggelar High Schools for boys.

Won't Fix Blame

Jackson's Lorbeer doesn't like to argue about who's to blame for the dropout problem: schools, parents, students, society, etc.

"Jackson can't do anything about society, bad educational philoso-

phies or parents," Lorbeer said. "But we can attempt to help an individual child who needs sympathetic understanding."

Mrs. Rachel Hayes, principal at Ramona High School, Jackson's counterpart for girls, also worries more about the individuals than about the controversy over dropouts and American education.

"We try to help the girls because we know that in many cases these girls are not only not wanted by their parents but even hated by them."

Youths Study Problems of Mexican-Americans
April 10, 1963

A group of Mexican-American student leaders have put a new twist on Easter vacation by mixing fun with serious social problems.

Meeting at Camp Hess Kramer, 40401 Pacific Coast Highway, 110 Mexican-American high school and college students Tuesday ended a three-day conference on "Spanish-speaking Youth at the Crossroads."

Sponsored by the County Commission on Human Relations and Industrialist Tobias Kotzin, the youthful leaders tackled such questions as "Are Mexican-Americans timid and hesitant in aspiring to advance?" and "Should agencies other than those existing be set up to help these people?"

Summing up what one thought students learned in workshops, Lucila Carrasco, a student at East Los Angeles Junior College, told the conference:

"The isolation of the Mexican-American home must be broken. Too many times Mexican-American families feel that as long as they—as a family unit—are happy that's all that counts."

"We are apathetic too often and must become much more aware of our civic responsibilities. But we need more legislation to help us (in problems such as school dropouts) and the Mexican-Americans need an organization much like the NAACP."

First Attempt

Tony M. Sanchez and William 0. Gutierrez of the County Human Relations Commission said the conference was the first local attempt to help "young Mexican-Americans focus their role on the brink of entering and becoming a member of community life."

Sally Alonso, 16, of Roosevelt High School, said that her study group

found that "many times we're embarrassed at being Mexican-Americans when we should be proud."

"Actually, we're very fortunate in being bilingual and bicultural," she said. "Let's take advantage of these instead of worrying about it."

Negro Drive Worries Mexican-Americans
July 14, 1963

A growing concern over the relation of the Southland's Mexican-Americans to the accelerated drive by Negroes for civil rights was aired Saturday at a closed meeting in the Hall of Administration.

Some Los Angeles area Mexican-American leaders, The Times learned, are worried that Negroes' victories in their fight against racial prejudice, ironically is adversely affecting the Spanish-speaking people.

About 60 leaders of the Mexican-American community Saturday night presented their grievances to the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

Ray Mora of the California Democratic Central Committee told The Times after the meeting that a "dangerous situation" is brewing because employers are now "afraid" to discriminate against Negroes and are firing Mexican-Americans.

"This should not be interpreted to mean that Mexican-Americans are against the fight Negroes are waging for better opportunities," Mora emphasized. "I bring it out so that this ironic side-effect should not be used to pit one group against the other."

"The pressure Negroes are applying on employers has had this effect: When Negroes apply for jobs, employers are afraid not to hire them for fear of retaliation and so, in some cases, fire Mexican-Americans to make space for the Negro."

"It's a problem that will get worse and we must talk about it if it is to be solved." It was learned that several of the more conservative Mexican-American leaders strongly oppose any "mixing" of Mexican-American and Negro grievances.

One Mexican-American leader was quoted as telling the commission: "The Mexican-Americans have no problems. Just leave us alone. Any problems that might arise we'll take care of them ourselves."

Carlos Borja, a California deputy attorney general and Mexican-American leader, told The Times he disagrees.

"We should not disassociate our problems from those of the Negro," Borja said. "How long are we Mexican-Americans going to sit here and say we have no problems? We have them and the greatest one is the lack of education of many of our people."

Mexican-Americans' Problems Evaluated
July 21, 1963

Too many Mexican-Americans are "functionally illiterate" and their problems are aggravated by "cheap labor flowing in from Mexico" which depresses their wages, according to a report released by Occidental College.

The report on the April 6 conference held at Occidental College to probe social and educational problems of rural and urban Mexican-American youth, also listed the following critical areas:

"Housing—The Spanish-speaking people (in the five southwestern states) rent more than the Anglos, they get less for their money, and the houses they live in are, more often than not, deteriorating, dilapidating and overcrowded, without basic sanitary facilities."

Employment Limited

"Employment—Opportunities are limited, income status is lower, and there are few opportunities for apprenticeship training."

"Administration of Justice—Frequently unequal."

"Voting—Practices vary widely, but there are still barriers to voting (by Mexican-Americans) in some parts of the Southwest."

"Public Accommodations—Less discriminatory than in the past but the problem still exists."

"Leadership—Effective leadership among the Spanish-speaking has yet to develop."

The report of the conference, at which 150 Southwestern leaders in Mexican-American affairs participated, was prepared under the direction of Dr. Paul M. Sheldon, conference director and head of Occidental College's Laboratory in Urban Culture.

"The (education) level of the Spanish-speaking has increased only about one grade in the past 10 years," the report says. "While other populations have increased in relatively the same proportions, the level of the Spanish-speaking is so much lower that they remain terribly disadvantaged and the gap between them and even the non-whites is fairly

large. A large proportion of the population, then, is really functionally illiterate."

Dr. Julian Samora of Notre Dame University reported to the conference that 52% of the Mexicans in Texas have less than fourth-grade education, 35% in Arizona, 24% in California and Colorado and 30% in New Mexico.

"If we take Los Angeles-Long Beach as a standard metropolitan statistical area, 19% of the Mexicans have less than fourth-grade education, (as compared to only) 3% of the Anglos and 9% of the non-white (primarily Negro)," Dr. Samora said.

As for job opportunities among the Mexican-Americans, the report says that "cheap labor flowing in from Mexico in the bracero and 'green card' programs depress wages and create innumerable social problems."

The status of the Spanish-speaking people in the Southwest is shattered, according to Dr. Samora, by "the effects of domestic and foreign agricultural labor systems; the effects of the open border; the effects of the commuter worker system in the border cities, and the effects of illegal entrance for employment purposes."

Unfair Competition

"These effects," continued Dr. Samora, "consist of: Unfair competition for domestic laborers, the depression of wages, exploitation of labor, the deprivation of civil rights, categorical retardation in education, and the perpetuation of a vicious social system which is detrimental to our society."

The solution to these problems, according to Dr. Samora, "is relatively simple."

"Namely, stop the commuter system (Mexican citizens crossing the border everyday to work in the United States), which is illegal anyhow; place restrictions on the issuance of green cards (issued by the Immigration Service) to Mexicans wanting to come to this country; and do away with Public Law 78 (bracero)," the Notre Dame sociologist said.

The recommendations made by the conference, which was the 12th annual at Occidental College, included:

"School curriculum should include recognition of the cultural heritage of the Mexican-American. This is especially important in the primary grades, where children often face a new world and the necessity of learning a new language, and where permanent attitudes and work habits are formed."

"The present leadership of the numerous Mexican-American organizations should be brought together, perhaps under the auspices of Occidental College, for the purpose of developing coordinated, nonpolitical action toward securing primarily community organization staff services that will make it possible for the people to express their views about needed services . . . ."

Johnson to Hear Plaint of Minority
July 29, 1963

When Vice President Lyndon Johnson comes here Aug. 9, he can expect the traditional "abrazo" (embrace) from the Mexican-American community, but it will be tempered with Latin skepticism.

As chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, Johnson has agreed to meet with Mexican-Americans to discuss a gnawing concern that the Spanish-speaking population is lagging.

About 50 top Mexican-American leaders are planning strategy for the conferences with the Vice President at the Statler-Hilton.

The consensus seems to be:

"We're grateful that the Vice President is coming, but we're not going to let him get away without letting him know that we've got grave problems which the Democratic administration seems to be ignoring."

Cite Negro Example

It is no secret that Los Angeles area Mexican-American leaders are impressed with the results militancy has brought the Negro community.

Some Mexican-American leaders express the opinion that perhaps they have been too "polite" and that "maybe the Democratic party has taken us for granted for too long."

Dr. George R. Borrell, controversial Mexican-American chairman of the Equal Opportunity Foundation, puts it this way:

"Who is not aware of the plight of the Negro? Conversely, who is aware of the plight of the Mexican-American?"

Will Attend Luncheon

"Do you know that 18% of the Mexican-American males in California are employed as laborers in comparison to 8% of all California males?

What is worse, 24%, or nearly one-fourth, of all Mexican-American laborers are farm workers. Compare that to only 5% of all California male laborers.

"And one must remember that 'all' California male laborers includes, of course, the Mexican-American, making the comparison that much worse."

Mexican-American leaders promise that at least 1,000 Spanish-speaking citizens will attend a Statler-Hilton luncheon honoring Vice President Johnson.

'Forgotten Minority'

But the promise came only after they were assured that a select group of Mexican-American leaders will get a private meeting with the Vice President to discuss, among other things:

1—Charges that Mexican-Americans are being ignored by the Kennedy administration in political appointments.

2—Contentions that the reason 50% of Mexican-Americans in California have less than an eighth-grade education is that they are the "forgotten minority."

3—That Mexican-Americans are not getting equal opportunities in employment.

George J. Seros, a representative of the Vice President here, has assured the Mexican-American leaders that Johnson is aware of the problems facing the Spanish-speaking citizens in the Southland.

