The Mexicans in Houston Today
By Margarita B. Melville
clearly
defined and active community of people of Mexican origin emerged in Houston in the 1910s
and 1920s. Mexico was in the throes of a civil war that displaced many people:
professionals, merchants, peasants, and workers. Houston was a growing young town in need
of settlers who could contribute to the development of its port, its railroads, and
new industries. Settlers from Mexico and Americans of Mexican descent from small Texas
towns had been arriving since the 1890s, and there is even some evidence to indicate that
there may have been some Mexicans who stayed behind as prisoners of war after the defeat
of Santa Anna in 1836, at the birth of the Republic of Texas and the city of Houston
itself. But there is no archival record of these early Mexican contributors to the first
clearing and building that forged a city out of a swamp.
By 1900 approximately a thousand people of Mexican origin called Houston their home. Most of these people were Texas-born Americans of Mexican descent, but they were soon joined by friends, relatives, and newcomers from Mexico itself A Mexican community, called a colonia, began to develop as people joined together to celebrate the traditional social and religious events. As they found housing close to work and to relatives and friends, they formed their barrios, or neighborhoods. These same barrios continue to be inhabited predominantly by Mexican-Americans today El Crisol (now Denver Harbor) was close to the Southern Pacific railroad yards and derived its Spanish name from the pungent chemicals used to preserve railroad ties. The Second Ward extended along Buffalo Bayou from the center of town and was predominantly Mexican-American by the 1920s. Magnolia, southeast of the Second Ward, was located along the ship channel and became a Mexican-American barrio by 1915. Later the freeway system divided these barrios into several segments.
This beginning for Mexican-Americans in Houston contrasts
markedly with Mexican-American communities in such Texas cities as El Paso, Nacogdoches,
and San Antonio. Spanish explorers led the way for the friars who founded missions in 1659
at the base of a mountain trail pass called El Paso del Norte; Spanish explorers were also
active in the eastern part of present-day Texas near Nacogdoches; and officials of the
Spanish government established a community that has been in continuous existence since
1718 and is now located in downtown San Antonio. Following the missionaries came the
merchants and settlers with major land grants—first from the Spanish crown and later,
after Mexico's independence from Spain, from the government of Mexico. Some of the Indians
were converted to Catholicism through the activities of these pioneering friars; they
learned Spanish and settled near the missions, first farming the mission land and then
becoming independent small landowners. There were some Mexican communities in South Texas
that reached hack more than fifty years before Texas gained its independence from
Mexico in 1836, and Mexicans and Anglos had fought together against the government of
Mexico in that war. The year 1836 is doubly significant in Houston’s history for the
town was established that year as a new Anglo settlement by the Allen brothers, who had
come from the northeastern seaboard of the United States with a land promotion plan.
Texas remained an independent republic for only nine years before it was annexed by the United States in December 1845. Four months later the United States declared war on Mexico. When the peace treaty was signed ending the war in 1848, the United States acquired vast territory extending from New Mexico to California that is called today—together with Texas and Oklahoma—the Southwest." Thus, by February 2,1848, all of the descendants of the early Mexican settlers in this southwestern land had become American citizens, and many continued to be called ‘Mexican-Americans."
The railroads, built in Texas after the 1850s, contributed decidedly to Houston’s growth by bringing a great deal of commercial activity. Houston became a manufacturing and distribution center for Texas’ cotton, timber, and oil products. Many workers were needed, and the railroad contractors found Mexican laborers to be hard, dependable workers. In 1908 at least 2,000 Mexicans were living in Houston, out of a population of approximately 75,000 people. A group of Mexican-American men gathered on March 2,1908, to inaugurate a chapter of the Woodmen of the World, called "El Camp Laurel Lodge." Woodmen of the World was an international, mutual aid organization that offered its members fraternal companionship, recreation, and life insurance, and served as a support mechanism for Mexican-Americans in the unfamiliar surroundings of Houston. Within a few years, other mutual aid societies developed. Close by, the Rusk Settlement House (located in Houston at 2411 Canal Street) began to attend to the needs of Mexican immigrants, in addition to those of their Jewish clients. Some Mexican children attended the Rusk Elementary School, which soon became known as "the Mexican school,"
The Catholic Church played an important role in those early days in organizing the social and religious activities of the Mexican-American community in Houston. The Oblate Fathers arrived in Houston in 1911 and established a modest residence in Magnolia Park, from which they extended their work into the various Mexican and Mexican-American barrios. After founding the Immaculate Conception church on Harrisburg, they proceeded to develop the parish of Our lady of Guadalupe under very humble circumstances. The original structure was a simple frame building on Navigation, and the first Mass was celebrated there on August 18,1912. Two years later, Father Esteban de Anta began the present structure and rectory, which was finally dedicated on September 2, 1923. Father de Anti also organized a group of catechists to help him with the work of teaching the faithful; he established sixteen catechetical centers throughout the city to instruct more than one thousand children. The Sisters of Divine Providence founded a parochial school about the same time as construction began on the new Guadalupe Church building. The impact of Our Lady of Guadalupe School cannot be overestimated in terms of the many Mexican-American and Mexican children who have been educated there.
