Mexican laborers being deloused with

pesticide at the border before entering

the country.
https://zinnedproject.org/materials/ringside-
seat-to-a-revolution/

RACIALIZATION OF MEXICANS
IN THE 19TH CENTURY
“Events and Mindsets that gave way to the treatment of Mexican people
in the west”

Leonard Martinez
HST 342 – US West 20th Century
April 30th, 2018
Instructor: Donald R. Guillory II
 INTRO:
• As the nation expands west, new opportunities
are given to the American people to expand and
explore new lands fertile for new begging's.
Coming for the east, new hopes and aspiration to
pursue the “American Dream” are given to the
west as settler move in and confirm theory's of the
new lands.
• Settling in the west, there is new social
interactions occurring allowing for people to
interact with new people of different ethnic
cultures. One in particular, indigenous to the west
was the Mexican People.
• Having open borders for so long, and in a sense
needing more people to establish the west, the
Mexicans were the people who built the west
from the ground up. As the west grew, so did the
views of Mexican people. Instead of taking a
positive outlook/approach towards the Mexican
people, things went negative very fast.
INTRO:(CONTINUED..) Where is all this going to take place?
This project, will summarize some events in
American history and pre-made mindsets
already in place that affected the outlook and
treatment of Mexicans.

• Question being Answered:

• “How does the treatment and discriminatory
actions against the Mexican/Latino people in El
Paso feed into the racism of Mexicans in the west?”
• Thesis
• “During the age of Progressivism in the west, the
U.S. border was not only a sign of opportunity but
of racial discrimination. Collective events and racial
mindsets in the west gave way to actions and
treatments of the Mexican people, thus the events
in El Paso birthed the racialization and
discrimination of Mexicans in the 19th Century”.
We will be looking at all these historical events that took place in Texas. As a state right on
the border and coming out of Texas Revolution (which will be briefly discussed), all the
events that took a racial outlook and outcome towards the Mexican people happened in
this state.
Narrowing in using David Romo’s
studies along with various other
studies/historians, El Paso is
where the border troubles
occurred and where our studies
will take us to

So without further ado, lets get started….

PRE-EVENTS/NOTIONS/MINDSETS: (Using Molina’s Work)
Before hitting out main events that show the treatment of the Mexican people and their “Pre-Racialization of Mexicans”,
we must first dive into racial tension already present, ideologies, and the overall outlook of Americans on race ( anyone of
different color other than white )
SLAVERY & NATIVE • As History mentions the Arrival of Anglo-British Colonists with Christopher Columbus, we have the first encounter with Native Americans. Right then
we see an already previous notion of Anglo superiority due to English conquest shape the description of natives as “savages” and “people that do not
AMERICAN'S know better”
• With the patters of slavery, there is a notion of owning another person in place which again plays in superiority. As people of color and owned the
argument emphasized is that the Anglo Americans have had a position of Superiority over Black African Americans (Molina, 2010)
• Expanding west, mindsets derived from slavery carried along into the west, thus impacting the Mexican People. As Molina emphasizes in her article
“The power of racial scripts” from the University of California “It was common, for example, for White Americans to discuss Mexicans as ‘‘the negro
problem’’ of the Southwest”

• With Native Americans, treatment of their people is best categorized by the events that took place around the 1830’s till even now.
• Treatment of the native Americans by forcing them out of their lands, ethnic fighting between whites and natives, the era of scalping, and protestant
approaches to the native people show that whites also viewed natives like the salves as inferior people to the white (Molina, 2010)
• Best example of casting them out of society with hopes to eventually extinguish them as history progressed was the Trail of Tears (illustration to the
right)
• Again, showing the mindset angle American had of superiority over other ethnic groups and races

