Mexican History
Approximately half a million Mexicans had
immigrated to the United States during the
1920’s because of the Mexican Revolution. An
unknown amount immigrated into the United
States illegally. They mainly went to the south
and southwest. These people lived in barrios and
experienced heavy discrimination. They could
only could get low paying farm jobs, were
deported despite immigrating legally or having an
American born child, and had their houses raided
for simply “looking Mexican.” More than 3.7
million Mexican were deported between 1954
and 1957.
Garcia and Orozco were the inspiration for the
Other Latino History
Puerto Ricans were considered American citizens
since 1917 and could roam about United States
territory. After World War II, over a million Puerto
Ricans had moved to US mainland, mostly New
York. They experienced racial discrimination and
high poverty levels. American also became the
home to Cubans, who were accepted as
refugees fleeing Communist oppression after the
Cuban Revolution of 1959. Many Cubans were
professionals and business owners who stayed
in the Miami, Florida area.
Important people Latino
César Chávez and Dolores Huerta
ChAvez and Huerta were part of two groups that Americans of the
1960’s and 70’s
fought for farmworkers in 1965. They were merged
to create United Farm Workers. This group fought
for union recognition, increased wages, and better
By: Marlea Pavlick
work benefits. They had also organized a national
grape boycott as well as a 25 day fast in 1968. The
grape boycott lasted until 1970, when the grape
growers raised wages and improved working
conditions.
Diego Garcia and José Orozco
Chicano Mural Movement. This was a movement
in the urban southwest in the Mexican- American
barrios of Texas and southern California. Teams
painted large murals on city buildings, schools,
churches, apartments, etc. in the style of Garcia
and Orozco that depicted issues of the 60’s and
70’s.

Works Cited
Appleby, Joyce, et al. United States:
History & Geography. McGraw-Hill
Education, 2018.
League of United Latin Mexican American
American Citizens Youth Organization
The League of United Mexican American Youth
Latin American Citizens’s Organization (or MAYO) was an
organization of college students
(or LULAC’s) purpose was
to fight discrimination that held walkouts and
demonstrations to protest
against persons of Latin
discrimination. One walkout
American Ancestry.
even lead to bilingual education
The American GI
Forum
The American GI Forum was to
protect the rights of Mexican
American veterans who
previously were excluded from
veteran’s organizations and
denied medical services from
the Veterans Administration.
The Bracero Program
Labor shortages in the
southwest lead to this
program. This entered
Mexican workers into
short term labor
contracts, usually as low
wage farmworkers.

Major events Legacy

Major events in Latino American history were the
Mendez v. Westminster and the Hernandez v. Texas
cases. The Mendez v. Westminster case was of a
group of Mexican parents that challenged school
segregation in California. The parents eventually
won the case, which was a big win for Mexican
Americans who had dealt with segregation in
schools. This also caused LULAC to file a similar
case two years later to end the segregation of
Spanish speaking children into “Mexican schools.”
Similarly, Hernandez v. Texas also granted more
rights to Latino citizens with the ending of exclusion
of Mexican Americans from juries in Texas.
The legacies of the Latino American’s efforts in the
1960’s and 70’s made America the way that it is
today. The efforts of the various organizations that
were created during this time helped grant rights to
Latino Americas who had faced difficulties in America
during this time so that their children and children’s
children did not have to go through some of the
hardships that they had to go through. For example,
the American GI Forum helped pay the poll taxes for
poor Hispanics, fought against segregation in
schools, and helped fund attorneys for Latino
American rights among many other things. Groups
like the American GI Forum helped Latino Americans
gain their rights as Americans.