ne of the early Mexican families that made a large
contribution to the development of the Mexican colonia in Houston was the Sarabia family,
originally from Guanajuato, Mexico. The oldest son, Socorro, left Guanajuato at age
fourteen to work for the railroads, and by 1914 he found himself in Houston. Four years
later, he was a labor contractor for the Southern Pacific Railroad, making frequent trips
to San Antonio, the first stop for people coming to Texas from Mexico. He is said to have
brought eight trainloads of Mexican and Mexican-American laborers to Houston, each
trainload containing hundreds of immigrants. In 1919 Socorro’s father was killed in
Mexico’s revolution and his mother, three brothers, and young sister decided to join
Socorro in Houston. Jose Sarabia, one of Socorros brothers, began by selling newspapers,
then opened a small book and curio shop in the 400 block of Milam. In the 1920s he moved
his store to a larger location at 1800 Congress. By the middle 1920s the area around
Congress, Preston, Franklin, and Louisiana Streets became the hub of the Mexican-American
commercial district. Jose Sarabia and a partner then opened the Azteca Mexican Theater,
where they showed silent Mexican films and staged vaudeville shows. Dr. Angel Leyva, a
medical doctor who had escaped the revolution, opened his office there, as did Dr.
Estrella, a dentist. The area also embraced a Mexican drugstore, barbershop, shoe-shine
parlor, and restaurant. Nearby was the Farmers Market (later moved to Airline Avenue),
where about one-third of the stalls were occupied by Mexican-American truck farmers from
the Friendswood area selling their produce. Guadalupe Church was only a mile away on
Navigation, and residents used the trolley, horses, and mules to go downtown. By 1929
Felipe Sarabia, another brother, had started his own store at 711 Preston where he sold
groceries, magazines, and records to a predominantly Mexican-American clientele. Another
well-known Mexican-American merchant at that time was Francisco Gabino Hernandez, owner of
Alamo Furniture. His huge store occupied an entire block downtown and had numerous
employees and eight delivery trucks.
In Houston Heights, an area to the north of the downtown district that had a sizable Mexican-American community, the Mendozas, another family who came to Houston with the railroads, had a daughter, Lydia, born in 1916. She was later to become nationally known among people of Mexican descent as Ia atondra de lafrontera (the meadowlark of the frontier), because of her deeply moving folk music.
Patricio Gutierrez, born in San Antonio, became the first pianist of the fledgling Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1917. He had been sponsored by an Anglo group and had studied music in New York. He was the exception, however. Many Mexican-American artists such as Eloy Perez and musical groups such as the Orchesta Tipica de Magnolia performed exclusively for Mexican-American audiences. They found that the Houston colonia was very receptive to their artistic performances, so much so that music and dance halls proliferated. Their reception by the Houston Anglo community, however, was less enthusiastic. The members of the Orchesta Tipica were denied rooms at a Galveston inn at one point, and the Club Mexico Bello often found that they could not rent appropriate accommodations to hold their dances.
These attitudes were decried in La Gaceta Mexicana, a magazine of literary essays and social news founded by Jose Sarabia and edited by Lorenzo Yanez in 1928. Four newspapers appeared regularly in the 1920s and circulated in the colonia, reinforcing Mexican values and ideals.
The celebration of the Fiestas Patrias stands out among the social activities of the Mexican colonia in Houston. The first recorded city-wide celebration was in 1917, when two Comites Patrioticos organized activities to commemorate Mexico’s independence from Spain and to celebrate Mexican nationality. By 1925 this yearly celebration included a parade through downtown, baseball games, beauty contests, dances, and patriotic speeches about Mexican history. A dominant theme of these celebrations was the meaning of being a Mexican in the United States. Magnolia Park was one of the favorite locations for such celebrations of Mexican cultural heritage.
Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) was celebrated in a less elaborate though no less enthusiastic fashion under the sponsorship of the Sociedad Benito Juarez. The Sociedad Benito Juarez was a mutual aid society that sponsored musical, social, and patriotic activities. Since its members were predominantly working class, they particularly favored this fiesta, which commemorates President Juarez's defeat of French intervention in Mexico and the promotion of Indian and working-class heritage in the 1860s. They built their own hall for social events in 1928.
The area just east of downtown Houston was known as the barrio El Crisol, and just south of this, across the railroad tracks and west of Lockwood, the barrio was called Las Lechusas, because of the abundance of night owls in a nearby wooded area. The nearest parish to these barrios was Our Lady of Guadalupe, about two miles away Because there was no easy access to transportation, many people had to walk to church. Those who could not walk the distance did not attend church at all.
Several families from these barrios approached the Oblate Fathers at Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1934 to petition them to send a priest to help them in their spiritual needs. As a result of that meeting, a priest was sent to these areas and thus began the parish that is presently known as Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Kashmere.