MANIFEST DESTINY &

MEXICAN AMERICAN WAR
• This is said to be the first Racialization of Mexicans, the Mexican American War Erupted Because of Manifest Destiny.
Manifest destiny was “a phrase used by politicians, officials, and journalists beginning in the 1840s to justify westward
expansion.” (Molina, 2010).
• As an ideology, “it expressed a belief that those who were taking over the lands were spreading democratic institutions for
those who were not capable of self-government” (Molina, 2010).
• Being so, the Mexican American war erupted as a means for America to gain more land although arguing Mexico was unfit to
rule there lands.
• The Mexican American War with the usage of Manifest Destiny to justify the actions of the greed expansion west, in short,
created a nation of “Second class citizenship of the Mexicans.
• Thus, as a directed result like history shows us, the American view toward Mexicans was that the Mexican people, like the
slaves and native Americans, they were now an Inferior “Race” (Molina, 2010)
PRE-EVENTS/NOTIONS/MINDSETS: (Continued)
• Mexico lost nearly half of its territory, including all or part of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas,
Oklahoma and New Mexico. Continental expansion satisfied the United States’ need for more land for cotton production during
slavery, highlighting how racial projects are coming west and are linking (Molina, 2010).

Expanding West resulted in…

The famous “Fight for Texas” battles,

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
• In short without going to much into detail, the treaty was as direct result of the Mexican
which eventually led to the Mexican
American War.
American War.
• It gave terms of citizenship of Mexicans that stayed back during the taking of the massive lands.
Famous battles between white settlers • With that, Mexicans didn’t have a choice to stay or go back, but were freely able to. Overnight, in
and Mexican armies in Texas were short, Mexicans in these western lands went from living in Mexico to living in the United States.
• The Alamo The had no voice.
• Battle of San Jancito • “Many lost their own land, and their culture, language, and religion were seen as inferior”
• Siege of Bexar (Molina, 2010).
• Although being part of the United States now, Mexicans although citizens, were treated like
blacks and were not allowed to vote in some states like California.

(John Pinheiro Study/Article)Anti-Catholic Movement

• Focusing on the religious aspect of expansion westward, in relation to the west and Catholicism, John Pinheiro in his article “Religion without Restriction: Anti-
Catholicism, All Mexico, and the Treaty if Guadalupe Hidalgo”, we are given another reason as to why the Mexicans are viewed as Inferior.
• Narrowing in on the religion of this time in Mexico, Catholicism was predominantly the main Christendom over the lands due to the country of Mexica being
controlled by the Spanish and their influence.
• As the Americans looked westward, the thought of Mexico having Catholicism customs only ignited manifest destiny even more.
• Mexico was bashed by media, social outlets, and politics for following the pope in its country more than the “actual word”
• John Pinheiro argues that “Anti-Catholicism had always existed in the English colonies and in the United States, but it had lain relatively dormant since the time
of the Revolution.” (Pinheiro, 2003).
• So as another motivating factor to go west was religion in order to end Catholicism. The notion that Mexicans did not know better and therefore needed to bet
corrected and freed from the crown of Spain and the Pope was present. (Pinheiro, 2003)
To Read More About Anti-Catholicism in the U.S go to
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/stable/3124986?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
 Getting Closer: Pre & Current Events Adding to Growing Tensions II
With history leading up to more events, we are now hitting an era where tension has already been
established and we start to see more events and characters that feed into more tensions between the
Americans and the Mexicans
• Mexico took its part in the fair share of tension growing with its home grown revolutionary General Francisco “Pancho” Villa.
• The Mexican Revolution had a major impact on the social, cultural, and political landscape of Mexico and the United States
along. Especially in the south west, revolutionaries migrated across international border in the 1900’s, Pancho Villa being one
of them (Levario, 2012).
• Being so, we start to see America focusing a little more on its borders, emphasizing border patrol operations.
Pancho Villa
• Known as a notorious leader and viewed as a dangerous revolutionary by the American government, Villa was viewed as a
threat to the borders.
• Seeing so, Villa led a massive movement against the American, resulting a catastrophic event that raised the tensions to a new
high.

• “The troubles began in 1916, when members of Pancho Villa’s army killed approximately fourteen American engineers in cold
blood in Santa Ysabel, Chihuahua“ (Levario, 2012).
• As a repercussion, as we now know Mexicans were viewed as a “race” and people of non-citizenship, Mexicans could now be
What he did to fuel the Tension
viewed as “proxies for the Mexican revolutionaries responsible for taking American Lives” (Livario, 2012)
• Hearing the news, this only added to the ill feelings in the societies on Texas in El Paso. This gave rise to the ill feelings and now
instilled fear that has always been present towards the Mexican people; Fear of an Armed Insurrection one day.