He also emphasized that for the first time an official of Johnson's stature will come to Los Angeles exclusively to discuss the problems of Mexican-Americans.

Scheduled to attend the Aug. 9 conferences are Sen. Clair Engle (D-California), Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles), Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Monterey Park), and Rep. Henry Gonzalez (D-San Antonio, Tex.). The list may later include Gov. Brown and city and county officials.

More education and better employment opportunities will be stressed publicly at the luncheon and conferences, but other—more touchy problems undoubtedly will be discussed in private.

Latin America Hurt

They include contentions by a few Mexican-American leaders that Negro stepped-up demands for civil rights have ironically hurt the

Mexican-Americans because employers are now "afraid" to discriminate against Negroes and are, in some instances, displacing Mexican-Americans to hire more Negroes.

Such a charge was made at a recent meeting of the County Human Relations Commission with 50 Mexican-American leaders, but most disclaimed the charge as a "dangerous contention which would pit one group against the other."

The other touchy problem that might be discussed with the Vice President is the effect of Public Law 78 on Mexican-Americans.

Occidental College recently released a report which claims that the bracero program and other "cheap labor flowing in from Mexico depress wages and create innumerable social problems" for Mexican-Americans.

Los Angeles Rep. Roybal and Texas Rep. Gonzalez were instrumental in killing an extension of the bracero law in the House. The law is scheduled to expire Dec. 31.

Dr. Borrell of the Equal Opportunity Foundation, Dr. Francisco Bravo, Los Angeles police commissioner and rancher, and most California big growers are for an extension of the bracero law.

Dr. Borrell, for one, says he doesn't want "Mexican-Americans to be doing the stoop labor braceros are willing and anxious to do."

Latins Here to Protest Bracero Law
August 5, 1963

A committee of Mexican-American community leaders announced Sunday it will take the occasion of Vice President Lyndon Johnson's visit here to go on record against Public Law 78, which allows the importation of braceros.

Johnson, as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, will speak at a luncheon and conference Friday at the Statler Hilton.

The Mexican-American Education Conference Committee, composed of leaders of most of the Los Angeles area Spanish-speaking organizations will host the affair.

Oppose Extension

In a strongly worded resolution passed by 49 of the 50 members of the committee, the Mexican-American leaders urge the Vice President to use

his influence in defeating a proposed extension of the bracero law, which is due to expire Dec. 31.

"Public Law 78 takes advantage of hunger and hardship in Mexico to provide for recruitment of a captive, docile and exploitable foreign farm labor force," the resolution reads.

Twenty top Mexican-American leaders, who hope to meet with the Vice President in private to discuss Public Law 78 and other controversial issues, pushed for the resolution.

A spokesman told The Times the resolution was passed "in the hope that planned picketing of the hotel where Johnson will be speaking will be called off."

Urge Dignified Action

"The committee is in sympathy with the persons who want to picket (mostly labor-backed organizations) but we hope to discuss it with the Vice President in a dignified manner," the spokesman said.

The resolution claims the bracero program "creates a large surplus labor pool which misplaces and adversely affects American farm workers."

Braceros, the committee claims, "depress laborers' wages, aggravate severe unemployment and underemployment, and help create wretched living conditions."

Labor Shortage Denied

Denying the contention that there are no American farmhands available to replace the braceros, the resolution says: "Most of the California farm workers are Mexican-American. These workers can furnish all the labor needs of the California growers."

Mexican-American leaders also hope to discuss with the Vice President in private what one called "our disappointment in the New Frontier because we are literally forgotten once we helped the administration get into office."

Members of the committee claim that the Viva Kennedy Clubs across the Southwest substantially helped the President get elected, but that the administration has not kept its promises of appointing more Mexican-Americans to federal offices.

Carlos Borja Jr., president of the Council for Mexican-American Affairs and state deputy attorney general, will be master of ceremonies at the luncheon. Mrs. Georgian Hardy, president of the Los Angeles Board

of Education, and Dr. Francisco Bravo, police commissioner, will speak at the conference.

Among the organizations forming the committee at the luncheon and conference are the Equal Opportunity Foundation, League of United Latin American Citizens, Council for Mexican American Affairs, Community Service Organizations, GI Forum, Mexican-American Political Assn., the Los Angeles Mexican Chamber of Commerce, the Welfare Planning Council, the County Commission on Human Relations and the Mexican-American Lawyers Assn.

Johnson Urges Latin Citizens to Report Bias
August 10, 1963

Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson instructed Mexican-American community leaders here Friday to help the federal government uncover any instances of racial discrimination in employment for presentation at a conference in November.

Johnson met with 20 Los Angeles area Mexican-American leaders in his suite at the Statler-Hilton following a speech before more than 1,000 persons at the luncheon sponsored by the Mexican-American Education Conference Committee.

Johnson said Mexican-American problems may stem from the fact that they don't complain enough.

Minority Voice

He said he has received 4,334 complaints of discrimination in the two and a half years as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, but "only 90 have been from Spanish-speaking persons."

"I'm not asking for more complaints," Johnson said smiling, "I have plenty of those. But it seems to me that perhaps you have not been successful in making your needs known . . . and by that I mean facts, not mere grumblings . . . ."

The only thing that marred the otherwise genial and informal meeting with the Vice President was the walking out of Dr. Francisco Bravo, Los Angeles police commissioner, who was told his presentation was not in order.

Dr. Bravo wanted to tell the Vice President that Mexican-American

voters in California "have not received appointments to federal jobs even though we helped substantially in the 1960 Presidential campaign."

The Vice President said he did not want to get involved in politics at this meeting and "besides I don't make any appointments myself."

Dr. Bravo, a large contributor to the Democratic Party, has been vocal in his dissatisfaction with both the state and federal officials in "their neglect of the Mexican-Americans even though we worked hard to get them elected."

Poor Housing Area

Martin Ortiz, of the Planning Welfare Council, told the Vice President that "25% of all Mexican-American families have annual incomes below $4,000 and about 10% have incomes below $2,000."

"Fewer than half (47%) of all families own their own homes," Ortiz said. "In East Los Angeles only 29% of the Mexican-Americans own their own homes." Ortiz said the "greatest concentration of poor housing in Los Angeles County is found in and around East Los Angeles, the hub of the Mexican American population." Johnson was reluctant about discussing the controversial proposed extension of the bracero program. Anthony P. Rios, vice president of the Los Angeles Community Service Organization, told Johnson that all the 143,562 different braceros in California in 1962 were employed by only 7,694 growers, 8% of the 99,000 farmers in California.

"Most of this 8% used only a few of the total number of braceros, while the largest growers used the great majority of braceros."

Americans Available

"There is not a shred of evidence," Rios said, "that these large operators cannot afford to pay the cost of hiring American workers. And there is incontrovertible evidence that California's under-employed and unemployed seasonal farm workers are available to fill the jobs of braceros."

The Vice President said extension of the bracero law is up to Congress and noted that Sen. Clair Engle (D-Cal.), Reps. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles), George Brown (D-Monterey Park) and Chet Holifield (D-Montebello) were in the room.

Johnson said he and his committee would "come in force" to hear the problems of the Mexican-American community in November.

Latin Leaders in Five States Map Strategy
August 11, 1963

Los Angeles Mexican-American leaders Saturday began contacting Spanish-speaking leaders in the five Southwestern states—where more than 4 million Mexican-Americans live—to plan strategy for a second meeting with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in November.

The plight of agricultural workers and Mexican-Americans' lag in education will be high on the agenda when the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, with Johnson as chairman, meets here in the fall.

Johnson instructed leaders here to "get the facts on the problems facing Americans of Mexican descent."

Oppose Braceros

The 20 leaders, members of the Mexican-American Educational Conference Committee, were hosts at a luncheon and met with the Vice President. They called for ending the bracero program as the first step in "bettering Mexican-American chances."

A resolution from the committee, presented to the Vice President, said Mexican-Americans "throughout the Southwest of the United States, consider the (bracero program) to be the most harmful and repressive government sponsored program that has ever been imposed on the Mexican-American community."

The committee claimed braceros are displacing American agriculture workers (mostly Mexican-Americans) and that "regimented importation of farm workers, from a moral standpoint, [is] inhumane and cruel" and that "economic benefits to both countries would be a legitimate consideration only if it were right to treat labor as a mere commodity."

Accused by Growers

Some California growers immediately took the Mexican-American committee to task for using the "visit of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson as a sounding board for attacks" on the bracero program.

The growers Saturday challenged Mexican-American leaders to "make good on their claim that they could supply needed agricultural workers in California."

"We have received telegraphed confirmation of bona fide job offers for 48,000 workers," said R. H. Daniels of Corona, chairman of the California Farm Labor Committee Domestic Recruiting Program.

"These offers are on file with the State Department of Employment now and many of them have been on file for months," Daniels said.

Lack of Education

As for education, Dr. Francisco Bravo, committee member and Los Angeles police commissioner, reminded the Spanish-speaking population in Los Angeles that:

"The level of education of Mexican-Americans here is the 8th grade (a little better than that in other Southwestern states) as compared to the 12th-grade level for the general population."

"Three out of four Mexican-American children disappear from the school rolls by the time they reach the high school level."

Senators to Hear Woes of Latins
September 10, 1963

A Los Angeles Mexican-American community leader will tell a Senate sub-committee in Washington, D.C., Wednesday that California's Spanish-speaking population is the worst-off minority in the state.

