1848:  Hispanics from the southwest and California are unlike any other group in the U.S. except for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians.  American Hispanics are indigenous to to the southwest and California, are a conquered people, and fall under the jurisdiction and authority of the United States in the same manner as Native Americans and Native Hawaiians.  Hispanics are the conquered people of the War between Mexico - U.S.,  and came with the acquisition of the northern Mexican territories by the U.S. of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah,  Colorado, parts of Wyoming and Kansas.

The following is only a sampling, and reflect  the continual abuses American Hispanics have faced from 1848 in California and the southwest.  Many of you in other parts of the U.S. may not be aware that American Hispanics were segregated from "Anglos" in the southwest and California in all aspects of living; that American Hispanic GIs returning from WWI, Europe, the Philippines, and Vietnam  encountered systematic discrimination in housing, jobs, medical care by Veterans Hospitals, and politics.  The many anti-Hispanic official laws start  with the U.S.  municipal, County, State including  Federal levels.   Ordinary people follow the lead of  offical discrimination against Hispanics, and  it became an  accepted practice.

• "English Only",  is in direct opposition to to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which protects and guarantees the Spanish language, and the  New Mexico Constitution mandates all teachers be proficient in Spanish.  "English only"  also has been part of the continued effort to abolish the Civil Rights provisions that are guaranteed in  the Bilingual Voting Requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Act (2OU S.C. 3281 et seq.)
   
• Despite their official status as whites, whether they were white, or mestizo, most Mexicans and Americans Hispanics throughout the Southwest and California lived:
   
  • in segregated neighborhoods or barrios, 
  • their children attended segregated schools,
  • Hispanics were prohibited from using public facilities, such as swimming pools, or sitting in the white section at movie theaters, eating in white-only restaurants, or staying in white-only hotels.
  • Hispanics were segregated in movie houses, pharmacies, shops, and banks
  • At Anglo cafes, Hispanics could not stay in the premises, but were
     required to take out their purchases.
     
• 1925 Federal Government report put out by the Department of Labor warned that ninety
  percent of  Hispanics were of Indian blood and therefore inferior to whites. One
  Congressman described Mexicans as a "blend of  low-grade Spaniard, peonized Indian, and negro slave" and stated that U.S. law must guard against  "mongrelization" of the country. These racist opinions led to the mass deportation campaigns of the 1930s, during which approximately 50,000  Hispanics were deported from Los Angeles alone.
   
  The United States acquired a dominant relationship over the Spanish speaking people of the conquest M of California and the southwestern states,  For the past 150 years, everywhere these Spanish-speaking peoples ended u p in a subordinate economic position as American "Anglos" sucked them into a racialized labor market, including
   
   1)  Railroad construction in the Southwest (1910s)

   2)  Urban factory labor in the 1920s and 1930s, and now. Particularly in garment    industry, but alsoin canneries and food processing.

   3)  Farm work (1940s to Present Time

   4)  Domestic and restaurant labor in urban areas (last 25 years)
  http://www.csuchico.edu/~twaters/syllabi/257week6.html

   

• 1930s:  California, attempts at labor organization in the Imperial Valley were meet with violence;  then, and on many other occasions American Hispanics suffered arbitrary arrests.  Police used  vagrancy, disturbing the peace, and loitering.  Employers and other supporters in the Anglo community gave orders to the police, and vigilante work of their own, some of it through American Legion posts. (This is difficult, but it has to be said, lest history continues to repeat itself).
     
• 1940 to 1960:  Anti-American Hispanic press coverage of  conflict between "zoot-suiters",  the servicemen and police. 
    
• 1900s: Raids and mass deportations of undocumented residents, and American Hispanics.
    
• 1903 Clifton-Morenci, Arizona:  The Clifton-Morenci Strike, one of the earliest copper mine strikes in the Southwest, was brought about by Hispanic American miners protesting prejudice in the mines. A dual-wage system where American of Hispanic heritage  miners were paid much lower wages than Anglos for the same work, and unfair labor practices aimed only at Hispanics.  This occurred until well into the 1970s.

• 1904 Clifton-Morenci, Arizona:  Forty Anglo orphaned and abandoned children were brought from New York by Catholic nuns to Clifton-Morenci to be adopted by American Hispanic  families. Upon their arrival, Anglos bitterly resented the placement of these children into the homes of the Americans of Hispanic heritage. Vigilantes broke into the homes in the dark of night and kidnapped and forcibly removed the children, causing further racial conflicts between the Americans of hispanic Heritage and the Anglos.  No protection was offered the Americans of Hispanic heritage by officals.

