Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945

398 Pages·1993·0.23 MB·English

by  George J. Sanchez

BECOMING
MEXICAN
AMERICAN
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B E C O M I NG
M E X I C AN
A M E R I C AN
Ethnicity, Culture, and
Identity in Chicano
Los Angeles, 1900-1945
George J. Sanchez
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1993 by George Sanchez
First published in 1993 by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1995
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanchez, George J.
Becoming Mexican American : ethnicity, culture, and identity in
Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 / George J. Sanchez,
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-506990-0
ISBN-13 978-0-19-509648-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-19-509648-7 (pbk.)
1. Mexican Americans—California—Los Angeles—Social conditions.
2. Mexican Americans—California—Los Angeles—Ethnic identity'.
3. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Social conditions.
4. Ethnicity'—California—Los Angeles.
I. Title.
F869.L89M57 1993
305.868'72079494'09041—dc20
92-45570
15 17 19 18 16
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
This book is dedicated to my loving and supportive parents,
JORGE R. SANCHEZ AND NINFA SANCHEZ
A cruzar la front era, han criado una nueva generation.
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Acknowledgments
I began this study in order to get to know my parents. Immigrants to
the United States from Mexico in the 1950s, they lived in a world I
always felt close to, but never fully understood. Born in the United
States, I never experienced the personal challenges of moving from one
country to another, changing one's citizenship, and committing one's life
to an adopted nation. As I grew older, I came to realize that my own life
as their son had been clearly and intentionally demarcated by the coura-
geous decisions that my parents made years before. Their lives have been
full of sacrifices made on behalf of their children. Both my father and
mother provided loving guidance to each of us and demonstrated how
to pass on values from one generation to another. In addition, they nur-
tured in my sister, brother, and myself a fierce independence of thought
and action which, while certainly making parenting more demanding,
also enabled us to live richer lives. For providing me with the moorings
needed to live my present life, this study is dedicated to them.
Writing this book has been a continuous process of crossing intellec-
tual and personal borders. I had the privilege of beginning it under men-
tors who were as committed to me as to the completion of the project
and who made this journey ever more challenging. Albert Camarillo
guided my entire graduate career, nurturing this project in its infancy
with unbridled compassion and decency. He is a role model for me in
every sense of the term. Estelle Freedman consistently raised my level of
analysis by challenging me to ask difficult questions. She taught me to
communicate my answers in direct and forceful ways. Other current and
former faculty at Stanford University, including Carl Degler, Don Feh-
renbacher, and Michael Kazin, were critical to the development of my
abilities at crucial times in my graduate career.
The difficult transition of turning the dissertation into a book was
aided immeasurably by several historians who shared their insights, en-
thusiasm, and time, reading various versions of the manuscript and offer-
viii Acknowledgments
ing advice and critique. David Gutierrez pored over several versions and
generously shared his wisdom and wit with me throughout the entire
process. Camille Guerin-Gonzales became a significant intellectual and
personal confidante, and our friendship has grown as we shared thoughts
about the exciting new directions in Chicano history. Bruce Schulman
scrutinized an early version of the manuscript and helped me rethink
several significant issues. William Chafe suggested ways I could connect
this work to larger issues in American history and demonstrated enor-
mous enthusiasm and support. Robin D. G. Kelley halted his busy
schedule to critique a difficult chapter in record time, and his contribu-
tion and encouragement made the book significantly stronger. Patricia
Nelson Limerick, Vicki Ruiz, George Lipsitz, Pedro Castillo, Valerie
Matsumoto, and Jose Moya also read parts of the manuscript at different
stages and prodded me to sharpen my vision and clarify my words.
From the beginning, I was committed to crossing the boundaries
separating the academic disciplines, a decision that took me out of the
safe confines of strict historical inquiry and into anthropology, sociology,
ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and even literary criticism. Like all
temporary sojourners, I was careful in these new lands. I have tried to be
respectful of the knowledge I gained. All along the way, I was aided by