In a prepared statement to the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Manpower, Dionicio Morales, consultant to the Equal Opportunity Foundation, will charge that:

The problems of the more than 1.5 million Mexican-Americans in California have "received little attention from public officials, businessmen and educators."

Mexican-Americans constitute about 10% of the California population (the largest minority in the state), outnumbering Negroes by about 500,000, but little has been done to "promote more effective communication between Anglos and Mexican-Americans," Morales will testify.

Problems Listed

Morales, who recently coordinated a meeting between Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Mexican-American leaders in Los Angeles, will tell

the Senate group the most pressing problems of the Mexican-Americans include:

1—"Figures on the occupational distribution of Southern California demonstrate conclusively that they, like Negroes, are now concentrated in the blue-collar job categories and are underrepresented in the white-collar fields . . . . About 79% of the Mexican-Americans are in the craftsman, operative, laborer and service categories, compared with 51% for all workers surveyed. More importantly, 60.7% are in the lowest three of these categories in contrast with only 24% for all workers."

2—"The Mexican-American averages less than a ninth grade education while Negroes average 10th grade and the population as a whole averages a little more than 12th grade. In metropolitan Los Angeles, 10% of the Mexican-Americans have less than four years education. In other words, while the average Anglo-American has had at least some college experience, the average Mexican-American has had no more than an elementary education."

3—"The median family income for Mexican-Americans in the Los Angeles area is substantially below that of the population as a whole. In 1960, the federal census showed that the Mexican-American median income for 1959 as $4,990, compared with $8,670 for the whole population of the metropolitan area. It should be noted that the latter includes both the Mexican-American and Negro populations, and that a comparison of the Mexican-American and Anglo incomes would necessarily show an even more striking gap."

Relive Sweat Shop

4—"Recent immigrants from Mexico are re-living the cruel sweatshop conditions in various areas of Los Angeles County which immigrants suffered in our country a half-century ago. Strangers in the land, ineligible for relief or unemployment insurance, with hungry families to feed in their native land, they are desperate for any income."

5—"Serious, adverse effects created by Public Law 78 (Braceros) have affected the lives of thousands of Mexican-Americans in California . . . . The Mexican-American leadership in California is concerned about the sociological effects of the bracero law and are opposed to the type of population movement represented by it . . . . Such an infusion of the unassimilable has been an overwhelming burden on Mexican-Americans and has retarded the process of integration so essential for the blending into the total American community pattern."

Immigration Increase

6—"A dramatic increase of immigration to the United States from Mexico has presented immense employment problems and need for special assistance. The problems created by a near 500% increase in Mexican immigration has posed an acute concern for placement of these newcomers. The increase of immigration from 6,841 in 1950 to 32,684 in 1960 plus the fact that some 48,000 are waiting to be processed in Tijuana are creating a heavy and confusing responsibility on the various communities in California."

Morales, who has 20 years experience in the field of California Mexican-American community relations, concludes in his statement to the Senate subcommittee that the Mexican-American "finds himself in a peculiar and uncertain position as the product of two cultures."

Cultural Handicaps

"Because our society and our educational system often fail to give proper recognition to the values of the culture, the bilingualism and dual cultural background which ought to be advantageous are turned into handicaps," Morales will testify.

"In most schools, the educational program is now directed toward the Anglo students, mainly middle-class, who have no special problems of language or culture. The Mexican-American youngster and parents feel uncomfortable, perhaps even unwelcome, in a school setting designed entirely for a different group of Americans."

"Language difficulties often prevent this youngster from demonstrating his native abilities on tests which require verbal facility in the English language. Teachers, counselors and administrators often tend to categorize the Mexican-American as, at best, a 'vocational pupil,' unfitted for academic training."

"A bold program, therefore, is essential to eliminate discrimination, improve vocational counseling and training, promote more effective communication between Anglo and Mexican-American citizens and expand the educational horizons of Mexican-American youngsters."

The Senate group to which Morales will make his presentation is part of the Senate's Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Leading members include Sens. Jacob Javits (D-N.Y.), Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.), Wayne Morse (D-Ore.), Ralph Yarborough (D-Tex.), and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Vice President Johnson told a meeting of Mexican-American leaders in Los Angeles in August that the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity, which Johnson heads, will open hearings here in November to discuss problems of minorities in Southern California.

Problems of Latins Seen Thing Apart New Policy for U.S. Spanish-speaking Students Urged
September 16, 1963

A Mexican-American ad hoc education committee said Sunday "assimilation" is not the answer to problems of Spanish-speaking students and urged the Board of Education to consider Mexican-American problems apart from those of Negroes.

The Mexican-American committee statement was issued in response to the school board's ad hoc committee report on equal education opportunity which was made last Thursday.

The Mexican-American group declared that in some ways the school board's findings were constructive but charged that Mexican-American educational problems "were mentioned only in an incidental or secondary matter."

"We recognize that an educational philosophy based primarily on the principal of assimilation has proven historically inadequate," the Mexican-American committee said.

Want Policy Stated

"Accordingly, in order that schools may meet the needs of the Mexican-American community, we hold that school boards should establish a strong positive statement of policy and philosophy towards the acculturation of the Mexican-American child."

Unlike assimilation, acculturation is "basically the acceptance of the plurality of culture as a functional principle," the Mexican-American committee said. "This entails the implementation of both cultures (Mexican and Anglo) to the greatest advantage possible in creating a personality who will find dignity in both."

The Spanish-speaking committee said it "regrets very much" that no Mexican-American testimony was heard during the year-long public hearings by the school board's ad hoc committee on equal educational opportunity.

Requests Listed

The school board's committee report pointed out that "late in August, spokesmen for the Mexican-American community (largest minority in the Southland) presented to the board a list of 15 requests."

"These requests," the report continued, "were received too late for thorough study by the committee or for recommendation . . . ."

The Mexican-American committee Sunday agreed on this point and said the lack of Mexican-American presentations to the school board's committee is a just "indictment of the Mexican-American community."

"It is not as well organized or as vocal as other minority groups in Los Angeles," the Mexican-American committee said. "However, we propose to have speakers at the three hearing dates before the school board makes its final decision Sept. 26 on the recommendations made by the board's ad hoc committee on education."

Stresses Curriculum

Ralph Poblano, an educator and member of the Mexican-American ad hoc committee, said Sunday that school boards must be made to realize that the problems of Mexican-American students do not necessarily stem from de facto segregation or inadequate school boundaries but from curriculum.

"A curriculum should take into consideration the needs of the Mexican-American in accordance with his cultural heritage," Poblano said. "English and Spanish should complement one another as foreign languages throughout the elementary level utilizing the child's vernacular as an asset and not labeling it as a handicap."

Marcos de Leon, head of Van Nuys High School's foreign language department and chairman of the Mexican-American committee, said Sunday "assimilation" and "end of de facto segregation," as commonly defined, are not the crying needs of the Mexican-American community.

"What is needed is a new educational philosophy for the Mexican-American," he said. "Whatever progress in education and community consciousness has been achieved by Mexican-Americans can be attributed to:

"1.—Becoming realistically aware of their non-acceptance by American society."

"2.—Finding personal dignity and worth in their ethnical and cultural background."

"3.—Sacrificing immediate ethnic integration and assimilation by excelling in education and the professions, thereby making a greater contribution to American democracy."

De Leon charged that the process of acculturation has been left "unguided and without direction."

Attacks Melting Pot

"The idea that the United States is the 'melting pot' of the world does not necessarily hold true," he said. "The frustration and insecurity brought on by a 'melting process,' carried on at random and conditioned by cultural conflicts, are too great to permit this 'catch as catch can' philosophy to reign over and control the life of the Mexican-American any longer."

"The school cannot continue to function as an isolated unit, or continue to carry on practices based on tradition for the bicultural community, under the present 'all or none' concept as an educational philosophy."

In order that the process of acculturation be carried out, the Mexican-American committee asks the school board to, among other things:

1.—Provide the teaching of Spanish at all levels, including elementary grades.

2.—Introduce in lower levels of instruction Mexican, Spanish and Latin American Literature.

3.—Provide an intensive English oral language enrichment program preferably in the pre-kindergarten years and continued in the elementary grades.

4.—Develop continuing and flexible programs of testing and guidance which will permit the discovery as early as possible of the potential of each child and the identification and development of academically able students, motivating and guiding them toward definite educational goals, and thus preventing them from becoming misplaced within the schools as to ability and interest and thereby becoming dropouts.

5.—Expand and modernize the vocational programs of the comprehensive high schools so as to give a student adequate adaptability to a technologically changing community.

6.—Recruit, hire and place bilingual teachers, counselors and administrators who have an understanding of the Mexican-American child and his community.

Besides de Leon and Poblano, committee members include Hilario S.

Pena, supervisor of foreign language department, Los Angeles City Schools; Antonio Sanchez of the County Human Relations Commission; Arnold Martinez, field representative for Supervisor Ernest E. Debs; William C. Lopez, union representative; and Mrs. Geraldine Ledesma, housewife.

Farm Labor Setup Faces Vast Change
October 20, 1963

FRESNO—California growers are "in a state of shock," according to Don Larin, executive secretary of the state's Agricultural Labor Commission.

They're shaken because though farming last year brought the Golden State $3,340,747,000 in cash receipts, it came with bundles of labor problems.