During this time, the founding families sponsored several social events to raise funds for their new church. Two affiliated chapels were founded during 1939 and 1940, one at Colonia Villa (just west of the parish) and the other at Colonia Hidalgo.
The depression brought increased resentment toward people of Mexican descent in the Southwest. Competition for scarce jobs and resources resulted in a search for scapegoats. The open border policy that had characterized the United States during the 1920s was later transformed by immigration restrictions, and the unskilled jobs that had formerly been open to Mexican and Mexican-American applicants disappeared. Many Mexican-American citizens were viewed and treated as unwanted outsiders. Schooling was difficult to obtain for both social and economic reasons, and few Mexican-Americans were able to finish high school. Some businessmen, however, especially restaurateurs, were able to survive by catering successfully to the Anglo population. By 1930 the people of Mexican descent in Houston had developed into three social classes: the long-time working class residents, the middle-class professionals and merchants, and the newly arrived, generally unskilled laborers. The longtime residents and their native-born children continued to work as unskilled and semiskilled laborers and craftsmen. The 1930 census indicates that of the 14,500 Mexican-Americans living in Houston, 568 worked in railroads, 382 in restaurant- and hotel-related businesses, 293 as laborers in road and street work, and 259 as construction laborers. In Magnolia barrio, women worked in textile plants making burlap sacks, as well as in other small industries.
Nevertheless, there was a small group of people who had come from Mexico as professionals. Others, or their children, managed to get an education after their arrival in Houston. A few graduated with civil engineering degrees from the Rice Institute, now Rice university. Others became lawyers, but these were the exceptions. As one informed observer noted, At that time, it was often the first Mexican-American doing this or the first Mexican-American being that.’ Others managed to parlay their entrepreneurship to achieve a comfortable and socially prominent status. The third group was composed of newly arrived people who came either from rural Texas or from Mexico. For them the work was hard, almost brutal. Even though they lived in a big city like Houston, trucks would For them the work was hard, almost brutal. Even though they lived in a big city like Houston, trucks would come by to pick them up to work in the fields for a week or a month at a time.
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Azteca Theater, 1920. |
The times brought a decrease in cultural events for Mexicans as well as for other groups. Members of the Sociedad Benito Juarez could not pay their dues, so in 1932 they lost the hall they had so proudly dedicated four years earlier. La Gaceta Mexicana had to cease publication, and other newspapers came out only sporadically. The Fiestas Patrias were celebrated in a much less festive fashion. Increased ethnocentrism was reflected in the behavior of law enforcement officials. During early 1932, three incidents in which Mexicans were shot by police raised the suspicion and ire of the Mexican-American community. In one of these incidents, the individual was shot without evident provocation. Despite the participation of lawyers brought from San Antonio by the Mexican Consul in Houston and the testimony of nine eyewitnesses, the grand jury failed to indict the officers involved.
In order to counter some of the racism and to reassert themselves, a number of business and professional people founded the Latin American Club (LAC). Their choice of the term "Latin American" was intentional and indicative of the need they felt for distancing themselves from the negative connotation that the name ‘Mexican" had in the Anglo mind. Their activities focused on incidents where the rights of people of Mexican descent were infringed upon both at work and by the police. In 1938 LAC became Council No. 60 of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC was founded in 1929 in Texas, and although it became the dominant Mexican-American organization in Houston, its members refused to use the term "Mexican" in their name. LULAC was especially influential in the 1940s and 1950s, speaking out against police brutality, pushing for better educational opportunities for Mexican-Americans, and urging them to take an active interest in the political process. In the 1950s Houston LULAC members were responsible for expanding LULAC membership along the Texas Gulf Coast. A total of five Houstonians became national presidents of LULAC in the 1950s and 1960s.
Mexican-American women also became more active and visible. One particular female branch of LULAC from Council No. 22 became very important in the 1950s through its sponsorship of local grass-roots projects in Houston. Among their activities were fund raisers for clothing, meals, and scholarships for needy area children. LULAC continued to grow, especially’ in the 1960s, so that by the early 1980s there were seventeen LULAC councils in Houston alone.
One of the most obvious signs that the Houston Mexican-American community had come of age in the post—World War II period was the opening of radio station KLVL in 1950, the first Spanish-language radio station in the Houston area. It was owned and operated by Mexican-Americans, a ‘first’ for Houston. "La Voz Latina" became the broadcasting voice of the Houston Mexican-American community. The founders of KLVL, Felix and Angelina Morales, had come to Houston in the early 1930s from San Antonio. They first opened the Morales Funeral Home on Canal Street in the Second Ward, and by the late 1940s it had become a community landmark. After World War II, they decided that the Houston Mexican-American community needed some sort of daily mass media, since the only public media that existed at the time were weekly community newspapers.
he
Moraleses applied for their radio station license in 1946,
rallying community support for their effort. Members of Houston’s Mexican-American
populace sent letters of support to the Federal Communications Commission. Finally, in
1950, KLVL received its license, opening on a very tight budget and with little
experience. The broadcasting tower and studio were established in Pasadena, hut within a
couple of years a Houston studio was built in the Second Ward. In the beginning the
station’s programming was bilingual; however, it gradually adopted more of a
Spanish speaking format. A large, receptive Spanish-speaking audience was discovered in
the Houston and Pasadena areas, and Anglo businesses were eager to reach the growing
Spanish-speaking population as advertisers.