• In short, what occurred in Chihuahua, Mexico was a Massacre of white American Passengers.
• Being Villista forces lead by Pablo Lopez, they surrounded a train that came from EL Paso with C. R. Watson and his men to
Santa secure the region of chihuahua after Villa and his forces had taken it over.
• Hearing they were coming, they were swarmed, attacked, forced out the trains, stripped naked (being in nothing but socks or
Ysabel
even underwear), lined up, and executed one by one. (Levario, 2012)
Pablo Lopez Massacre
Killed, picture
• This of coarse got back to the sates, primarily in El Paso, fueling tensions once more to another extreme extent (Levario, 2012)
taken next to his • Fueling tensions, many viewed Villa as a murderer but those here in the states of Mexican decent had other views on the
body revolutionary” (Levario, 2012)
PICTURES OF THE AMERICANS DEAD FROM
THE SANTA YSABEL MASSACRE

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1056982#
Getting Closer: Pre & Current Events Adding to Growing Tensions II (Continued)
• Word got back, and people became infuriated in El Paso (Levario, 2012).
• Sending back trains to get the corpses, and the trains coming back with the bodies, mobs stated to break out in El Paso
(Levario, 2012).
• White people simply furious of what had taken place start to form mobs to express their discontent and protest
(Levario, 2012).
• As the train arrives in January 13, mobs joined at the United Sates Consul, T. D. Edwards headquarters (Levario, 2012).
• In short, the mobs is not getting the response they want and people are furious and feel the need to take action
(Levario, 2012).
• Tensions rose to violence in Chihuahua district of EL Paso, as soldiers from Fort Bliss attacked two Mexican Men in the
Chihuahua district.
• Soldiers were and started attacking civilians and civilians were starting to also fight back (tensions in Mexicans
expressed also) (Levario, 2012).
• The saloons gave out to their drunker people and they started to attack Mexicans also (Levario, 2012).
• Long story short, what resulted was a full fledge riot known with white soldiers on one side and Mexicans on the other.
• Huge numbers took to the streets, numbered to about 1500 participants, the Anglo rioters fought till night although
meeting intervention of the Police force of El Paso, both sides did not give out till military intervention came to place
(Levario, 2012).
• This resulted in the Race Riot of 1916, the first physical upheaval of race fighting between whites and Mexicans in El
Paso (Levario, 2012).
before continuing further… lets see why Mexicans were coming in and out of the borders…. What they were doing,
and why didn’t America just kick every out of their lands like the Native Americans.
As defined again by Molina, in the simplest of terms why the Mexicans were
still around was because like then and now, Mexican Immigration is primarily a
Labor Migration.

As the West comes under industrialization, even to the extent of

industrialization of El Paso and the importance of it, or states like California,
more land expansion in hopes of economic growth makes Racial Purity a
minimal priority as labor is more demanded. (Molina, 2010)
In Molina's article for example with the views of Mexicans in the fields in
California, those who supported immigration for Mexicans claimed that
Mexicans were better suited for the fields since “whites were not
biologically suited to toil in the heat” (Molina, 2010).
The argument proposed is that , racial purity was still in place, just not a
priority when coming to the west, thus when events previous to the ones
mentioned in the other slides exploited and erupted, a hidden mindset arose
and prevailed along society that was bottled for so long.
Thus, as we continue on, it is important to recognize the open borders that
were in place and the importance or Mexican crossing the border in EL
Paso like many other western cities as the need for a labor force to help
expand the newly gained areas is of top priority.