• 1942-1943, 17
      Chicano youths were convicted of charges ranging from assault to
      first-degree murder for the death of a Mexican American boy discovered on
      the outskirts of the city. Throughout the trial, the judge openly displayed
      bias against Chicanos, and allowed the prosecution to bring in racial
      factors. Further, the defendants were not permitted haircuts or changes of
      clothing. In 1944, the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee obtained a reversal
      of the convictions from the California District Court of Appeals, but the
      damage had been done. Los Angeles newspapers sensationalized the case and
      helped create an anti-Mexican atmosphere. Police harassed Chicano youth
      clubs, and repeatedly rounded up Chicano youth "under suspicion."

  in the aftermath of the convictions and the press campaign, conflict broke
      out between U.S. servicemen in the area and young Mexican Americans who
      often dressed in the zoot suits popular during the wartime era. Soldiers and
      sailors declared open season on Chicanos, attacking them on the streets and
      even dragging them out of theaters and public vehicles. Instead of
      intervening to stop the attackers, military and local police moved in
      afterward and arrested the Chicano victims. Spurred on by sensational,
      anti-Mexican press coverage of the "zoot-suit riots," these assaults spread
      throughout Southern California and even into midwestern cities. A citizens'
      investigating committee appointed by the governor later reported that racial
      prejudice, discriminatory police practices, and inflammatory press coverage
      were among the principal causes of the riots. The Sleepy Lagoon case and the
      zoot-suit affair provided the basis for Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit, which in
      1979 became the first Chicano play to appear on Broadway.
  http://www.hispanics.com/mexicanamericans/ca/wwii.asp
   
   

• 1940 to 1960:  Anti-American Hispanic press coverage of  conflict between "zoot-suiters",  the servicemen and police.   Anti Hispanic coverage continues today.
   
• 1900s: Raids and mass deportations of undocumented residents, and American Hispanics.
    
• 1908: Validity of Spanish Land Grants were questioned in U.S. Courts, and then deemed not valid. The lands became part of the new Carson National Forest.  (In direct opposition to the TGH)
     
• 1911 (July) Company H, the National Guard in Yuma, elected a American of Hispanic Heritage to the rank of lieutenant. The Adjutant General refused to issue a commission to him.
   
• Prior to 1912 (and to date):  Early U.S. Congressional reports,  attacked New Mexicans and Arizonans because of their lack of English. As the historian Robert Larsen has written on this subject, a report which accompanied the Territory’s 1893 petition for statehood "attacked the contention that statehood should be withheld until every inhabitant had learned to read and write the English language, because this was contrary to the understanding which had existed among those who signed the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo."  (note: this proves the continuation of Spanish in California and the S.W.) 
   
• 1911-15 Texas and Arizona Mexican Protective Group, of San Antonio organized protests of lynching and unjust sentencing, as in the case of the famous  renegade Gregorio Cortez Lira, a scourge to the Texas Rangers,qv a folk hero to Texas Mexicans.
  to a federal commission on numerous cases of physical punishment, including murder, by
                    agricultural employers in Central and South Texas.
                    His organization was succeeded by La Liga
                    Protectora Mexicana (the Mexican Protective
                    Leagueqv) founded by attorney Manuel C.
                    Gonzáles.
   
• World War I   Southwest States, The Arizona-based Liga Protectora Latina was also active in Texas and throughout the Southwest. League activists and, especially, veterans of the World War II  initiated organizations  focusing on civil rights.
   
• Hispanic Americans soldiers returning  from World War I  during the high point of immigration from Mexico were automatically treated as foreign by many Americans, who regarded Mexican-heritage people as a temporary labor force  to use or as competition. 
  Evenso, many of the  Mexican Americans  found that the war enhanced their own  consciousness of their United States citizenship.  Having risked their lives for their nation and for the
  Lone Star State, they resolved to exercise their  rights as citizens. 
   