KLVL likewise offered low-cost advertising for local Mexican-American businesses, and it addressed the needs of the Hispanic community with public service announcements as well as community programs and news. The station was often used to rally community financial support for Mexican-American families who had suffered some catastrophe, such as a death, illness, or destructive fire.
Of equal importance, KLVL allowed local Spanish language artists to have a voice on the radio. For the first time the community was entertained by Mexican and Mexican-American music. Since 1950 this radio station has been a fixture, symbolizing the growing sophistication of the post—World War II Houston Mexican-American population. Only’ in the late 1970s and early 1980s were other Spanish-language radio stations founded, and they were intended to be more cosmopolitan than KLVL by serving the growing Cuban, Puerto Rican, and other Latin American groups, as well as Mexican-Americans.
During World War II, a majority of Houston’s young men of Mexican descent were away in the service. Yet the Fiestas Patrias grew in festivity and visibility during those years. Indeed, these celebrations curiously served as occasions for the Mexican-American community to stress its contributions to the American war effort; they enabled members of the community to maintain a sense of personal identity amid the impersonality of urban American society—rather than to express loyalty to Mexico.
In the immediate postwar years, the celebrations of the Cinco de Mayo and especially the 16th of September celebrations developed a great deal of community support and enthusiasm. Returning decorated war heroes were publicly honored. By the mid-1960s, a parade down Main Street on the Saturday falling closest to September 16th was initiated. By 1969 an organization known as Fiestas Patrias was founded to organize this annual event. Fiestas Patrias and the Comite Patriotico are the two leading groups in Houston that now sponsor holiday celebrations. It should be noted, however, that various other groups such as LULAC hold their own celebrations in parks around the city.
In the period after World War II other new developments affected the inhabitants of the Mexican-American colonia. These were the dispersion of Mexican-Americans throughout the city of Houston and improved educational opportunities. Before 1950 Mexican-Americans belonged to a caste social system and were systematically shut out from housing and educational and work-related opportunities. They were "kept in their place," and when they walked into a store or restaurant away from their barrios, they were more than a little uneasy, never knowing whether they were going to be served or turned away If a boy played on a school baseball team, he was afraid he would be barred from playing with his teammates in certain sections of the city. But fear began to dissipate in the early 1960s as people moved into new neighborhoods. Some Mexican-American veterans took advantage of the GI. Bill and sought higher education. Their military experiences had awakened the desire for and expectation of equal treatment and equal opportunity, and they were no longer apologetic for being of Mexican descent.
By far the most widely acclaimed effort by Houston Mexican-Americans to increase their educational opportunities was the development of the "Little Schools of the 400" program. In the 1950s educators had estimated that in many areas of Texas fewer than 10 percent of all Mexican-American children who had started school ever graduated, owing primarily to the language barrier. A disproportionate and alarmingly high percentage of children speaking predominantly Spanish were failing in the first and second grades. By the time they reached the third grade, having already failed several times, they became discouraged and would drop out. It became evident to many that these children urgently needed to obtain a working vocabulary in English prior to entering the first grade.
To rectify this condition, LULAC
stepped in under the direction of its national president, Felix Tijerina, a Houstonian. In
1957 the league established summer school pilot courses called the "Little Schools of
the 400," which were designed to teach preschool children a basic English vocabulary
of 400 words in a matter of six weeks. Educators had concluded that with such a vocabulary
the Spanish-speaking child would have a fighting chance to complete first-grade work
successfully. With the encouragement of the Texas Education Commission and the governing
bodies of LULAC, the pilot program opened in Ganado, Texas, in the summer of 1957. The
following summer, LULAC opened ten more Little Schools in other South Texas school
districts. The program had excellent results. More than 80 percent of the children who
completed the program passed the first grade on their first attempt. By the end of the
summer of 1959, more than 1,500 children had completed the summer school course. The
strength of the program rested largely on the fact that the teachers were bilingual and
stressed full participation of the family in the educational process of the child.
The program, designed and initiated by Houstonians, became statewide when other members of LULAC from across the state registered as lobbyists and convinced the Texas Legislature to adopt this concept as the basis for the state’s Preschool Instructional Classes for Non-English Speaking Children Program in 1959. Before that time, money for the program had come from whatever LULAC could raise from the business community. The Houston LULAC leaders involved in the program’s development had for inspiration their own poor experiences in Texas public schools. By the summer of 1962, approximately 155 Texas school districts were participating and were instructing more than 18,000 preschoolers per year in the basic English vocabulary Although the program is still a functioning entity and part of state law, its concept served as the model for even more effective programs: Project Head Start, initiated in the mid-1960s, and the Texas Child Migrant Program and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Act, begun in 1965. Thus, the "Little Schools" had an impact far beyond their modest beginnings in the late 1950s, and they have influenced the whole course of Mexican-American education since that time.