“Rapid population growth caused by the dramatic shift in racial demographics and
As Miguel Antonio economic hardships affected race relations between Anglos and Mexicans in El Paso. By
Summarizes 1916 the ethnic Mexican population of El Paso city proper outnumbered that of whites
emerging as the majority population in the city…..El Paso’s “Mexicanization” in the early
In “Militarization at the decades of the twentieth century contributed to racial tensions between the city’s Anglo
population and newly arrived Mexicans.” (Levario, 2012)
Border”
 EL PASO: THE
RACIALIZATION OF
MEXICANS BEGINS
As tensions finally broke with the race riots of 1816, we
now dive into the work of David Romo to provide more
proof of the racialization of the Mexican people with the
following events he describes of “ethnic cleansing” and
“fueled by Race hatred to people of color”
• The two events we will look at for proof is the cleansings
at the border of the Mexican people with examples and
the story of Carmelita Torres and the bath riots
Delousing Baths and
Indignation
In 1916, the same year as the race riots, health officials
here in the United states observed an increase in the
typhus fever in Mexico. Tying them together, the spike
increase in immigration along the U.S. border
questioned a physician by the name of Dr. Carlos Husk
to give a report on the issue of immigrants and the
typhus fever in El Paso. Reporting back, he milked the
pandemic, calling fourth “I think the typhus is going to
come here” after he said he found thousands had the
typhus south of the border (Levarios, 2012).
Prompting urgency, the typhus scare led to the now labeling of Mexicans as
being not only a security threat (as to what has been happening previously) but
as a health threat.
Tom Lea, Mayor of the City of El Paso, plays a crucial role in this
pandemic and the treatment of Mexicans at the border.
There had been a handful of deaths in the Mexican section of town
in 1916 from that disease and the mayor's good friend, Dr. Kluttz of
the U. S. Health Department, had informed him that typhus lice do
not stick to silk. (Dorado, 2005)
This exaggerated fear motivated Lea to telegraph Washington
asking for "quarantine camps" for all Mexicans crossing into the
United States. (Dorado, 2005)
He also started wearing silk underwear as he was told by his Dr. Kluttz
of the U.S. Health department that typhus carrying Lice did not like silk
(Dorado, 2005)
Sending his telegrams to Washington D.C. stating “hundreds of dirty lousy [sick]
destitute Mexicans arriving at El Paso daily will undoubtedly bring and spread
typhus unless quarantined at once.
 The bath houses stalls where
primarily women dressed out and
bathed, this is where the pictures
were taken of the women as they
bathed and Carmelita Rioted.

Picture of a bath House Near the border

Visuals

Massive Steam Driers, as mentioned

by Romo, would be used to dry the
peoples clothes after washing them.
Story behind this, Romo’s
Grandmother had to endure the
border and when they washed her
clothes along with her shoes the driers
were so intense it melted the soles of
her shoes. (Romo, 2004)
 •
Delousing
They even conducted IG test to see if the “Alien was
and IQ Testing?! (Rorado, 2005; pg: 236)