Whether Congress will extend the bracero program or not, a new era of agricultural labor seems to be approaching and with it the "shock" that comes with change.

"When the bracero program ends, as it must, there will be a sizeable decrease in farm acreage and a radical change in the labor picture," says Larin.

System at Stake

But more than the bracero program is at stake.

A farm labor system which has served California growers for more than 90 years is being aggressively challenged daily by organized labor, politicians, clergymen and idealists who say the American dream must reach the agricultural worker.

Experts generally agree that California's dependence on foreign and migrant farm labor should be replaced with a modern system.

But with what? ask exasperated growers who say that among their many problems is the "cost-price squeeze" in agriculture.

Mechanization won't soon affect the growing labor needs in California's crop-specialization farming, growers contend, and American domestic workers will not do "stoop" labor as braceros will.

Basic Problems

Not so, say anti-bracero forces, adding that there are many domestic agricultural workers who would gladly do it "if conditions were right."

The structure of California agriculture, which is basic to farm labor problems, dates back to 1870, and is made up of crop specialization, large-scale land ownerships, foreign laborers and seasonal migration—a structure radically different from the "family farm" system in most other states.

If one substitutes the word "Mexican" for the word "Chinese" in the following, it will illustrate how the California farm  labor structure has not changed.

In May, 1918, Charles E. Warren, a fruit grower, told the San Francisco Commonwealth Club:

"We all know we (growers) need labor . . . . There is only one thing that will furnish the labor for the state of California . . . . What we need is 40,000 to 50,000 good young Chinamen . . . ."

Noted a state Senate Fact-Finding Committee in a massive report published in 1961 and 1963:

"Although the nationality of the 'solution' varied, the 'solution' itself remained constant. The 'solution' was to obtain new  labor supplies which fitted the agricultural structures, rather than fitting the structure to the supplies."

After the Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act of 1882, California farmers did not have to face up to the end of the "solution" because the Japanese played a similar role.^[*]

The "Gentlemen's Agreement" of 1908, according to the State Senate committee, "shut off the supply of Japanese." ^[**] Laborers of European origin, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Russians, German Russians and Armenians, served as farm laborers in California after that. These soon found better jobs or acquired farms of their own.

In World War I, thousands of Mexicans were imported for the war emergency. After the war unrestricted Mexican immigration furnished the needed agricultural workers.

* Promoted by nativists in California who called attention to a "yellow peril," the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 singled out Chinese on a racial basis and excluded further Chinese immigration to the United States. The law was finally repealed during World War II when China became an ally of the United States against Japan.

** After the Chinese were excluded in 1882, their place as immigrant workers, particularly in California agriculture, was taken by Japanese immigrants. However, in time the increase in Japanese immigrants led to the renewed allegation of a "yellow peril." Nativists once again promoted exclusion laws. The 1908 Gentlemen's Agreement between the United States and Japan accomplished this goal by restricting, although not fully excluding, the entry of Japanese laborers into the United States.

Braceros Declining

The "solution" of encouraging foreign immigrants to do farm work, this time Mexicans, continued.

The Mexican population of California, for instance, increased from 121,000 in 1920 to 368,000 in 1930, according to U.S. Immigration Commission reports.

A great depression starting in 1929 furnished California with a new farm supply, the "Okies" and "Arkies." But as World War II approached, agricultural workers entered the service or got better jobs.

In 1943, Congress passed the bracero bill, Public Law 45. This was superseded by PL 229 in 1944, PL 893 in 1948 and PL 78 in 1951 which will expire Dec. 31 unless extended.

Under the present law, the number of braceros in the United States grew from 52,000 in 1943 to 433,000 in 1958 and reached a peak in 1957 with 467,000. Since then the number of braceros imported has been declining. In California, for instance, 143,562 braceros entered the state in 1962.

"Wetbacks," Mexicans who entered the country illegally to do farm work, also accounted, according to some sources, for as many as 1,000,000 farmhands in the Southwest from 1942 to 1954.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service deported 84,000 wetbacks from California in 1954.

Whether the bracero program ends Dec. 31, most California farmers are bracing themselves for the apparently inevitable end of the 90-plus year "solution" to farm labor problems—that is, dependence on foreign labor or migrant labor or both.

In coming years it may be noted that a revolution involving Mexican-American agricultural workers started in Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's suite at the Statler Hilton here on Aug. 9, 1963.

An intense group of Mexican-American leaders had this message for the Vice President:

"The bracero program must end because it's taking jobs away from our people."

Johnson looked around the room at Sen. Clair Engle and Reps. Edward Roybal, George Brown and Chet Holifield and answered:

"Tell your congressmen of your wish. It's up to them."

Whether the request in that message was justified and whether it will be carried out remain to be seen.

For one thing, also at the Statler Hilton that day were representatives

of California growers who held a press conference to debunk the antibracero message.

Old Arguments

R. H. Daniels, chairman of the California Growers Farm Labor Committee, told newsmen that the bracero program was needed because there were not enough domestic farmhands to do the work.

Then he hung out a verbal help-wanted sign for 48,000 domestic workers and challenged the anti-bracero Mexican-American leaders to make good their claim that they could supply the needed work force.

J. J. Rodriguez, one of the Mexican-American leaders present when the anti-bracero message was delivered to the Vice President, immediately answered the challenge with:

"We could easily supply the 48,000 agricultural workers—but only if growers are willing to pay American wages and offer American conditions, not bracero's."

The arguments on both sides were not new.

What was new was that the anti-bracero message came from 49 out of 50 Mexican-American leaders—a highly individualistic and faction-ridden breed.

For the first time a large number of Mexican-American leaders had agreed on an issue important to Mexican-Americans in general but not necessarily to the city-bred leaders themselves.

Why did they pick on the bracero issue?

One reason is that they were influenced by unionists who want to organize the domestic agricultural workers (mostly Mexican-American) and use the foreign bracero program as a natural whipping boy.

Another reason is that southwestern Mexican-Americans have new aggressive leadership in Reps. Edward Roybal of Los Angeles and Henry Gonzalez of Texas who are committed to help better the "plight" of the Spanish-speaking people.

But probably the biggest reason for the interest in the agricultural workers by the cities' Mexican-American leaders is that the Negro revolt of 1963 has given impetus to a Mexican-American revolution which is far less spectacular but perhaps as important.

Like the Negroes in the South, Mexican-Americans in the Southwest (especially California and Texas) comprise most of the domestic agricultural workers. It is their one common issue throughout the Southwestern states.

For Domestic Farm Hands 'Shape-Up' Is at 4 a.m.
October 21, 1963

STOCKTON—It's 4 a.m. and 5,000 men as cheerless as the pre-dawn are milling about the farm labor office in Skid Row.

At least 100 drab busses parked and double-parked choke the narrow streets.

Late comers are still spilling out of the nearby flop houses in the incongruously named S. El Dorado St.

It's "shape up" time for domestic agricultural workers. None are braceros.

Some are family men. Some are Mexican immigrants. Some southern white and Negro migrants. Some Filipinos. Some white Texans and Oklahomans. A few are winos.

Most want to work. Their jobs require stooping, digging, cutting, pulling, walking, climbing, reaching, lifting and carrying. They do all this at one time or another in an environment of dust, heat, cold, rain and mud.

Their work is often made more arduous because of scratches, blisters, cuts and insect bites.

It's 4:30 a.m. now and labor contractors are motioning the men they have picked to start boarding the busses which will take them to work.

All is confusion. Men try to board busses as other busses try to drive out. Pickets carry signs saying the "shape-up" system is lousy.

"It's like a mechanized slave market," says a bitter labor organizer.

The busses finally roll. Several hundred men still mill about the Farm Labor Office or hang around the dilapidated coffee shops or in front of the as yet unopened saloons. Some say they couldn't get work that day. Some sit in a vacant lot sipping wine.

"Do you know that there's a hard core of about 200 bums who come every morning, not to look for work but to mooch from the field hands for a bottle of wine?" asks the organizer.

'Unpleasant' System

Farm Labor Office people will tell you that the "shape-up" system can be unpleasant, but that things used to be worse.

Willis Osterlie, manager of the Stockton Day-Haul Farm Labor office, says that a Department of Labor policy of screening and registering day-haul workers started in 1961 appears to be resulting in more stable

practices in the day-haul market. For example, there is less milling about in the streets.

The busses that leave the "shape-up" area may pass federally regulated bracero camps where the Mexican nationals are in their barracks getting up to go to the fields, too.

Domestics (permanent residents in the Stockton area, migrants and immigrants) and braceros (Mexican nationals contracted for agricultural work) have much in common. For one thing, they help harvest the specialized crops in the lush San Joaquin Valley.

Many domestics, though, will tell you that braceros are displacing domestics and dragging down wages in general.

Some persons, like Rep. Henry Gonzalez of Texas, claim that braceros, through no fault of their own, have been "used to bring the misery of a people in one country to further depress the misery of a people in another country."

Contrast Startling

Norman Smith, official of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee AFL-CIO, tries to prove this by pointing out the immaculate stables for transient horses at the Fresno County Fair and then takes you a few blocks away to show where the transient field workers live.

The contrast is startling. But the problem of housing for domestic farm workers is complicated.

For instance, in Weedpatch, south of Bakersfield, a domestic farm worker's family of nine lives in two 12 X 16-ft. wooden cabins with cement floors and two beds.

Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Humada and their seven children have lived in these two shacks for three years. They pay the Housing Authority of Kern County $33 a month for the cabins. All toilet and washing facilities are outside.

"But our biggest problem is that the two big boys have to sleep in the bed in the kitchen cabin and the rest of us [five] have to sleep in the other bed," says Mrs. Humada.

Humada makes about $64 every six days when there's work in the fields, does odd jobs when there are no crops to pick and goes on county relief the rest of the time.

"Some day we hope to live in a house in the city of Weedpatch," says Mrs. Humada. "But rents are too high and our work too uncertain."

Represents Best Housing

The Rev. Russell Paulson of the Lamont Lutheran Church, who visits the Humadas occasionally, says the camp where the family lives "probably represents some of the best housing for permanent domestic farm workers in the state."

"At least there's plenty of space for the children to play in and as you can see the camp is relatively clean," says Mr. Paulson.

In Firebaugh, The Times team found far worse conditions. The housing furnished by the grower consisted of one-room shacks for large families. They rent for $35 a month. The rent is deducted from the agricultural worker's paycheck.

The children, unlike those in Weedpatch, must play near a highway and debris is found throughout the housing area.

Condemned Shack

In Tracy, a permanent domestic farm worker's family of six live in a condemned shack.

"We didn't have enough work in the fields this year," says the mother, "so I don't think the growers, or unions or anyone else will ever change things for us."

In a report to Gov. Brown by the California Department of Public Health, it was noted that in Fresno County agricultural areas "the prominence of chronic diseases was striking" among farm families.

"One half of the families had no family physician," the report said. "Eighty-seven per cent had no health insurance of any kind."

The report also noted that:

Fewer than half of the agricultural families interviewed had a water tap in their homes. Seven families had to haul water and the rest used community taps located outside the dwellings.

About two-thirds of the families had no private flush toilets; less than one-third had community flush toilets. About one-fourth of the families interviewed had private privies and six families used community ones.

One-fourth of the families interviewed had no means of refrigerating their food.

More than half of the families had two or three persons to a room and 22 families had four or more persons per room.

Since the report was made, Gov. Brown has signed Senate Bill 282,

which provides limited funds for expanding health services to domestic seasonal farm workers and their families.

A report released this year by a State Senate fact-finding committee, says, however:

"For the last 50 years, roughly, the health and medical care needs of California's seasonal farm workers has been studied and restudied. Recommendations on top of recommendations have been issued. Yet with only four recent exceptions, little has been done to effect long-range and permanent solutions."

Braceros Guaranteed More Than Domestics
October 22, 1963

FIREBAUGH—Stooping braceros picked pear tomatoes nearby as a $125-a-week "pusher" talked about a system which makes him a comfortable living but leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

"Of course there aren't enough domestic workers to pick tomatoes," he said. "There's not enough idiots around, even in the sticks."

Farm work has become so disreputable in our affluent society, he complained, that "I'm known as a 'pusher' now instead of a foreman as in the past."

Why is farm work looked down upon?

"You see those braceros? The rate for picking those pear tomatoes is 25 cents a box. This crop isn't too good, so they're not picking more than 2-1/2 or 3 boxes an hour."

Hate-filled Battle

"Say they work the usual 10 hours a day at this rate. They'd be making $32.50 to $37.50 a five-day week. But because these men are braceros they're assured at least $1 an hour under international agreement."

"So they'll make at least $50 a five-day week."

"Not the domestic, though. He's not protected by a minimum-wage law and must pick this crop at 60 to 75 cents an hour. A domestic would make $32.50 to $37.50 a five-day week on this crop—not $50 like the bracero."

"You see why the domestic will not pick these tomatoes?"

Around such arguments—and figures, of course, vary from field to field—revolves a bitter, hate-filled battle between big growers and labor unions.

But the fact remains that, unlike the bracero, domestic agricultural workers are not protected by a contract minimum. The wage-and-hour provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act do not cover agriculture.

The Council of California Growers points out, however, that wages of California agricultural workers are the highest in the nation and insists that braceros are not driving down domestic farm wages.

J. J. Miller, manager of the Agricultural Producers Labor Committee, a grower organization, says that if the agricultural workers' wages are low—and he'll debate that—it is because "the agricultural economy is not in a healthy or prosperous condition."

Farm Income Down

Testifying before the California Agricultural Labor Commission, Miller said:

"During the 10-year period between 1947 and 1957, farm wages rose 32%, which is approximately one-half the increase in industrial wages. But during this same period of time manufacturing income and profits rose more than 32% while farm income was decreasing, and the prices the farmer had to pay for all the goods and services he had to buy were increasing."

The farmer and his laborers, Miller continued, "are in the same economic boat. They are both victims of the depressed state of agriculture, but of the two, the laborer has fared better the past 10 years than the farmer. In that time farm wages have increased substantially while farm income has declined."

"The problem of employer-employee relations in agriculture is the problem of the farmer and of agriculture generally."

Problem Still Unsolved

"To try to raise the level of farm wages by organization, unionization, collective bargaining, political or economic pressure, does not solve the basic problem involved, but only aggravates it, and adds to the miseries and inequities already oppressing the American farmer."

Besides, says Miller, a "large segment of (agricultural) workers" believe "they are better off in farm work than in being herded like cattle and sheep into union corrals."

Speaking to domestic agricultural workers from Weedpatch to Stockton, a Times reporter-photographer team didn't find any noticeable enthusiasm for unionization.

Cesar Chavez, general director of the National Farm Workers Union, says labor organizers are "aware of this apathy."

"But let's face it: Most agricultural workers are in the lowest educational level and don't even understand what unionization means," he said. "Many are Mexican immigrants who think joining a union could get them in trouble."

"We're now in the process of educating agricultural workers in the importance of organizing."

A member of the Emergency Committee to Aid Farm Workers added, "It cannot be denied that domestic agricultural workers have no protection at all."

"The bracero at least has a contract backed by international law," the member said, "but the domestic worker has nothing."

Deserves Protection

"Surely the domestic worker deserves some kind of protection so he can have guaranteed work for a specified period at a guaranteed minimum wage, plus transportation and housing—things which the bracero has now."

Al Green, director of the AFL-CIO Agricultural Workers Organization Committee, says that if there is a shortage of domestic farm workers it's because braceros are treated better than domestics.

But he denies that the "labor shortage" is anywhere near as acute as "the farm lobby and the Department of Employment contend it is."

"There's no job that Americans won't do if they get paid for it," Green said. "The argument that braceros must be brought into the country because domestics won't do the work is ridiculous."

"How many braceros do you find working as floor layers, cement masons, roofers? What is worse than working as a roofer, with that hot tar stinking in your face all day, or cleaning out the sewers? But you find Americans doing this work because they get paid well."

Growers Hit 'Meddling' With Bracero Program
October 23, 1963

TRACY—"All the do-gooders love the bracero, but they want to take away his livelihood."

Speaking was a grower who feels that "meddlers," especially clergymen and "ignorant city slickers," are trying to kill the bracero program out of hypocritical sentimentality.

The end of the bracero program, many growers contend, will bring more social problems than it will solve.

This is debatable but growers, domestic farmhands and union organizers seem to agree that the bracero "is a good guy" caught in a bad situation.

All along the San Joaquin you hear domestic agricultural workers complain about the bracero system, but immediately temper this with "of course, I have nothing against the bracero himself."

Therein lies a touchy human problem which agricultural workers, mostly Mexican-Americans, hate to face.

"I suppose it's wrong in a way to want the bracero program to end," said Juan Contreras, an unemployed farmhand. "It means the end of jobs they probably need very much."

"But they sure have loused up the valley so a guy can't make a living. Or did they do it? I really don't know."

Racial Brothers

Because Mexican-Americans and braceros are racial brothers, the former are sensitive about opposing the bracero program.

"After all," Contreras said. "many of us and our parents came from Mexico not too long ago."

But that's not the point, according to the Committee to Aid the Farm Worker, which sees it more from the economic and social point than from the emotional.

Suppose, said the committee whose membership includes John Steinbeck and Carl Sandburg, that Congress had enacted a law drafted by consumers for the purpose of "stabilizing food prices." Suppose it provided that whenever U.S. farmers failed to furnish American consumers with fruit and vegetables, at the "prevailing price," the Secretary of Agriculture was authorized to import fruit and vegetables from foreign countries and sell them directly to housewives' associations.

The "prevailing price," continues the committee, would mean whatever the housewives' associations were accustomed to and willing to pay.

Under those circumstances the price of food would be "stabilized," the committee said. It might even decline. Housewives could always find reasons why they could not afford to pay more. The Secretary of Agriculture could always find cheap produce overseas, the committee contends.

"The price of everything else might go up steadily, but the price of food would not," the committee said. "American farmers might com-

plain that this was bitterly unfair, large numbers of them might have to leave their farms and go on welfare in the cities, but the Secretary of Agriculture would point to the law and say 'that's the law.'"

"A bad dream?" asks the committee. "A nightmare?" Of course. It could never happen . . . . In 1951, however, strange to relate, the U.S. Congress did enact such a law—except that workers rather than vegetables were the commodity involved, growers rather than housewives were the consumers, and the Secretary of Labor rather than the Secretary of Agriculture, the purveyor.

"Public Law 78 (bracero law) says in effect, 'we shall artificially add to the supply of farm labor without influencing the price of farm labor.'"