   
• In 1921 the Orden Hijos de
                    America (Order of Sons of America)qv pledged to
                    use "influence in all fields of social, economic, and
                    political action in order to realize the greatest
                    enjoyment possible of all the rights and
                    privileges...extended by the American Constitution."
                    Kindred groups included the Order of Sons of
                    Texas, the Order of Knights of America,qv and the
                    League of Latin American Citizens. These
                    organizations emphasized the rights and duties of
                    citizenship; only United States citizens could join.
                    The members, overwhelmingly middle-class males,
                    fought segregation and exclusion from juries and
                    sponsored educational citizenship programs. In 1929
                    the groups formed the League of United Latin
                    American Citizens,qv or LULAC. 
  http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/vzmvj.html

  With the advent of the Great Depressionqv in 1930,
                    mutualista activity decreased precipitously. Within
                    a year only a handful of organizations still existed,
                    mere shadows of their former selves. Mexican
                    Americans were among the first fired as even menial
                    jobs became scarce and attractive to Anglos. In
                    desperation, many coloniaqv residents turned to the
                    relief rolls. Local public officials tried to restrict
                    the dole to Anglo-Americans and led the cry for
                    deportation of the Mexican unemployed.
                    Repatriation decimated mutualista ranks and
                    unemployment sapped their treasuries (see
                    MEXICAN AMERICANS AND REPATRIATION).
  http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/vzmvj.html
   

• 1930s Harris Bill:  Hispanics were considered undesirable; approximately 800,000 American Hispanics  were rounded  up, despite U.S citizenship, and repatriated back to Mexico a country that was not theirs.
     
• 1944 World War II:  Cival Rights attorney-civil leader Alonso Perales questioned the War
  Department as to why 50-75 % of all South Texas casualties were American
  Hispanics, although they constituted only 500,000 of the state's 6,000,000 population.
  American Hispanics  garnered the most Medals of Honor in that war, and American 
  Hispanic overrepresentation in combat has continued to this day. 
  http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/MM/vzmvj.html
   
   This neglect of upholding the TGH continues today by officials
     
• After the war, Hispanic veterans saw discrimination in a new light and decided they didn't have
  to accept it any longer  (by the American Forces Press Service)
   
   
  • In addition to the 'No Dogs or Mexican' signs, many places allowed Mexican Americans (Hispanics)  in theaters, restaurants and other public places only at certain times on certain days of the week. 
     
  • In many places, realtors used special codes to identify people of Hispanic  ancestory  to refuse them the right to buy property. The veterans had been all over the world fighting in defense of this nation; they saw it didn't have to be that way http://www.neta.com/~1stbooks/press3b.htm
• 1930s:  Attempts at labor organization in the Imperial Valley were meet with violence;  then, and on many other occasions American Hispanics suffered arbitrary arrests.  Police used  vagrancy, disturbing the peace, and loitering.  Employers and other supporters in the Anglo community gave orders to the police, and did some vigilante work of their own, some of it through American Legion posts
   
• New Mexico, Tobias Leyba (the father of sixteen children, lived all of his life in Canjilon. He is one of the eight men who faced charges from the courthouse raid).Of the 1715 land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments before the conquest of the Southwest by the United States, over 80 per cent were lost to their owners in New Mexico alone. The villagers, who did not understand the English language and laws which "clearly violated the spirit of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo", soon were almost landless. In recent years the Federal Government has further diminished this land base by the establishment of national forests and parks. 
   
   
• 1949 Texas Dr. Hector Perez Garcia, his wife and daughters are denied service in a
  restraunt in Three Rivers.
  (This also occurred across the western states)
   
• 1968:  The history of abuse was summed up by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission as "evidence of wide-spread patterns of police misconduct against American Hispanics  in the Southwest." That report, and the rest of the civil rights movement, did something to correct the abuse; but it was far from eliminated. 

• Up to the at least the 1940s, Southwest Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and California: Birth certificates for American Hispanics did not indicate they were American born.  A new born of American Hispanic origin (those who had been here for centuries included), was  *born in Mexico* or *Mexican* instead of American. 

• 1912 Arizona.  At the time Arizona was a U.S. territory, then a state, and up to the present time has continued to infringe on the rights of the Conquered Native Spanish speaking Americans. Prior to 1948 and past W.W.II.  Hispanic veterans from California, and the southwest were being denied the health and educational benefits by the U.S.  for which they qualified under the GI Bill.
   
• 1913 (April) Arizona:  American Hispanics  protested Arizona's anti-alien ownership law, which deprived them of their prior rights to property. 
   
• 9th Century up past the civil rights period 1960s through 1980s:   Arizona, Quotas were placed on the number of Hispanics allowed in the teaching profession.   
   
• 1914 April 20, Colorado:   State militiamen and company guards began shooting directly at  American Hispanic miners including their children in tents.  They set the tents on  fire, and  many including children were  burned to death.
     