A representative of the "World War II generation" is Raul Martinez, Harris County Constable for Precinct 6. Born and raised in Goliad County in South Texas, Martinez left home at age eighteen to join the Army during World War II and saw action in Italy Upon his return to Goliad, he found little opportunity there, and he migrated to Houston in 1945. After working at several different jobs, he applied for and was accepted into the police academy in 1950. His application to the academy became a community-wide effort, because there were no uniformed Mexican-American policemen in the Houston Police Department at that time. Martinez also earned his college degree from the University of Houston, attending under the G.I. Bill. He served for twenty-three years in the police department and retired in 1973. At that time he was appointed Constable for Precinct 6. As constable he has helped his community and has been active in Mexican-American groups such as LULAC and the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations (PASO). Martinez has lived for more than thirty years in the Denver Harbor subdivision, where he is a very active, visible Mexican-American community leader.
Coming of Age: The 1960s and 1970s
orld
War II military experience, improved educational opportunities, and the growing
sophistication of the city of Houston led the Mexican American community to increase its
political activity. The Harris County PASO emerged between 1958 and 1961 as the Civic
Action Committee and produced a significant chapter in Houston Mexican-American political
history. It consisted of a group of concerned Houstonians who rallied around the 1958
gubernatorial candidacy of Henry B. Gonzalez. State Senator Gonzalez was not victorious in
his gubernatorial campaign, but his activity sparked the political activism of
Mexican-Americans that had started during World War II and had grown during the Korean
conflict. Following the Gonzalez campaign, the Civic Action Committee grew as it sponsored
poll-tax drives to make the Mexican-American vote a viable political force in the Houston
region. It also began publishing a politically oriented newsletter that helped to keep the
community informed.
PASO continued the tradition started by CAC of instructing members of the community in the electoral process, sometimes even showing people how to use a ballot box. PASO differed from other Mexican-American groups such as LULAC in that it actively helped political candidates whom it felt would best serve the interests of the Mexican-American community—especially liberal Democratic candidates. In the PASO organization of the early 1960s, membership was composed of entire families, thus drawing upon the strongest social unit in Mexican-American culture. PASO’s voter registration headquarters on Navigation Boulevard became a community center during those years. PASO is still in existence and is perhaps the most viable Mexican-American political group in this region. Another such organization is the Harris County Hispanic Caucus, which began as a splinter group in the 1970s.
The civil-rights movements of the mid-1960s mobilized many people in the Mexican-American community of Houston. The most significant event was the Minimum Wage March that made headlines in Texas in 1966. It did not take place in Houston, but a large number of Houstonians were involved in its planning and execution. The affair sprang from the economic plight of Rio Grande Valley farm workers who were making between forty and sixty cents an hour. In June 1966 a United Farm Workers Association called a strike—a huelga—against the growers of Starr County. They asked for a $1.25 hourly wage and union recognition. Houstonians in organizations such as LULAC, the G. I. Forum, and PASO responded to the call for help and encouraged their members to participate.
Many Mexican-American churches in Houston, both Catholic and non-Catholic, offered to serve as assembly points for gathering food and clothing from the Mexican-American community to help meet the needs of the Valley strikers. Houstonians transported the food to Rio Grande City, where the march was to start. More than forty Houstonians joined the seventy-five farm workers to begin the march to the state capitol in Austin to demand that a special session of the legislature be called. When the march began on July 4,1966, two Houstonians—the Reverend James Novarro and Father Antonio Gonzales—assisted labor leader Eugene Nelson in leading the march. All along the way from Starr County to Austin, some 491 miles in very hot weather, the marchers were joined by thousands of sympathizers. Finally, just outside of New Braunfels, the march was met by Governor John Connally, who told them that he would not call a special session of the legislature. Undaunted, the marchers went on to Austin, where they were met by such supporters as Senator Ralph Yarborough and Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez. Houstonians were prominent in the crowd of some eight thousand people who descended on the capitol building to make one of the most significant appeals for social justice in Texas history. It was at this time that the term Chicano was increasingly heard. Originally used by and attributed to militants and activists, it eventually became almost interchangeable with the term Mexican-American. Even now, however, some people see it only as a label appropriate for young, politically active innovators.
nother event that generated Mexican-American political activism in Houston
occurred just before the 1970—71 school year, when the United States Fifth Circuit
Court ordered the Houston Independent School District to implement a desegregation plan
involving the pairing (the exchange of students by means of busing to achieve a racial
balance) of 25 elementary schools. The plan evoked strong opposition from the
Mexican-American community, since of 260 schools in the district, the 25 schools involved
in the pairing order were located mainly in the northeastern part of Houston in
predominantly Mexican-American and black neighborhoods. The plan involved the pairing of
15,000 residentially segregated black students, 6,200 Mexican-Americans, and 2,300 Anglo
students in neighborhood schools. Mexican-Americans claimed that they were being used in
the pairing with predominantly black schools so that Anglos could avoid integration. Some
members of the Mexican-American community felt that Chicanos had always been considered an
ethnic group separate from Anglos for housing and jobs, but now were being considered
white for integration purposes. The result was that Houston Chicanos boycotted the HISD
schools in September 1970 and opened their own hue/ga (strike) schools.