other scholars who helped me negotiate difficult intellectual terrain. In
particular, my colleagues in Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA of-
fered helpful criticism and intellectual sustenance. Vilma Ortiz will al-
ways remain a special friend because of the academic and administrative
battles we waged together and the intellectual community we attempted
to build. Sonia Saldivar-Hull, Rosalinda Fregoso, Clara Lomas, Jose
Monleon, Eddie Telles, Ray Rocco, Richard Chabran, David Lopez,
Danny Solorzano, Kris Gutierrez, Edit Villarreal, Raymund Paredes,
Guillermo Hernandez, and Steve Loza each helped me think about my
work from a different perspective, and their insights are embedded in
this effort, whether they know it or not.
I have also been gratified by the profound way my work has been
influenced by daily interaction with graduate students who have shared
their perspectives with me in formal and informal settings. Ernesto Cha-
vez deserves special mention for introducing me to various uncharted
corners of Los Angeles and UCLA, and for taking time from his own
work to share sources and stories. Margo McBane was a colleague from
the start, and I learned as much from her as I taught her in our interac-
tion. Dana Leventhal and Paula Scott each helped me complete the dis-
sertation, and John Nieto-Phillips, Jim Pearson and Bob Myers, Jr., pro-
vided vital assistance in finishing the book. The community created by
the aforementioned students and by Linda Maram, Jeffrey Rangel, Omar
Valeric Jimenez, Irma Valdivia, Miroslava Chavez, Catherine Pet, Steven
Reyes, Liliana Urrutia, Lorena Chambers, Jaime Cardenas, Sheila Gar-
dette, Anthony Macias, Maria Elena Fernandez, Monica Russel y Rod-
riguez, and Susan Terri Gomez helped sustain me on a personal and
Acknowledgments ix
intellectual basis, and each of these individuals directly contributed to the
project and to my learning by sharing a document, an insight, or a criti-
cism at important junctures in my thinking. Their own work will surely
transform the writing of history and Chicano Studies in the future. In-
deed, they are the future of our profession and the intellectual heirs to
my peculiar fascination with culture, ethnicity and identity.
I am proud to have been a direct beneficiary of affirmative action
admissions policies and targeted minority and need-based scholarships
throughout my academic career—at Harvard University, Stanford Uni-
versity, and as a professor at UCLA. To all the skeptics regarding the
efficacy of these policies, I hope that this book will offer evidence that
such programs do work. I would not have been able to make my contri-
bution to research, writing, and teaching without the opportunities pro-
vided by affirmative action programs and those individuals that coordi-
nate them.
The Danforth Foundation, through its Dorothy Danforth Compton
Fellowship program, allowed me to begin my graduate work at Stanford
and provided me with a crucial year of support at the dissertation level.
The Ford Foundation, through its Fellowship Program for Minorities,
funded much of the dissertation stage, then awarded me a postdoctoral
fellowship to allow me to transform the manuscript into a book. I espe-
cially want to thank Dr. John B. Ervin, former Vice President of the
Danforth Foundation, Sheila Biddle, Program Officer of the Ford Foun-
dation, and Barbara Montgomery of the National Research Council for
setting up conferences and networks which have proven crucial to my
own intellectual and emotional rejuvenation at critical stages in my ca-
reer. Edward Escobar and Noe P. Lozano at Stanford University, and
Harriet Moss at UCLA helped administer these programs at the univer-
sity level, and their efforts are richly appreciated.
As this project evolved, I crossed geographical borders throughout
the United States and Mexico to conduct primary research. Along the
way, helpful archivists and librarians made my searches more fruitful and
less time-consuming. The staff at the southern California regional branch
of the National Archives at Laguna Niguel, particularly Diane Nixon,
Suzanne Dewberry, and Fred Klosc, helped make my many months there
productive and enjoyable. Roberto Trujillo of Stanford University, Anne
Caiger of the UCLA Department of Special Collections, and Richard
Chabran of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Library went out of
their way to track down obscure sources which have enriched this study.
Licenciacla Patricia Galeana de Valadez of the Archive Historico de la
Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores helped me navigate through their ex-
tensive collection in Mexico City, as did Bob Lazar of the ILGWU Ar-
chives in New York and Father Francis J. Weber of the Los Angeles
Chancery Archives. I could not have put together the photographs for
this book without the assistance of Carolyn Kozo Cole of the Los
Angeles Public Library and Dace Taube of the USC Regional Cultural