• 1917 (July 12)  Bisbee, Arizona:   More than 1000 copper miners, most of whom were Americans of Hispanic heritage, walked out on strike. Vigilantes rounded up the strikers forced them to walk a long distance, then  abandoned them at the border without food or water. Although charges were brought against the vigilantes because of their inhumane and illegal actions, no litigation resulted.   
   
• 1920 (July) 200 Hispanic  laborers employed in Arizona cotton fields were refused their pay and sent to Nogales. Arizona Governor Thomas Campbell began an investigation of charges that the laborers had been abused.
   
• 1920 Arizona:  The Ku Klux Klan became active in Globe-Miami, Phoenix, Tempe, Prescott, and Tucson. The KKK maintained its strong anti-Hispanic philosophy against the American Hispanics  in these towns. 
   
• 1921 Texas:  The Orden Hijos de América (Order of the Sons of America) organized in San Antonio, Texas, to combat  unfair wages, education, housing, and civil rights abuses against American Hispanics.
   
• 1929 -Southern Pacific Railroad, refuses to provide skilled apprenticeships to American Hispanics. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) protests discrimination.
   
• 1930 - 1950:  "Operations Wetback": American Hispanics were deported.
   
• In 1946,  Mendez v. Westminister School District resulted in banning separate Hispanics schools in California.  However, according to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, in  late 1960s, one-quarter of Hispanics  in California attended schools with more than 50 percent Hispanic enrollment.
   
• 1948 Felix Longoria, a U.S. soldier was killed in battle in the Philippines:  When his body was returned to Texas for burial, Longoria's hometown would not allow him to be buried in the "Anglo" cemetery.
   
• 1949 - Dr Hector Perez Garcia founded the American GI Forum, American Hispanic Veterans Veterans returning from the battles of WWII were refused medical care by the Veterans Hospitals.
   
• Law -one Hispanic allowed per year in Medical school.
   
• 1900s up to the Civil Rights Movement:   California and the southwest, American Hispanics were denied service in some restraunts; were segregated from "Anglos" in their places of worship, where they ate, and lived; swimming pools; segregated in clubs and associations.  The Civil Rights Movement did not eradicate all the discrimination practices against Hispanics.
   
• New Mexico, Tobias Leyba ( lived all of his life in Canjilon. He is one of the eight men who faced charges from the courthouse raid).Of the 1715 land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments before the conquest of the Southwest by the United States, over 80 per cent were lost to their owners in New Mexico alone. The villagers, who did not understand the English language and laws which "clearly violated the spirit of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo", soon were almost landless. In recent years the Federal Government has further diminished this land base by the establishment of national forests and parks.
   
• 1900s up to the Civil Rights Movement:   California and the southwest, American Hispanics were denied service in some restraunts; were segregated from "Anglos" in their places of worship, where they ate, and lived; swimming pools; segregated in clubs and associations.  The Civil Rights Movement did not eradicate all the discrimination practices against Hispanics.
   
• 1955 Arizona:  Court Case: Baca v. Winslow, United States District Court No. Civ-394-Pct. A court suit to enjoin discrimination in furnishing swimming pool facilities; the segregation pattern consisted of permitting use of the swimming pool every other day to American Hispanic, American Indians, and Blacks only. The Anglos used the pool only on the day it was cleaned. Upon pressing the court case, the City of Winslow stipulated to discontinue the segregation.

  1954    Brown v. Board of Education case This landmark U.S. Supreme Court
  case found that the “separate but equal” doctrine was in violation of the 14th
  amendment of the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing all citizens equal protection of
  the laws. Its  impact on the lives of not only black children across this country, but Hispanic  children as well. Although targeted for African Americans, “separate but equal” was systemically applied to the children of the dominant minority population in areas where there were no Blacks. Like so many other racially discriminatory laws, no boundaries existed that turned off application of these laws to other ethnic
  minorities. The ultimate beneficiaries of these racist societal edicts included all children of color. In the Southwest where there was no significant concentration of African Americans, Latinos became the target of discriminatory laws. 

  Latinos growing up during this period say that Plessy-Ferguson gave mainstream America the legal license to openly discriminate against African Americans, and it allowed educational institutions to subscribe to "separate but equal" for other children of color. The education experience and conditions of poverty found in the Southwest were similar to those found in the South. Latinos were subjected to education professionals and educational systems that lacked interest or commitment in insuring that all children, regardless of ethnic background, received equal protection of the laws. In our part of the country, it was Latino children who were being segregated within school districts and herded into separate schools and classrooms. Also, we were the ones whose school supplies, schoolbooks, teachers and learning materials were nothing more than hand me downs or leftovers from other more affluent schools and neighborhoods.