Of the 6,200 Mexican-American elementary students affected by the
pairing order, an estimated 3,500 to 4,500 were kept at home by their parents during the
three-week boycott, and of these about 1,000 were enrolled in the hue/ga schools
operated by the Mexican-American Education Council (MAEC). These hue/ga schools
were to continue in operation until the end of the 1973 school year.
In order to understand the causes and effects of the strike, it is important to know some of the history of Mexican-American school segregation in Texas. The 1876 Texas State Constitution established separate schools for "white" and "colored" children but never sanctioned separate schools for Mexican-Americans. School segregation of Mexicans began around 1902, and eventually a tri-ethnic school system comprising black, Anglo, and Mexican-American schools became dominant across the state of Texas. Generally, the segregation of Mexican-Americans was enforced by housing patterns, as well as the customs and regulations of school districts throughout the Southwest, rather than by state law.
In 1948 the state ruled against segregation of Mexican-American students in Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District. This ruling should have put an end to the tri-ethnic system, but it was not communicated to all the districts nor enforced. In 1954 the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka determined that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." In early Mexican-American desegregation cases, attorneys argued that Mexican-Americans were white and therefore should not be segregated into a tri-ethnic school system. After the Brown decision Mexican-American school cases assumed a new dimension. Since Mexican-Americans were generally classified as whites, school districts began to integrate blacks and Mexican-Americans, while Anglos were assigned to all-Anglo schools. In order to apply the Brown decision, Mexican-Americans had to gain legal recognition as an identifiable ethnic minority group.
It was not until June 4,1970, in Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District, that Judge Woodrow Seals ruled in Federal District Court in Houston that Mexican Americans are an identifiable ethnic minority for the purposes of public school desegregation. With this decision, Mexican-Americans became a recognizable legal population whose identity had to be considered when trying to put a unitary school system into operation. Judge Seals ruled that integration of blacks and Mexican-Americans failed to produce a unitary school system.
On May 24, 1971, the Mexican-American Educational Council (MAEC) tried to intervene in the Houston school case but was thrown out of court. The Mexican-American community was up in arms when Judge Connally accused Mexican-Americans of being racist: "Content to be ‘White’ for these many years, now, when the shoe begins to pinch, the would-be interveners wish to be treated not as Whites but as an ‘identifiable minority group.'''
The battle against pairing lasted until June 3,1973, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that a unitary school system could not be achieved through the integration of blacks and Mexican-Americans. The decision in this case, known as the Denver School Case, finally ended the boycott and the hue/ga schools.The Houston school walkout was a reflection of the times. In California, thousands of Mexican-Americans had also walked out of schools claiming poor facilities, poor education, and an alarming drop-out rate, which were present as well in Houston. It also appears that Mexican-American parents felt a certain racism and uneasiness at the prospect of being integrated only with blacks, claiming that they were also an educationally disadvantaged group. This reflected the mounting tension between blacks and Mexican-Americans.
Although the pairing plan by itself was unsuccessful, there were certain gains from the experience. It highlighted the inadequacy of the school system in meeting the needs of Mexican-Americans. The pairing order made Mexican-American parents realize that their children were not receiving good educations, and that these educational problems were not going to get any better by mixing with another minority with its own attendant educational problems. The school district responded to the demands of Mexican-American parents by hiring more Mexican-American teachers, even advertising in other cities in order to get them in sufficient numbers. From 1970 to 1972 the number of Mexican-American teachers in Houston public schools increased from 181 to 300.
he hue/ga schools fostered the development of
Mexican-American leadership and unity. People donated books and supplies to the schools,
teachers volunteered their time, and University of Houston psychology majors came and
tested the children for placement. The boycotters were supported by the Mexican-American
Clergymen’s Association of Houston. In a letter the clergymen demanded recognition of
Mexican-Americans as an identifiable ethnic group and gave their support to the school
boycott: ‘In light of the apathetic slowness of due process’ in achieving social
change, the exercise of this right will expedite the final acceptance of our people as an
ethnic minority." The clergymen called for integration of all, not just blacks and
Mexican-Americans. As evidence of their support, they offered buildings and private
schools to be used as boycott schools. The clergymen represented the Centro Social de Casa
de Amigos of the Presbyterian Church, the El Mesias and Good Shepherd Methodist Churches,
the Holy Name Catholic Church, and the Disciples of Christ. In a letter addressed to the
Houston City Council, they said: ‘The Blacks and Browns are minorities that are often
forced to vie against each other for the offerings of the majority." These
clergy saw this as the reason for the growing number of violent incidents between blacks
and Mexican-Americans in Houston schools and communities.