If Congress wants to extend the bracero law it should then try "to demonstrate how the law of supply and demand can be successfully repealed. The burden should be upon the Department of Labor to prove how the hundreds of thousands of braceros it certifies can possibly have anything but an adverse effect on the hundreds of thousands of Americans denied those jobs."

Also, other opponents of the bracero law say, the bracero is not only "dragging down" Mexican-Americans but in many cases the bracero himself is "being dragged down too."

"I was a federal compliance officer for the bracero law last year," says Mariano Arevalo.

"I got sick of it. Though I was supposed to see that braceros were protected under the law, pressure was always applied by growers and I was often instructed to take it easy."

"After all, the bracero could not hurt me and the grower might." At a recent Community Service Organization debate here, a program proponent challenged an opponent to show "how the bracero is dragging down the Mexican-American."

The answer was a quote from Congressman Henry Gonzalez of Texas who says that the "language problem is always blamed for Mexican-Americans' lag educationally, economically, and socially."

Yet, Gonzalez argues, these same people don't see any "inconsistency in importing thousands of unassimilable braceros most of whom are illiterate."

According to Samuel H. Cavanaugh, a retired Tracy farmer, the bracero has helped stop the "undesirable" from coming to California.

"From the human side, too, let's remember that you don't see as many labor shanties, barefoot and hungry children as you did when I was farming."

Tent Cities Gone

"You also don't see those dusty tent cities that were so common in the San Joaquin Valley in the 30's. If the bracero program ends you'll see a lot of 'undesirables' coming from Texas, Oklahoma and the Deep South."

"And you know what? They'll be on relief—at the taxpayers' expense—in no time."

Not so, says the Committee to Aid Farm Workers, which claims that "an increase of many thousands of local domestic field workers boosted the California farm labor force during the past year."

"Statistics based on a count of Social Security accounts as reported by employers show that an average of 35,000 more American farm workers had worked in agriculture between October 1, 1962, and March 31, 1963, than during the period October 1, 1961, and March 31, 1962."

This proves, says the committee, that a domestic labor force is available if recruited. But it never will be if the bracero is there to compete with.

Johnson Speaks Here for Fair Employment
November 15, 1963

Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson told an Equal Employment Opportunities conference here Thursday that the answer to job discrimination is not to "promote" minority groups, but to make everyone a member of a huge majority group.

"What we really seek," Johnson told 1,000 delegates at the Ambassador," . . . and I believe what really lies in all our hearts—is a system where all of us from the standpoint of opportunity are in the majority, and there is no doubt in my mind that when artificial barriers are removed, we will find that all of us are in the majority after all."

Sincerity Challenged

The sincerity of the Vice President's words was challenged by one delegate, Dr. George Sanchez, a University of Texas professor, who charged that Johnson had "managed the conference."

"He (Johnson) gave the minorities a pat on the back," Sanchez said, adding that he questions the Vice President's sincerity in dealing with minority problems.

Johnson, who heads the President's committee on equal employment, said he was here to study the problems of Mexican-Americans, Negroes and Orientals in the southwestern states.

He was joined at the conference by Gov. [Edmund G. "Pat"] Brown and Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Anthony L. Celebrezze.

Mending Fences

Johnson didn't say, but it was clear, that he also was here to mend fences with Mexican-American leaders who have expressed discontent with the administration's handling of their problems.

The discontent was made apparent when Ramon Castro, spokesman for a group of Mexican-American leaders meeting at the Ambassador's Oval Room Thursday evening, said that Mexican-Americans had been "taken" at the conference.

Castro said he felt the problems of the Mexican-Americans in the five southwestern states had been articulated by "experts"—who happened to be Negroes and members of the Jewish community.

Castro made it clear he did not question the "experts'" ability to discuss Mexican-American problems but did "resent the fact that Mexican-Americans were not invited to articulate their own problems."

Celebrezze came under fire from spokesmen of the Mexican-American group when Martin Ortiz, of the City Welfare Planning Council, and Philip Montez, of the El Rancho School District, charged that the secretary was "ill-prepared to listen to Mexican-American problems."

Montez said Celebrezze assumed the problems of the Mexican-Americans revolved around integration, when in fact, they do not.

"Mexican-Americans," Montez said, "must retain their cultural background because they are indigenous to the country."

60 Leaders Attend

The leaders' meeting at the Ambassador was attended by more than 60 Mexican-American leaders from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, including as local representatives Arthur Rendon, City Health Commission president, and Richard Tafoya, recent City Council candidate.

The group agreed to meet in Phoenix next Feb. I to discuss plans for the formation of a permanent Southwestern Mexican-American organization to express their views.

At the opportunities conference, charges of discrimination in the local

Small Business Administration office were leveled by Henri O'Bryant, Negro president of the City Board of Fire Commissioners.

Loan Trouble Told

"It is easier for a Negro student to matriculate at a white college in Alabama than it is for a Negro businessman to negotiate a loan from the Small Business Administration in the City of Los Angeles," O'Bryant said.

Charging that both the SBA and local banks had made it difficult for him to negotiate a loan for the operation of his choir robe manufacturing business, O'Bryant said to him "it is quite clear that the Negro businessman cannot look to white lending institutions for the development of his business."

The regional conference on equal opportunities was keynoted by Celebrezze who said:

"Our goal is a society in which all men are free—free from poverty and deprivation, free from disease and ignorance, free from injustice and discrimination."

At a luncheon meeting following a series of panel discussions, Gov. Brown called on Congress to "lay aside its sectional prejudices" and approve President Kennedy's civil rights bill.

Papacitos Era Seen on Way Out
June 13, 1964

FRESNO—The 745,000 Mexican-American registered voters in California are ridding themselves of their political "papacitos" (bosses) and giving the Democratic Party notice that it can no longer consider Spanish-speaking people in its pocket.

So claimed Dr. Manuel H. Guerra, keynote speaker Friday at the Mexican-American Political Assn. state convention here.

Dr. Guerra, a USC assistant professor of Spanish, said Mexican-Americans are no longer "seduced by benevolent 'papacitos' demagogues and pseudo liberal apostles of the welfare state bossism and emotional appeals at the expense of reason, logic and facts."

'Promises Not Kept'

He said that Mexican-Americans are disillusioned in the state with federal Democratic administrations "which have not kept their promises to Spanish-speaking voters."

Dr. Guerra said MAPA, with 24 chapters from San Diego to San Francisco, is becoming "militantly bipartisan."

"We have discovered that conservative candidates tend to keep their promises more than so-called liberals," Dr. Guerra said. Our people are beginning to look toward the Republican Party as a possible ally."

Dr. Guerra said 18 Spanish language radio stations throughout the state and Los Angeles Spanish language television station KMEX have pledged themselves to informing the listeners of the benefits of bipartisanship in the November elections.

Latin-Negro Unity Move Launched
July 5, 1964

Negro and Mexican-American politicos have launched a shaky trial marriage.

After numerous meetings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Fresno and Pico Rivera, the "activists" in both groups are ready to test each other.

"You help us defeat the initiative to repeal the Rumford Housing Act," the Negroes ask of the Mexican-Americans.^[*]

"Yes," they answer, "if you help us elect a Mexican-American to the State Assembly from Imperial County."

What comes from  these challenges to cooperate may determine whether Mexican-Americans and Negroes can develop what optimists on both sides call the "balance of power" in many elections.

Vow Cooperation

The Mexican-American Political Assn. at its state convention in Fresno on June 14 sent out the first trial balloons by passing resolutions condemning the anti-Rumford Housing Act initiative and pledging "cooperation with Negroes in areas of common concern."

Negro Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Los Angeles) followed this up with a pledge at a Los Angeles "coalition" meeting June 25 that he and other Negro legislators would "personally campaign" for Mexican-American Cruz Reynoso in his bid for Imperial County's 75th Assembly District seat, now held by Republican Victor Veysey.

* The Rumford Housing Act was a fair housing law prohibiting racial discrimination adopted by the California State Legislature in early 1961. Efforts to repeal the law were unsuccessful.

Mexican-American politicians are particularly interested in Imperial County because of its high proportion of Spanish-surnamed residents—33.1%.

24% Farm Laborers

Also, points out Carlos Borja, president of the Council for Mexican-American Affairs, "24% of all Mexican-American males are employed as farm laborers, in contrast to 5% of all California males."

Presiding at the coalition meeting with Dymally were Assemblyman Phil Soto (D-La Puente) and Eduardo Quevedo, state chairman of the Mexican-American Political Assn.

Soto reminded the "coalition" gathering that after the recent defeat of Assemblyman John Moreno (D-Santa Fe Springs), he was the only Mexican-American left in the State Assembly.

Dymally and Los Angeles Councilman Billy Mills offered Reynoso help on the spot.

Dymally, Mills and two other Negro politicians, Assemblyman F. Douglas Ferrell (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles Councilman Albert Lindsay head what they call the Democratic Community Organization.

This organization, Dymally said, turned the primary tide for Democratic U.S. Senatorial nominee Pierre Salinger against State Controller Alan Cranston in the Negro community.

Councilman Mills, who called the Negro and Mexican-American "coalition" gathering June 25 "probably the most important meeting I've ever attended," almost saw the "coalition" disintegrate before it began.

For followers of Dymally and Mills were in a bragging mood and reminded the "coalition" meeting that they helped beat Cranston in the June 2 primary.