  (Hispanics who are white are also discriminated against in the western states).
   

• 1955 Arizona:  Court Case: Ortiz v. Jack, U.S. District Court of Arizona, No. 1723. After filing of court case, the Board of Education of Glendale agreed to discontinue the segregation and discrimination of American Hispanic school children. (Segregation continued in other parts of Arizona).
   
• 1970:   U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report, documented unequal treatment of  Hispanics by the Administration of justice, law enforcement agencies, and the judicial system  in the Southwest.  Many abuses were cited, among them were:
   
  • Lack of bilingual translators in court proceedings
  • Under representation of Hispanics  on grand juries, as judges, and  law enforcement officers.
  • Unequal assignment of punishment and  probation to convicted Hispanics.
     
• Up to late 1980s:  Two books were put out on American Hispanics by the Federal Government, and over 40,000 were published by the Government on "Anglos".
   
• Up to 1980s:  Spanish surnamed applicants to Universities denied entrance based on  their surname. 
   
• Proposition 187 in California aimed at Hispanics.
   
• Law -one Hispanic allowed per year in Medical school.
   
• New Mexico, Tobias Leyba ( lived all of his life in Canjilon. He is one of the eight men who faced charges from the courthouse raid).Of the 1715 land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments before the conquest of the Southwest by the United States, over 80 per cent were lost to their owners in New Mexico alone. The villagers, who did not understand the English language and laws which "clearly violated the spirit of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo", soon were almost landless. In recent years the Federal Government has further diminished this land base by the establishment of national forests and parks.
   
• 1900s up to the Civil Rights Movement:   California and the southwest, American Hispanics were denied service in some restaurants; were segregated from "Anglos" in their places of worship, where they ate, and lived; swimming pools; segregated in clubs and associations.  The Civil Rights Movement did not eradicate all the discrimination practices against Hispanics.
   
• 1955 Arizona:  Court Case: Baca v. Winslow, United States District Court No. Civ-394-Pct. A court suit to enjoin discrimination in furnishing swimming pool facilities; the segregation pattern consisted of permitting use of the swimming pool every other day to American Hispanic, American Indians, and Blacks only. The Anglos used the pool only on the day it was cleaned. Upon pressing the court case, the City of Winslow stipulated to discontinue the segregation.
   
• 1955 Arizona:  Court Case: Ortiz v. Jack, U.S. District Court of Arizona, No. 1723. After filing of court case, the Board of Education of Glendale agreed to discontinue the segregation and discrimination of American Hispanic school children. (Segregation continued in other parts of Arizona).
   
• March 3, 1968  California.  Over a thousand students walked out of East Los Angeles Abraham Lincoln School; several thousands more walked out of five other predominantly Mexican American high schools, all total 10,000 students joined the blowouts (strike).

  Their demands were:  Protest against racist teachers, the lack of freedom of speech, few Mexican American instructors;  no Mexican American history
   

• 1968 Los Angles, California:   Sal Castro a instructor  who helped students organize was one of the L.A. Thirteen who was arrested.

  The L.A. Thirteen - Those arrested because of the school walkouts in Los Angeles. (TGH violation, total disregard for the free speech by authorities.  The TGH was invoked in Spanish and English at this time, however the students were beaten by authorites.   Do not let the sacrifices of these couragous people be forgot,  invoke the TGH; today they will not beat you).
   

• 1970:   U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report, documented unequal treatment of  Hispanics by the Administration of justice, law enforcement agencies, and the judicial system  in the Southwest.  Many abuses were cited, among them were:
   
  • Lack of bilingual translators in court proceedings
  • Under representation of Hispanics  on grand juries, as judges, and  law enforcement officers.
  • Unequal assignment of punishment and
                      probation to convicted Hispanics.
   
• Up to late 1980s:   Only two books were put out on American Hispanics by the Federal Government, and over 40,000 were published by the Government on Anglos, and other ethnic groups. 

  Up to 1980s:  Spanish surnamed applicants to Universities denied entrance based on  their surname. 
   

• 2000 California  who wanted to rent a house in San Jose, but were turned away by the owners because they couldn't speak fluent English, have been rebuffed by a federal appeals court.  A jury found that landlords Carl and Mary Lindow's policy was not intended to discriminate against Mexican Americans. Jurors had previously been told by the trial judge that requiring an adult in the household to speak English fluently did not necessarily violate federal housing laws.
   (this is common discrimination and TGH violation) 

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