As with any kind of group effort, leaders emerge as part of the process. Leonel Castillo, then chairman of the Mexican-American Educational Council, and Joe Torres, principal of the hue/ga schools, were salient figures. Along with others, they provided inspiration in the face of many difficulties that had to be overcome. The success of the boycott and the hue/ga schools was not obtained easily, and the unified effort and unflagging cooperation that these leaders engendered were essential. In the aftermath, Leonel Castillo ran for city controller of Houston in 1972 and won.
Even as the hue/ga schools were unifying the Mexican-American community, a group of young people felt that the pace of change was too slow. Many of them were members of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO); they formed the Raza Unida Party to challenge the traditional parties, especially the Democratic, which they felt had taken Mexican-Americans for granted for too long. It began in San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley in 1970, but its activity soon spread to the whole state. In Houston the party became very active, particularly among younger Mexican-Americans who had received more education. They invited Ben Reyes to run for state representative on their ticket, but instead be ran successfully as the Democratic Party candidate.
Although the Raza Unida Party lost impetus after 1976, its considerable efforts at political education complemented those of PASO and contributed substantially to stimulating more Mexican-Americans to become politically aware. This increased participation,
in turn, helped make people more ready to react to perceived social and official injustices. An example occurred on May 5,1977, the Cinco de Mayo. Joe Campos Torres, a United States Army veteran, was arrested by a group of Houston policemen for drunken disturbance in a Houston nightspot. He was subsequently beaten and thrown into Buffalo Bayou, where he drowned.The reaction from the Mexican-American community was immediate and intense. An organization called People United to Fight Police Brutality was formed to protest the death and ask for justice. It bad strong youth participation, but women also played a significant role. Mrs. Torres, Joe’s mother, was very involved in People United during its first few months. The group organized marches within a few weeks after the homicide and handed out leaflets throughout the summer. In late summer 1977 the trial of the policemen began in Huntsville, having been moved from Houston at the request of the defendants’ lawyers. People United arranged transportation to bring members of the community to the trial. During this time, there were demonstrations being held on weekends. In October the verdict was in: the crime was ruled a "misdemeanor," and the police officers each received a one-dollar fine. The public outcry against the verdict could have been predicted. "A Chicano’s life is only worth one dollar" became the new cry from the Mexican-American community, as they dramatized their outrage by pinning dollar bills to their clothing. The verdict itself led to still more demonstrations in which even more groups became involved. Finally, a federal court decided to try the policemen for civil rights violations. The stage for demonstrations then became the Federal Building. Picket lines were organized and tension was high. In the end the federal verdict was as unacceptable to the community as the state verdict had been. In April the offending police officers were sentenced to serve a year and a day, a sentence that meant they could be paroled in nine months. The disappointment and anger throughout the community was evident.
A month after the federal sentence was imposed, about three thousand members of the Mexican-American community were celebrating the Cinco de Mayo in Moody Park. It was a year to the day after Joe Torres’s arrest and death. A fight broke out among some of the celebrants. When some people tried to intervene, the smoldering anger erupted, rocks began to fly, a police car was set on fire, and a riot was in full swing. Stores were looted and set on fire. The Houston police SWAT team arrived and pushed the crowds out of the park. During that night and the one following, about four hundred people were arrested. But the riot seemed to have had a somewhat cathartic effect, and the community’s anger began to subside.
These groups, which had sprung from a united opposition to police brutality and a perceived lack of justice from the court systems, broke up. Some felt that the fight for justice should continue, while others were of the opinion that there was nothing more that could be done in the particular case of Joe Torres. They felt that some progress could be made through traditional channels, such as the appointment of more Mexican-American judges and community efforts to sensitize police officers to Mexican-American needs and culture.