This infuriated the Mexican-American politicos who had supported Cranston. They later charged that the "coalition" meeting was a move by Dymally and Mills to "brainwash" Mexican-Americans into the camp of Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, who supported Salinger, at the expense of Gov. Brown, who supported Cranston.

Coalition Opposed

The Salinger supporters also piqued the followers of Negro Congressman Augustus Hawkins (D-Los Angeles), a Cranston supporter, who plans to form a Negro political organization of his own and is also wooing Mexican-American support.

After the "coalition" meeting, Mexican-American supporters of Cranston and Brown got to work and were instrumental in passing a resolution at the state convention of the GI Forum in Pico Rivera on June 27 which put that Mexican-American veterans' organization on record against a formal Mexican-American and Negro coalition at this time.

This was a blow to Dymally, who together with Unruh was a guest at the GI Forum convention banquet.

Thanks to Quevedo's and Dymally's groups, however, the political trial marriage between Mexican-Americans and Negroes is still on.

But it is shaky on still another point.

Many Negroes say Mexican-Americans have been "conspicuous by their absence" in the fight for civil rights.

On the other hand, many Mexican-Americans say that they have had a long, painful and lonely battle for acceptance and that a coalition with Negroes now would set them back.

It's when they think of themselves as Americans, instead of as Negroes or Mexican-Americans, that both sides visualize the political marriage as a step toward joining the mainstream of the American political family.

And it's when they function as practical politicians, instead of as faction ridden cliques, that both sides see the coalition as a potentially great political muscle.

Reynoso, who beat Brawley Mayor Nick Pricola for the Democratic nomination for assemblyman, reminded the "coalition" meeting that the Negro and Mexican-American vote in Imperial County could be the difference between victory and defeat in November.

The trial marriage, then, could become lasting if Mexican-Americans fight hard to help Negroes defeat the anti-Rumford Housing Act initiative.

And the marriage could produce a political offspring if Dymally, Ferrell, Mills, Lindsay and their Democratic Community Organization really help Reynoso financially and in a registration drive.

Mexican-American Lag in Schooling Income
July 20, 1964

Mexican-Americans—more numerous in California than Negroes but less analyzed—lag seriously behind the majority of Californians in schooling, jobs and income, a state report revealed Sunday. The study, published by the state Fair Employment Practice Commis-

sion, points out that "although attention has been centered on the severe social and economic problem of Negroes," Californians of Spanish surnames are "not participating really in the mainstream of California's economy."

The report is the first of its kind to be made by a state agency on Mexican-American population.

Hard-Core Unemployed

"Displaced more and more from the farming and laboring occupations that were their mainstay in the past, they (Mexican-Americans) are among the hard-core unemployed in some areas," the report says.

"Their young people are often discouraged or alienated from preparation for skills—thus the circle of poverty is closed."

The report, based on the 1960 census, reveals that Californians of Spanish surnames—mostly Mexican-Americans, but also including some Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Central and South Americans—represented 9.1% of the state's population in 1960, compared to 7.2% in 1950. Negroes formed 5.6% of California's population in 1960.

According to the FEPC, California's Spanish-speaking population grew much more rapidly between 1950 and 1960—by 88.1%—than did the state's total population, which grew by 48.5%.

Lack of Opportunity

Commenting on the economic status of the Mexican-Americans as reflected in the report, Mrs. Carmen H. Warschaw, FEPC chairman, said a higher-than-average unemployment rate and lower-than-average median income indicates Mexican-Americans are confronted by lack of opportunity.

"Sometimes the reason is discrimination," Mrs. Warschaw said. "Sometimes it is the absence of a marketable skill. In either case there is a problem, and the Mexican-American needs help to reach the point where he can share equally in the opportunities and rewards of our society."

The 54-page study, "Californians of Spanish Surname," shows that the median income in 1959 for Mexican-American men was $3,649 compared to $5,100 for the total white population.

Almost one-fifth of Mexican-American families had incomes under $3,000 in 1959, the report said.

In Los Angeles County, where 44% of the total California MexicanAmerican population lives, the median family income in 1959 for

Spanish-speaking people was $5,759 as compared to $7,046 for the total population, the FEPC said.

"Social and economic discrimination against newcomers from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, and against their children and grandchildren—especially if their skin is dark—continues to affect the status of this large minority in California," the report said.

"Despite that fact that Spanish and Mexican people pioneered this area and made important contributions to its history, hundreds of thousands of Mexican-Americans are relegated, like non-whites, to inferior jobs and poverty-stricken neighborhoods."

Housing Issue Ignored by Mexican-Americans
August 30, 1964

A large percentage of Mexican-Americans here have no knowledge of the issues in the controversy over discrimination in housing, a survey made by a UCLA group has revealed.

A total of 101 Mexican-Americans were polled in the "working-class" East Los Angeles area, which has 75-90% Mexican-American population, and in the "middle and upper-middle class" area of Monterey Park, which has 15-20%.

The largest racial minority in Los Angeles and in the state, the Mexican-Americans were questioned on their attitude toward Proposition 14.

Made by UCLA

The proposition on the November ballot would nullify the Rumford Housing Act and would prohibit city, county and state governments from enacting further laws on discrimination in housing.

The survey, made by a UCLA student team headed by Jesus Chavarria, a UCLA Fellow in the history department, and Richard Maullin, a research assistant in the UCLA political science department, showed, among other things that:

1—76% of those polled in the "working-class" area and 53% of those polled in the "middle and upper-middle class" area had no knowledge of Proposition 14.

2—The Spanish-speaking community, in general, does not express an interest in politics or this particular election as a means to realize ends advantageous to the Mexican-American communities.

3—The Spanish language is still of great importance even to Mexican-

Americans who have a good command of the English language, and Mexican-Americans formulate political thoughts mainly in Spanish.

In the Monterey Park area flanking East Los Angeles Junior College (15-20% Mexican-Americans), it was found that 52% of those polled do not know whether the Rumford Housing Act (which Proposition 14 seeks to repeal) protects Mexican-Americans from housing discrimination.

Some 24% said the Rumford Housing Act does protect Mexican-Americans, and 24% said it does not.

In the lower-income area lying between Soto and Indiana Sts. and Brooklyn Ave. and 3rd St. (75-90% Mexican-American), the survey showed that 45% of the registered voters do not think Mexican-Americans are discriminated against when looking for housing.

Chavarria and Maullin, both working toward a Ph.D. in history and political science, conclude that the survey suggests discrimination in housing is not a "gut issue" in the Mexican-American community.

Feel No Need for Law

In the Monterey Park area, for instance, the survey suggests that a large number of Mexican-Americans have not felt the need to resort to the fair-housing law, or even know that they could.

"However," say Chavarria and Maullin, "there is still a residual feeling that somewhere, someone of Mexican-American descent is going to run into discrimination."

In the East Los Angeles area, the survey shows that there is a "great lack of information on Proposition 14" among Mexican-Americans but that when the issue is explained in terms relevant to the Mexican-American situation, the potential vote runs highly in favor of the No vote on Proposition 14.

Interest in Mexican-Americans' attitude toward Proposition 14 was intensified recently when the Mexican Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles voted to support Proposition 14 and then rescinded its stand under pressure.

Mexican-Americans Protest Santa Fe Springs Projects
September 7, 1964

Santa Fe Springs, winner of the All American City award, is having urban renewal problems with explosive Latin overtones.

On Thursday, the city, located in the Pico-Rivera-Downey area, will hold its third public hearing on a proposed urban renewal project.

It promises to be like the other two—a fiery protest by Santa Fe Springs Mexican-Americans who claim the project is aimed at kicking them out of the All American City.

The National Municipal League in 1960 honored this industrial city for citizen participation in civic improvements. But it now has become apparent that some of its citizens are highly subjective about "improvements."

Gov. Brown Booed

Gov. Brown, for instance, was roundly booed by demonstrators in February when he visited a training class for voter registrars in Santa Fe Springs and volunteered that urban renewal is a "good thing."

He quickly added that he didn't know anything about the Santa Fe Springs situation and invited a delegation of the protesters to Sacramento to explain their problem.

Most Santa Fe Springs officials are as puzzled as Gov. Brown over the violent objection by many in the low income bracket to the use of federal money to "improve" their area.

Richard Weaver, city planning director, has pointed out that the city's 65-acre Flood Ranch area, overwhelmingly Mexican-American, has 131 "deteriorating" dwellings, 86 "substandard to a degree warranting clearance," 103 houses in need of "major rehabilitation," 70 "indicated for demolition" and 96 which "require minor repairs up to $2,000."

59 Passable Dwellings

Only 59 dwellings may be considered standard and only eight need no repair, Weaver says.

Of the 65 acres in the project area, officials say, about 16 would be devoted to public streets, and 44 of the remaining 49 to residential development.

The other five acres would be used for a public plaza area, including recreational facilities, church facilities and commercial development.

And, officials point out, the federal government would carry three-fourths of the financial load. Acquisition of the land would cost $1,942,934 with the city paying only $700,000.

At the first public hearing Aug. 27, Massey Herrera, director of the Santa Fe Springs Redevelopment Agency, told a crowd of 300—almost

all against the project—that residents displaced by the urban renewal plan would:

1—Receive certain benefits they would not otherwise get if relocating, including cash for their equity and payment of closing and escrow costs.

2—Get assistance in finding new homes.

3—Get loans at lower rates than otherwise obtainable through conventional financing.

