The "Mexican Problem" is a concept that originally developed somewhere in the late 19th century, early 20th century due to different influential American perspectives, that became derogatory, about how to define a person from Mexico. The perspective that was created about the Mexican citizen and Latinos perceived as Mexican living in the United States was formed due to many sources, a significant portion of those contributions being literary: even from professional or religious opinions.
One such scholar Emory Bogardus wrote a book called Essentials of Americanization directed towards principals in California. The book was meant to educate on the "Mexican Problem" but it was discovered later that much of what was discussed in the literary work caused segregation to become a greater issue in schools rather than truly seeking to understand how to help children from the Mexican culture. Views of Americanization such as these are what influenced the way Mexicans were treated as members of the US jurisdiction, and consequently what rights and positions they were given in a capitalistic society.
Perspectives were influenced from literature such as that written by George Winton directed towards Christian missionaries whose goal was to preach the gospel towards Mexicans. It was stated that Mexican culture and race were most closely related to being Oriental or Asiatic. They were also characterized as being a lower class associated with the rural lifestyle. They were stereotyped to have older cultural customs that were archaic and needed help catching up to the present or to become "Americanized". The "Mexican Problem" was targeted largely around immigrants from Mexico and became more prevalent when there was an influx of migrants coming over the border in search of greater economic stability and safer conditions after the Mexican Revolution.
There were different cultures associated with a Mexican citizen, one of the most prevalent being an indigenous heritage. Because they had "Indian blood" many immigrants were associated largely with perceptions about cultural aspects or stereotypes of the Native American people in the United States at the time. Mexicans were thought to be a people that were not hard-working or lazy and due to their association with indigenous culture that was perceived as lesser they were thought to also be "lawless and violent".
From an Anglo-American perspective, Mexicans were unable to become Americanized because they possessed many contributing factors that went directly opposite to that perceived American expectation. They were racialized very early on, making it difficult to move up to higher standards of living and to earn greater respect among their Anglo-American counterparts in society during the 20th century. Many Mexicans, due to marginalization did not have a desire to adopt Anglo-American culture and instead in order to combat Americanization leaned more towards nationalism and placed greater weight on their own culture.
The Mexican Revolution
In the years leading up to the Mexican Revolution there was a trend of foreign companies moving into Mexican cities in order to profit off of the natural resources that were found in different parts of the country. One of the large economical factions that influenced the social and political climate during the late 19th century, were foreign investors. There were companies including one stemming from the United States that employed Mexicans along with a range of racially diverse American workers. An especially prominent location of natural resources were the oil reserves discovered in Tampico, where some of these US businesses were stationed. A conflict of interest was that Mexicans were receiving lower wages than the other workers and because of this spoke out against their mistreatment. The US companies' defense was that their Mexican counterparts did not speak English and could not communicate well with their higher ups. Prior to the significant immigration that took place after the Mexican Revolution there was negative sentiment from Mexican citizens that the US already believed they were superior to Spanish speakers because of their imperialistic tendencies in other Latin American countries as well as Mexico. Because of these criticisms when the revolution started there were many protests against foreign companies.
Before and during the revolution one of the oil companies that contributed to US imperialism within Mexico was the Pan American Petroleum and Transport, owned by Edward Doheny. Doheny wanted to fund a study on the Mexican people that would be potentially neutral. This, however, was not the case as he was a supporter of US hegemony. Some of his values were evidenced in the treatment of the Mexican workers in his own company locations with segregation and division. The study was found to actually be designed to influence the US citizens to intercede in Mexico at the time and was not a passive look at the Mexican people. It was proven to have connections to instilling ideals of Americanization within the American people and to teach the concept of characterizing Mexicans as helpless, who would need aid in becoming like the United States.
Migration to the United States Although not a new population to immigrate to the US as some would be led to assume, the Mexican population greatly increased within the United States when comparing the decades leading up to the Mexican Revolution and the decades afterward from 1880–1940. There was an increase from 200,000 to 600,000 Mexican immigrants during the years of 1910–1930. Many people left Mexico after the war because they wanted to avoid the calamity and devastating effects of the revolution while also seeking safety for themselves and loved ones. As the Mexican immigrant population became greater across the US borders, the focus on immigrants also became more fixed. Throughout the process, people's negative perspectives developed into a more generalized approach. It was stated in essence that immigrants from Mexico would need to catch up biologically and socially from an US individual's perspective of the "Mexican Problem."
