LATIN AMERICA IN THE UNITED STATES: MIGRATION AND ITS (DIS) CONTENTS

By Emilio del Valle Escalante, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill edelvall@email.unc.edu

The Question of ‘Illegal Immigration’ My argument is that ‘Illegal immigration’

today—in reference to people who come from the South of the Rio Grande—is a problem created by the United States through its historically conflictive relationship to Latin America.

1. The United States – Mexican War (1845-1848)

2. The United States – Spanish War (1898)3. Guatemala 1954

Los Angeles Times

“Latino population approaching that of whites in California, census data show” (March 9, 2011).

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14.622.4

35.347.8

59.773.0

87.6

102.6

9.6

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010* 2020* 2030* 2040* 2050*

Population in millions

Hispanic Population in the United States: 1970 to 2050

*Projected Population as of July 1

ProjectionsCensus

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 Decennial Censuses; Population Projections, July 1, 2010 to July 1, 2050

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Top Five States by Hispanic Growth Rate:

2000 to 2006 8

Rank State

Growth Rate

(percent)

1 Arkansas 60.9

2 Georgia 59.4

3 South Carolina 57.4

4 Tennessee 55.5

5 North Carolina 54.9

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates July 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006

(For states with 100,000 or more Hispanics in 2006)

1. The United States – Mexican War (1845-1848)

Mexico ceded to the United States Upper California and New Mexico… and included present-day Arizona and New Mexico and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado … Mexico relinquished all claims to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as the southern boundary with the United States (National Archives).

The Treaty of Guadalupe de Hidalgo

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo states in 1848 : Those who shall prefer to remain in the said

territories [California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas], may either retain the title and rights of Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizens of the United States. But they shall be under obligation to make their election within one year from the date of the exchange of ratifications of this treaty; and those who shall remain in the said territories after the expiration of that year, without having declared their intention to retain the character of Mexicans, shall be considered to have elected to become citizens of the United States (Valdez and Steiner, 102).

‘We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us’

Chicanos

Chicanos

‘Mestizos—a powerful blend of Indigenous America with European-Arabian Spain’ (Valdez and Steiner, xiv)

Aztlan as the place of their origins.

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2. The United States – Spanish War (1898)

Supported by the U.S., Cuba begins its independence struggles against Spain in 1885-1898.

In the consequent battle again the U.S., Spain will lose its last colonies in the hemisphere: Puerto Rico, Philippines and Guam. (The struggle to

overtake Guam will later lead to a new war between the U.S. and Japan)

2. The United States – Spanish War (1898)

In 1906 President Roosevelt recommends that Puerto Ricans become U.S. Citizens.

The recommendation materializes in 1917 with the Jones Act

Treaty of Paris: Cuba gains its independence on Dec. 10, 1898.

1901 – 1934 the Platt Amendment

Guantanamo Bay Navy

Puerto Rico Cuba

General Smedley Butler (1881-1940)

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. .. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 … I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. [sic] Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents (“War is a Racket”)

From “War is a racket” (1935)

3. Guatemala 1954

The United Fruit Company (UFCO)

Diego Rivera’s ‘Glorious Victory’

United Fruit Company (UFCO)

Allen W. DullesDirector of the C.I.A (1953-61)

John Foster Dulles U.S. Secretary of State (1953-9)

3. Guatemala 1954

Jacobo Arbenz Guzman General Castillo Armas

Bill Clinton Stated in 1999:

'For the United States, it is important that I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong, and the United States must not repeat that mistake.'

Sources:

Acuña, Rodolfo. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Longman, c2000. Print.

Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, c2007. Print.

Broder, John M. “Clinton Offers His Apology to Guatemala”. New York Times. March 11, 1999. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05EFD7163EF932A25750C0A96F958260 Accessed March 20, 2011.

Galeano, Eduardo H. Open Veins of Latin America : Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. New York: Monthly Review P, c1997. Print.

McCaffrey, James M. Inside the Spanish-American War : A History Based on First-person Accounts. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., c2009. Print.

Schlesinger, Stephen C., Stephen Kinzer, and John H. Coatsworth. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 2005. Print.

“Teaching With Documents:The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo”. United States National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/guadalupe-hidalgo/ Accessed: March 15, 2011.

Valdez, Luis, and Stan Steiner. Aztlan: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature. New York,: Knopf, 1972. Print.

“War is a Racket by Smedley Butler” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_EXqJ8f-0 Accessed: March 15, 2011.