smart enough to enter the country. If they scored a low

IG, they were considered an “Undesirable Alien and
were sent back. (Rorado, 2005)
• Physical tests were conducted on these people also to
see if they were physically fit to conduct the manual
labor expected of them. (Immigration act of 1917,
2018)
• As part of the immigration act made in response to
WW1 and borders expanding, made by president
Woodrow Wilson, the Immigration act of 1917
extended a specific section that was already
established under previous acts and laws called the
“Undesirable section” (Immigration act of 1917, 2018).
• The undesirable section had specific rules, assessments,
and observations to be conducted on the physical body
and health, in order to determine who ever was coming
to the U.S and was deemed undesirable (Immigration
act of 1917, 2018).
• Continuing, order to conduct the new founding's of IQ
test (IQ test was invented by the Germans), this act
allowed for the IQ test to be administered to Mexicans
crossing the border in El Paso (Immigration act of 1917,
2018)
• With the IQ test, assessments were administered to the
Mexican people to see if they were physically fit and
homosexual (Rorado, 2005) • To read mora bout the racial testing in Texas visit:
• Repercussion of the Immigration act leads to Race http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=4100145&
ite=ehost-live
testing of blacks and Mexicans in Texas in the 1920’s
EL PASO: THE RACIALIZATION OF MEXICANS (continued)
• “The mayor wanted Mexican border crossers to be held in the
camp for 14 days to make sure that they were free from
disease.” (Dorado, 2005)
• The U.S. Public Health Service officials stationed at the El Paso
bridge thought the mayor was exaggerating. (Dorado, 2005)
• Although not getting the response he wanted for a quarantine,
he compromised and “Instead of putting all the Mexicans
coming to the United States in a quarantine camp, why didn't
they just force them take a bath when they crossed the bridge?
"I would cheerfully bathe and disinfect all the dirty, lousy people
who are coming into this country from Mexico," Lloyd informed
the mayor.” (Dorado, 2005)
• To the mayors persistence taking the advice, on January 1917
immigrant officials at the border began “bathing an average of
2,800 Mexicans a day” (Romo, 2004) at the Santa Fe bridge.
• As a result, Bath houses were made along the border and
fumigations started with pesticides and developed to other
means of cleanings for the “disease”.
• What eventually spread was a spread of fear against the
Mexicans people, an image of dirtiness and the un-wanting of
the Mexican people, along with a hidden agenda to ethnically
cleanse the lands.
An Example of Everyday Dousing At the Border:
https://vimeo.com/122487193
“At the customs bath by the bridge... they would spray
some stuff on you. It was white and would run down
your body. How horrible! And then I remember
something else about it: they would shave everyone's
head... men, women, everybody. They would bathe you
again with cryolite. That was an extreme measure. The
substance was very strong.” (Burnett, 2006)
Jose Burciaga, a janitor in El Paso in the 1920s
The Actual Dousing
One method of purification at the border and of preference, one Carmelita Torres had to face, was Gasoline.
“Of kerosene and vinegar, it was noxious but effective at killing lice, which carry typhus.” (Dorado, 2015)
“Before being allowed to cross, Mexicans had to bathe, strip nude for an inspection, undergo the lice
treatment and have their clothes treated in a steam dryer.” (Dorado, 2005)
The Mexican typhus scare ended by 1918, but the fumigations by the US Public Health Service did not. They
spread up and down the 2,000 mile border, yet in no other ports of entry, not Ellis Island, not San Francisco,
not Detroit were a class of foreign nationals required to strip naked, bathe and be disinfected.(Dorado, 2005)
By this time, the disinfection got a bit better, but pesticides were not being used. Other agents used as pesticides
were Sodium Cyanide, cyanogen, sulfuric acid, DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) (Dorado, 2005)
One in particular that was experimented according got Romo in his Article “The Mayors silk underwear” was Zyklon B.
extremely poisonous, the pesticide was later used in WWII by the Germans in their “disinfection chambers” to cleanse the
Jews (Romo 2004) (Gonzalez, 2013)
 CARMELITA TORRES AND THE BATH RIO
Proof that practices at the border were starting civil unrest and
dehumanization and mistreatment of the Mexican people by a typhus scare
gave the government to right to exercise in the upmost simplicity; Racism
The Story of Carmelita

• As an immigrant who traveled the border on a daily basis to come to the city of El Paso Juarez to clean houses on the other side,
Carmelita as another normal day to take a Gasoline shower at the border refused to do so.
• To David Romo's description of vents, tired of having to get treated like this again, especially as a woman, she “She gets the other
30 women in that electric trolley to get off the bus. Suddenly other people start seeing what's going on. They go up and start
protesting, and there's a huge riot.” (“The Bath Riots”, 2018)
• According to David Romo, the women had a good cause to be revolting after it was revealed them prior that in the brick building
under the bridge where they undressed to prep and were doused, health officials were taking picture of them and posting them at
local cantinas/bars. (Dorado, 2005)
• Revolting and protesting, they gained momentum and started rioting as recalling the events a year prior which was the Jail House
Holocaust in El Paso. (Dorado, 2005)