One of the main focuses of US Border Control in the years leading up to and the start of the Mexican Revolution was controlling dealings of morality and what traffic and business they defined as immoral. Attitudes started to lean towards judging which immigrants were acceptable to be allowed into the country based on moral perspectives such as if they were involved in "sexual commerce" or if they might be a burden to the country in some form or another, relying upon federal financial reserves. This oftentimes was something that would keep people from being allowed to enter the country if they were considered a liability, and often constituted criminalization tactics which further added to the "Mexican Problem."
Segregation in Schools During the 1920–1930's or during the time period after the Mexican Revolution there were quite a few immigrants who moved to the United States and proceeded to work in the agricultural sector. This number increased from about 121,000–368,000 in those 10 years in California. California was known for its oranges and over the course of time, as immigrants increasingly began to work more in this location, the local government became more reliant on them to harvest their produce.
Orange county was an area that especially displayed segregational practices in many parts of life including and especially in locations where Mexicans and white Americans would mix within the town center interactions and business processes. Segregation was also reflected in the local schools and became more prevalent as time went on. There were eventually two schools created that were segregated: the Roosevelt school where white children attended and had more opportunities for learning, and the Lincoln school when the Mexican children attended and learned occupations uncoincidentally focused on life-skills. They were separated because of their inability to speak English and partly due to their skin color they were deemed as inferior and less able to learn. They were guided on an educational calendar that matched the agricultural flow of the crops and as the government officials had desired many did end up leaving to join their parents in the fields.
This agricultural affiliation with the school schedule was directly in conjunction with the local government's focus on segregation or thinking that the Mexican children were meant for this type of labor, just like their parents. Mexican children were believed by Californian faculty to be inferior to white children inherently because of their national origin but also intellectually in the IQ tests they had them take, which were prejudicial. The children were separated to play at different times than the white children at recess. The layout of the community was also coordinated so that Mexican families were in the center and white families around the outside. This idea of white Californians believing Mexican children to inherently fall behind the other children in intellect and capacity to learn was part of what defined the "Mexican Problem".
One of the most influential court cases that was a product of this segregated system of various Californian school districts even before Brown vs Board of Education was Mendez, et al. v. Westminster. Many Japanese were placed under incarceration camps at the time during the war, and so an opportunity opened up to accept the house leasing from the Munemitsu family for Mendez and his family. When Gonzalo Mendez attempted to enroll his children in the Seventeenth Street School they were denied because of their Spanish last name without further consideration. Although their cousins with the last name Vidaurri were accepted because their name did not sound as Mexican. This was appalling to Mendez because it violated their rights and his children even spoke English (a more common excuse for Mexican children to be separated). Eventually Gonzalo Mendez, William Guzman, Frank Palomino, Thomas Estrada, and Lorenzo Ramirez were able to sue multiple of the California districts for violating their children's rights, to which they prevailed, and the Westminster district agreed to become desegregated.
Labor exploitation There were some very racialized views that were targeted towards Mexican immigrants during the beginning to mid 1900's and one immigrant was quoted, noting how they were considered "uncivilized...'colored people.'" There is evidence to suggest they were exploited in both of the two sovereign powers and so found a real resentment towards American imperialization in Mexico and in turn did not want to become American citizens so as not to be seen betraying their Mexican identity and supporting these ideals of homogeny. There were important groups formed during this period of complex civil rights that supported the worker or communistic values to go against this idea of a class system that so many immigrants found very challenging in the United States and also in their own country.
Bracero Program During World War II the United States had a labor program that consisted of contracted workers between the US government and Mexico to make up for the labor shortage during WWII, especially in the agricultural sector, when a majority of their work force had joined the military and were absent. This work often consisted of complicated issues, as there was wage exploitation, less than ideal living conditions and food options. Despite not have sufficient wages some would use their hard-earned funds to help their family out, which usually wasn't enough to support their own necessities.