Throughout the years, there have been significant amounts of immigrants arriving in different countries around the world for the same goal of a better life. Mexican immigrants are one of the oldest immigrants and one of the newest that still keep coming today. The Mexican immigrants possibly started to immigrate to America in the 1840’s when the Mexican-American War took place. Mexican immigrants dream of coming to America for all the good paying jobs and the education there is here. Some immigrants have been successful finding a job and a roof over their heads while others roamed the streets of the U.S. Some had to go through weird examinations and interviews if they wanted to become legal citizens and those who chose not to, had to cross the border without getting caught by border patrol. After everything Mexican immigrants went through to come to America from the long journey to the discrimination by people, they had a hard adventure to get here.
All immigrants have a reason for coming to America whether its for a job to support a family or just to escape war or anarchy of their home country. Mexican immigrants want to come for the jobs and for the safety from war in their homeland. Between the U.S. and Central America is the country of Mexico, the homeland of these Mexican immigrants. Mexico actually used to own the southwestern part of the U.S. until the Mexican-American War in 1846 when the United States wanted some of Mexico’s land for its growing population and economy. It all ended with Mexico surrendering and the present-day southwest starting to be owned by the United States.
In Mexico, some Mexicans weren’t getting enough money or “pesos” ( the currency in Mexico) to support their families, so they decided to come to America. They specifically chose to come to America because at that time the jobs were more plentiful. In a family, only the male or father left first to earn money for when the family came and later on little by little the whole family started to arrive. The largest wave of Mexican immigrants arrived in the 1910’s to the 1920’s when approximately 1 million entered the United States. This wave of immigrants was probably caused from the Mexican Revolution happening in their home country which was like the American Revolution when they tried to gain independence from King George III.
Together, Mexico and the United States created a program called the Bracero Program where Mexicans were sponsored by the U.S. to come and work for them. “Brazo” is the root word of the word Bracero which means arm, so the Bracero Program was a program that let Mexican immigrants work in manual labor or agriculture. In general, Mexican immigrants arrived to the U.S. by train or sometimes bus. The biggest waves of Mexican immigrants usually land in the southwest including the states of California, Arizona, and Texas, possibly because it used to be owned by Mexico. Mexican immigrants mostly looked for jobs that included agriculture or industry, what the Bracero program offered. The Bracero Program was meant to give good working conditions and a fair wage, but as time passed, these promises were not met. Not only did the Mexican immigrants face horrible work conditions, but they also experienced social difficulties including prejudice and discrimination from the citizens of the United States for their language and skin color.
Civil rights leader Cesar Chavez became well known for being able to fight for better pay and working conditions in agriculture in the Bracero Program. To do this, Cesar Chavez created labor union with other important people called UFW (United Farm Workers). Cesar Chavez became inspired by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi because like them, he too believed in nonviolence.