The Jailhouse Holocaust

• As mentioned before, a year before the riots, the jail house holocaust occurred in the El Paso’s city jail
out of an act of racial prejudice and discrimination
• Repeating delousing/bathing rituals, Mexican inmates would repeat the process of cleansing a few
times a month. (Levario, 2012) along with other inmates
• With Levarios article, the dousing would take place at the lower tier in an old cell room (Levario, 2012).
• As the dousing was about to start, the men were bathing and someone struck a match, lighting and
killing everyone dousing with fire. (Levario, 2012)
• 19 out of the 27 prisoners dead were Mexican. (Levario, 2012
 BRIEF RECAP WITH VISUALS
|TYING IT ALL TOGETHER|
• This impactful video
ties everything
together. Play close
attention to the
interviews given to
people and an
interview given to a
man who crossed
the border when he
was very young.
Notice the impact
left behind because
of it.
• Soak it in, reflect,
and imagine yourself
being asked these
questions. Better
yet, imagine being
an immigrant
fighting for a better
life and having to do
this everyday in
order to maintain
your family.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
Dousing
• The dousing is the key indicator of the
psychological breaking down of human beings
in El Paso.
• David Romo said it best as they are cleansing
Mexicans over the border for the disease in
Mexico, in a sense they have an opportunity to
assert power and ultimately perform acts of
Ethnic Cleansing. How can we back this up?
• After the typhus epidemic was determined to
be over ending the scare in 1918, the dousing
still continued at the border.
• The psychological toll they dousing took on the
Mexicans crossing made them inferior to white
by the notion that whites were not being
doused but only Mexicans
• Seeing it as completely useless and seeing the
true nature of what was technically going on,
Mexicans resorted to Illegal Immigration.
• Romo's studies, as indicated in previous slides,
show us also that to the extent of the Health
Department of the U.S., essentially the
Mexicans became there testing guinea pigs at
the border with different pesticides and
chemicals (Dorado, 2005).
What do all these events in El Spoken by Romo and Levario have to do with
Racialization of Mexicans? Well they speak for themselves…..
Treatment, Carmelita and the bath riots, The
Jailhouse Holocaust
• If dousing wasn’t enough, the people crossing
had to shave their heads, strip naked, have
their clothes and shoes steamed dried which
would burn an melt shoes (Romo, 2004)
• Not only this, bath houses spread all along the
Texan border to get more areas for ethnic
cleansing.
• With the Carmelita incident it shows the
seriousness of the topic of dousing. It was a
complete joke to the extent they are taking
picture of women for amusement; laughing at
the inferiority of the Mexicans as a whole
(bigger lese looking in)
• Further more, in Romo's interview, he goes as
far as to state that the government became
aware of such voyeur photos but to avoid
troubles, they sent a detective to investigate
and kept it under wraps none the less (Romo,
2004)
• The Jailhouse holocaust speaks for itself where
they have now with prejudice mindset, taken
action and killed people of color by means of
burning with the accomplice of the dousing.
The Mayor & The Scare
• The mayor playing a vital role, with his mindset
of racial prejudice, exponentially milked the
typhus scare way out of proportion (Romo,
2004)
• Granted a lot of false data was given on many
sides of the perspective, but ultimately the
mayor goals were carried out on basically
limiting Mexicans finally coming into El Paso.
• The fact he wore silk underwear shows,
according to Romo, that the man like many
others thought like him, “Ultimately the
mayor's silk underwear represents an atavistic
fear that is still very prevalent in this country
today--the fear of contamination.”, (Romo,
2004).
• This I why the role of the mayor is important,
not for all that he had caused, but for the
mindset very prevalent in the society of El Paso
during massive immigration of Mexicans to the
industrialized towns.
• Using the scare, the awaking Racial Purity once
again
• As a direct action, Ethnic cleansing was
established at the borders with the justification
of a typhus scare.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER (CONTINUED)
Between 1915 and 1917

“fewer than 10 El Pasoans had died

from the typhus lice that had so
terrified mayor Tom Lea. Yet the mayor
and the media had milked the typhus
scare for all it was worth with
sensational headlines.” (Romo, 2004)  Coming to a close we must ask, all these
buildings for cleansing, and all these
practices and dousing, the riots, what was
Ironically, in 1918, El Paso it for seeing that only in a span of 2 years
and the city of Juarez were
hit with the biggest while the typhus pandemic was around
pandemic ever, the Spanish only 10 people died?
flu. Not coming from Mexico  Better yet why did they continue and
but rather that deriving from
soldiers at fort bliss, the expand the U.S. boarder?
pandemic came form inside
the Unites States (Romo,
2004)
 TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: CLOSING THOUGHTS
It is clear as day, that thank to David Romo's study, that we must agree with his words that
the acts committed and conclude that the acts that led up to the boarder crisis at El Paso
along with the actual acts committed to the Mexicans crossing the boarder daily to gain
income and head back home, were acts of ethnic cleansing due to racism.