Mexican-Americans in Houston in the 1980s
According to the official figures in 1980, the population of the Houston metropolitan area was 2.9 million and Hispanics numbered 400,000 (14.6 percent); however, Spanish-language radio stations, such as KXYZ, claim this figure is too conservative. They contend that they have one million Spanish-language listeners. Although Mexican-Americans live throughout the city (only 25 percent of the census tracts have fewer than 1 percent Spanish-speaking people), Magnolia, North Side, and Denver Harbor remain the Mexican-American barrios in the city, while Pasadena and Galena Park are suburbs with large Mexican-American communities.Education continues to be the key to social mobility in the United States, and Mexican-Americans still lag behind. According to the 1980 census, in Texas only 34.3 percent of Hispanics over the age of twenty-five had finished high school; in California, it was 43.2 percent, and in New Mexico, 49.1 percent. This means that for every one hundred Anglos who complete high school, sixty-six Hispanics finish in New Mexico, fifty-six in California, and fifty-three in Texas. In Houston there has been a considerable increase in the number of Mexican-American children enrolled in the Houston Independent School District, even as the number of Anglo and black children has decreased. In the school year 1977-78 there were 60,000 Anglo children, 91,000 blacks, and 47,000 Hispanics. Five years later, there are 50,000 Anglos, 86,000 blacks, and 58,000 Hispanics. Even though these figures are encouraging for Mexican-Americans, the dropout rates in grades 7 through 12 are 10 percent for Anglos, 8 percent for blacks, and 14 percent for Hispanics. In large part, the decreased number of Anglos can be attributed to white families moving to Houston suburbs where school districts are still predominantly white. The increased number of Hispanics is due in large part to the increase in the city’s Hispanic population. Other school districts in the Houston area have 77 percent Anglo enrollment, 11 percent black, and 12 percent Hispanic. Catholic elementary and high school enrollment in 1982 was 62 percent Anglo, 13 percent black, and 25 percent Hispanic. A more telling indicator is enrollment at the University of Houston: in 1982, only 3 percent of its 28,000 students were Hispanic.
Houston Mexican-Americans are very active politically. They have elected Ben Reyes to the Houston City Council, and they have two Mexican-American state representatives: Al Luna and Roman Martinez. City controller Leonel Castillo was appointed commissioner for the Immigration and Naturalization Service by President Carter in 1977, and in 1979 his candidacy for mayor, though unsuccessful, generated much interest.
The Fiestas Patrias celebration in September is still the major social event for Mexican-Americans in the city in the 1980s. The parade, the ball, and family outings to the parks are all very well attended. Other social events are patronized by subgroups such as the Club Mexico Bello, which celebrates its sixtieth anniversary in 1984. They tradition ally hold a Black and White Ball in January and a Debutante Ball in October. The Associacion de Charros de Houston, a Mexican horsemanship club, holds charreadas (a type of rodeo) regularly. The Institute of Hispanic Culture overarches Mexican-Americans and other Hispanics. Its most spectacular event is an elaborate ball called Noche de las Americas (Evening of the American Nations) celebrating Columbus Day The diplomatic and international communities are invited, as are well-known political and media personalities in the city.
n spite of the efforts of groups such as these, the
public image of Mexican-Americans in Houston is continually blurred by the influx of
immigrants from Mexico. The general public often does not distinguish between
Mexican-Americans and the new arrivals. The latter often, but not always, come without
documentation authorizing their residence and sometimes do not plan to stay in the United
States. The problems faced by these people redound in many instances to Mexican-Americans.
The plight in the United States. The problems faced by these people redound in many instances to Mexican-Americans.
The plight of Mexican children who, without legal residence permits, were refused public education in Texas mobilized wide Mexican-American support and community concern. The Center for Immigrants was incorporated in 1978 to provide legal assistance to people who wish to rectify their immigration status. In addition to this advisory type of legal work, Isaias Torres and other staff attorneys of the center initiated a legal suit in Houston, joined with other suits within the state, to challenge the Texas law that allowed school districts to charge these children a prohibitive tuition. The case was decided locally in favor of the children, and after being challenged, the decision was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in 1982. Yet, the issue of undocumented immigrants from Mexico continues to draw unfavorable attention to the Mexican-American population of Houston and produce unpleasant reactions against them, regardless of the fact that they may be first, second, or third-generation Houstonians.
Mexican-American public identity is also blurred by the influx of people from other Latin American countries. Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, and other Latin American communities have increased in numbers in recent years. These ethnic communities are often grouped in the public mind and media and simply labeled Hispanic. The commonality of such groups is often confined to a greater or lesser use of the Spanish language and to carrying a Spanish surname, and their cultural heritages are clearly distinct. They do not share a historical tradition, and although they can collaborate as they do, for example, in the Institute of Hispanic Culture, they find it undesirable to lose their ethnic identity and immerse themselves in a single group labeled Hispanic.
In their search for roots and identity, a group of Houstonians formed the Hispanic Genealogical Society in 1980. Rose Zamora Cope, a local businesswoman, is the 1983 president. The group meets at the Clayton Library. Other prominent Mexican-Americans include restaurateur Ninfa Laurenzo, who became the subject of a musical presented at Miller Outdoor Theater in 1982; executives Mary Medina, Manny Sanchez, Jose de la Cerda, and George Hernandez; community center directors Felix Fraga of Ripley House, Rachel Lucas of the Chicano Training Center, Gloria Guardiola of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican-Americans (AAMA), and Rita Rodriguez of the Magnolia YWCA. Four well-known educators are Guadalupe Quintanilla, assistant provost at the University of Houston; Delia Pompa, director of bilingual education at the Houston Independent School District; Tina Reyes, member of the HISD Board of Education; and Dorothy Caram, who in 1983 was named vice-chairman of the Civil Service Commission.
Mexican-Americans were one of the earliest and are now one of the most numerous of the distinct cultural populations in the rich ethnic kaleidoscope of this international city.