4—Receive prices for their property based upon "fair market value" derived from two individual appraisals by private firms.

Militant Opposition

At the two public meetings held so far, however, militant opposition to the plan appears to be representative of the 1,200 Mexican-Americans living in the Flood Ranch area.

Sarcastic picket signs reading "Move Out Mexican—We Need Your Land" and "Chavez Ravine All Over Again" appear at the public meetings.^[*]

And, warns the Rev. Manuel Magana, chairman of the protesting citizens group, "violence could very well erupt if the city insists on pressing for a program which the area people clearly do not want."

Will Defend Property

A vow to defend property with arms was voiced Aug. 27 at the public hearing and pickets outside carried signs reading, "I Will Fight for My Land," "Arms Are Used in Defense of Freedom, We Will Defend Our Homes," and "When You Bring Your Bulldozers, Don't Forget Your Guns."

One of the reasons for this militancy, it has been said, is that the area is one of the original settling grounds of the people who once worked in the orange groves and were able to buy property at greatly reduced prices.

Many of these, who have low incomes, feel the project will result in grave economic hardship.

Mr. Magana, a Pentecostal minister, charges the project is the city's method of getting rid of "unwanted Mexicans."

* Chávez Ravine in Los Angeles was a Mexican American barrio before the residents were displaced to make way for the construction of Dodger Stadium in the early 1960s.

"I think the date the Flood Ranch area was annexed to Santa Fe Springs and the date this urban renewal project was first brought up, are suspiciously close," said Mr. Magana.

"I'd like to know whether Flood Ranch was brought into the city just to wipe us (Mexican-Americans) out."

Mr. Magana charges that the housing proposed for the project would be too expensive for the people now living there and they would have to get out.

At one of the public meetings, officials showed colored photographs of Newport Beach town houses which, officials said, resemble, the type of "moderately priced" housing the Flood Ranch area would get. The audience laughed derisively.

Albert Cisneros, 9019 Miller Grove, told the hearing: "You (city council) have a wonderful plan, you spent $160,000 to develop it. But why didn't you even ask the opinion of the people?"

"We were born poor and will stay poor. There will always be poor people. You can only displace them. You will not improve them by moving them around."

Mr. Magana also charges that additional housing created by rehabilitation of the area would put too heavy a burden on the schools, both financially and in facilities.

John Alvarado, 9212 Danby St., told a public hearing that he "is more interested in my civil rights than in a new home."

"As a Mexican I have been studied all my life. And it always comes out the same. Somebody has a plan to help me. But I have no voice in it. I'm the person they're trying to help. Why don't they ask me how?"

Interested observers at the public hearings have been members of the Congress of Racial Equality, who have advised the people to exert more militancy, and members of the John Birch Society, who have described what they call the evils of urban renewal. No members of either group, however, have spoken at the public hearings.

Harassed redevelopment director Herrera has one theme: "We merely aim to provide better housing and commercial facilities for approximately 300 families living in the Flood Ranch area."

He vehemently denies all of the charges made by Mr. Magana and his group.

The city council has repeatedly contended that it has not made up its mind about approving the urban renewal project and won't until it hears all sides.

Mr. Magana's group, however, resents the city council's apparent view that the Flood Ranch area needs drastic "rehabilitation."

Scoffed Mr. Magana at a public hearing:

"I don't believe we are so retarded in our progress that we need the Great White Father to come build us a teepee."

Crux of the controversy, however, may have been expressed best by Robert Mitchell, attorney for the Flood Ranch Improvement Assn., who told the public hearing:

"Urban renewal is new and is evolving daily. Some rules and concepts are being developed right now that have been mentioned here, such as gaining the consent of the people living and owning property in the area."

"You (city council) have crossed all your t's and dotted all your i's, but failed to get the consent of the people."

Roybal, Feder Clash on Issue of Braceros
October 15, 1964

Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-L.A.) and his Republican opponent Jack Feder clashed Wednesday over what the farm labor controversy means to their highly urbanized district.

Roybal charged that Feder is misleading the voters of the 30th District by backing the distribution of a campaign leaflet which says Roybal's opposition to the bracero program is detrimental to the MexicanAmerican community.

Meanwhile, Roybal and Dionicio Morales, member of President Johnson's Citizens' Committee Relations, objected to a statement attributed to Republican senatorial candidate George Murphy on the bracero controversy.

Murphy Statement

This week's Time magazine quotes Murphy as saying that foreign farm labor programs are necessary to California because, among other reasons:

"You have to remember that Americans can't do that kind of work. It's too hard. Mexicans are really good at that. They are built low to the ground, you see, so it is easier for them to stoop."

Sandy Weiner, Murphy's campaign manager, said the candidate emphatically denies the statement.

"I never said such a thing, privately or publicly," Weiner quoted Murphy as saying. "I haven't even thought of it."

Weiner said Murphy will protest vigorously to Time magazine.

Morales said Murphy's reported statement is the "same old stereotype farce which tries to make people think that Mexicans are physically and biologically different and so can do stoop labor easily."

"Actually Mexicans do stoop labor because they have to," Morales said. "The issue is really that growers prefer Mexicans because they'll do stoop labor for low wages. Domestic farm workers, who include many Mexican-Americans, would gladly do the stoop work if wages and conditions were good."

As for the campaign leaflet, distributed by the Mexican-American Agricultural Protection Assn., Feder said he agrees with it that Roybal has hurt his Mexican-American constituents by opposing the bracero law.

"Your representative (Roybal) voted against the bracero program and the Mexican-American community," says the leaflet.

"He has denied your families and friends the right to work in the United States. He has denied them the right to earn money and feed their families."

Feder said the bracero controversy is important to the 30th Congressional District because many produce workers live there who would lose their jobs if California had to cut back on its agricultural production if the bracero program ends.

Roybal said that, on the contrary, the bracero program has been especially harmful to California Mexican-Americans because it has meant pitting Mexican nationals against Mexican-Americans for low paying jobs.

"Historically, the bracero program fits into California's 90-year pattern of dependence on cheap imported foreign labor to work in the fields."

"First it was the Chinese, then the Japanese, the Europeans—Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Russians, German-Russians, and Armenians-then the so-called 'Okies' and 'Arkies' of the depression years. Now it is the Mexican national."

"In my opinion, California agriculture, and agriculture in other parts of the country as well, has lived long past the day when it should be leaning on the crutch of a foreign labor subsidy at the expense of hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans."

Feder said domestic farm worker recruitment campaigns have failed and the end of the bracero program would mean a "serious unemployment problem among Mexican-Americans in agricultural allied fields."

The 30th Congressional District has about a 30% Mexican-American population.

Last Braceros Leaving as Job Program Ends
January 1, 1965

EL CENTRO—Hundreds of Mexican braceros started streaming across the border to their native land on New Year's Eve—the last of more than 100,000 who helped harvest California crops in 1964.

Whether they will return to the United States still is up in the air as the controversy over braceros versus domestic farm workers continues.

All of the remaining 9,000 Mexican braceros now leaving California must be back in Mexico by Tuesday, according to Walter Francis, manager of the large, government-operated reception center here.

1,000 Loss Daily

About 1,000 have been repatriated daily for the last four days and the deadline may be met if no major transportation problems arise, he said.

Braceros worked in the fields Thursday until late afternoon, picking Imperial Valley lettuce, but quit at the end of the day because the 13-year-old Mexican farm labor import program died at midnight.

At the reception center, braceros loaded their belongings on buses for the 14-mile trip to the border and many voiced sadness at leaving the country, possibly for good.

Happy With Job

Typical was Guadalupe Becera Tapete, 33, who said that working as a bracero was "the best job I ever had. It was good for me, my wife and my children."

Wearing a new black leather jacket, Becera said that about two weeks ago the braceros were given hope "unofficially" that they might remain in California when the labor import program expired.

"But apparently the governments of Mexico and the U.S. could not get together on an agreement, and we must go home."

"But we may be back. I don't think the locals want to do this kind of work."

Statement Disputed

Meanwhile, however, the hundreds of jobless American workers who flocked to the state employment offices to replace braceros on the farm jobs disputed Becera's statement.

And harassed officials of the Department of Employment continued to complain that some growers don't want to give domestic American workers a chance to prove they can replace braceros.

Edwin H. Peters, state farm placement supervisor for San Diego and Imperial counties, said he was "puzzled and angered" by the Imperial Valley lettuce growers' decision not to co-operate in a state-federal recruitment drive for American farm workers.

Growers' Reaction

Herbert Lee, president of the Imperial Valley Farmers Assn., Wednesday told the State Department of Employment that lettuce growers would not continue in the crash recruitment program because "the caliber of worker being referred to us these last few days would make our harvest problems even greater than the impending labor shortage."

"I don't know what H. Lee is up to, but it is very confusing. We tried to help them replace the braceros because of their claim that a labor shortage crisis is coming. Now they don't want to co-operate," Peters protested.

Peters said Imperial Valley growers are complaining because the local farm office is sending them too many domestic workers.

"This is not true," he said.

"In December, 1963, the local office referred 195 workers to farm jobs in El Centro area."

"This year, in the same period, we have referred 238 workers, and this certainly does not appear to be a large number considering growers' claims that they need 1,800 farm workers."

As of Wednesday night, the Department of Employment had signed up 2,586 U.S. citizens for the jobs, and had placed 1,002.