David Romo Posing at the Border Fence

Nothing was gained, on the contrary, other things came about:

• Illegal immigration
• Since the dousing was so horrendous to the Mexican people, the though to themselves, why should we put
ourselves through this type of punishment and why not cross through a remote area in the dessert?
• Granted the border patrol was established, but till this day from a bigger picture looking in, the social issue of illegal
immigration has sprouted now to a debate of broader proportion that has yet to be resolved.
• Racial Tensions between Americans and Mexicans
• As history has shown us, racial tensions persisted, no other side respected each other, and we embarked on
movement later in the future like so inequalities between Mexicans and people of Hispanic/Latin culture
• Perfect examples can be Cesar Chaves and his movement on labor for migrant worker or labor workers in the fields
(stemming from the outlook of why using Mexicans for so long has persisted).
• Orth examples are The Zoot Suite Riots and continuous outlooks on minority populations like the African Americans
and Asians; basically anyone of color or different origin of country.
SO WHAT DID EL PASO DO?
The events in El Paso and previous conflicts leading
The Specific Acts in El Paso:
and feeding into the mentalities of the people • further marginalized and stigmatized the
present in the west, El Paso helped capitalize and community as a threat to American security (Livario, 2012)
contribute to the Racialization of the Mexican • It Elevated Tension Between
people Mexicans and Americans to a boiling point
• Criminalized ethnic Mexicans and
Further more, once being labeled, the Mexican
people were discriminated and persecuted. further reinforced their status as an “enemy other.”
• Worsened the Pancho Villa problem as
Previous mindsets were forced to compromise in he vowed revenge for the Mexican People (Livario, 2012)
order to allow labor come through the borders.
As a result, bottling up hatred was stored in many
hearts of the American people till around 1915 to
1918 where separate little events stemming from
political differences and military events gave way to
awaken the hatred inside.
As a result, from an explosion of a racial riot, a time
frame when disease started gave way to racial acts
of discrimination and ethnic cleansing to finally
happen at the border
Santa Fe Bridge In El Paso 1745
 CONCLUSION Auschwitz
Bath House
The racial mindsets towards people of different color
has always been present in American history. of Cleansing
In regards to David Romo’s study and the event in El for the Jews
Paso, we finally get a glimpse of some the true racial
violence and civil unrest trickle to come between
Americans of Anglo decent and Mexican Americans.
Will this divisions ever be fixed?- till this day unrest
and racial mindset still exists and the war on
immigration and building a bigger wall to fortify our
border is some of the main topics of unrest still left
around by the events that took place in El Paso.
When will the west recognize the need and most of
all the importance of the Mexican people for the
culture of the west? Racial Purity still exists today due
to events like these and many others that have
occurred that still till this day feed into the mindset of
superiority all across the nation and across the world.
How was this ethnic cleansing any different from Bath House:
Hitler’s Genocide and cleansing of the Jews in Europe? Santa Fe
Was what happened in El Paso Justified? Bridge –
Thanks to David Romo’s, an uncovering of forgotten Mexicans
history has sprouted and shown us what we have
done to the Mexican people during times of expansion
Prepped for
and growth that till this day has yet to be fixed. dousing
From Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf”,
Hitler praises The United States
For the implementations on
immigrants
at its borders and the means the
the country has created to racially
purify its societies with social
and ethnic cleansings, this
was in response to the
Immigration Act of 1924 (Rorado, 2005;
pg: 240)
 WORK CITED
• "Immigration Act Of 1917". 2018. Immigration To The United States. http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/588-immigration-act-of-
1917.html. 
• "The Bath Riots". Zinn Education Project, 2018, https://zinnedproject.org/materials/ringside-seat-to-a-revolution/. Accessed 26
Feb 2018.
• Burnett, John. "The Bath Riots: Indignity Along The Mexican Border". NPR.Org, 2006,
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5176177. Accessed 25 Feb 2018.
• Dorado Romo, David. Ringside Seat To A Revolution. Cinco Puntos Press, 2005.
• Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy, Texas A&M University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1056982. In Text: (Lizario, 2012).
Chapters Used: 2-3.
• Molina, N. (2010). The power of racial scripts: What the history of Mexican immigration to the united states teaches us about
relational notions of race. Latino Studies, 8(2), 156-175. Retrieved from
http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/884675591?accountid=44
85
• Pinheiro, John C. “‘Religion without Restriction’: Anti-Catholicism, All Mexico, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.” Journal of the
Early Republic, vol. 23, no. 1, 2003, pp. 69–96. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3124986.
• Romo, D. (2004, May 07). The mayor's silk underwear; old and new fears at the el paso-juarez international bridge. The Texas
Observer Retrieved from
http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/203891135?accountid=44
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