I always bring up this story! Then I get angry when people don’t know about it. Of course I educate them about it. We must educate everyone about this story. 🙏🏼 Thank you for sharing.
If you can’t publish in the US, Alisa, why not pitch to an off-shore publisher? You have introduced the story beautifully here, and given the horror of those of us watching your country from the outside, I think there would be a keen audience…
I had read the "repatriation" carried out in the 1950s, but not the one in the 1930s. Thanks for getting the information out there. You are correct in saying that the fascistic methods are different and more thorough now. I have been thinking along the same lines.
Yet many people are just keeping their heads in the sand and don't realize the dangers to everyone, although brown and black people, LGBTQ and others are at higher risk. And they don't want to hear about it. How are your plans going for emigration?
It really pisses me off when people talk about leaving as if everyone can afford to do it. My husband and I left in 2018 for Guatemala and then Mexico. It was primarily because we had both lost our jobs in our 50s and 60s, respectively, and couldn’t find work in the US. Of course, trump’s installation in 2016 was another motivation. Fortunately, I had a small amount of money in a retirement account, because I made good money 1998-2012 until I was downsized, which is what we used to leave. We needed to find somewhere cheaper to live. Our financial situation improved in 2023, and we were able to return. We know how blessed we are that that happened. Even if we could leave again, which we cannot—I need my part-time job and my husband is disabled—we would not.
Thank you. I had never heard of this. It is valuable information that could promote helpful discussion right now. If you could self publish an ebook version or put it for sale on Amazon it might make a difference, raise awareness and open some muddled MAGA minds by exposing the corrupt political intentions underlying abusive immigration claims.
We are living in dangerous times. The elites: technocratic, political and commercial control everything and their grip on power grows ever stronger.
Community power and realistic alternatives to capitalism which support everyone are desperately needed.
Thank you for sharing this story. Information is power, these lessons from history and also from science are being forgotten and we will regret not heeding them when it is too late.
History is a key to the future that only works when it is taught. I would very much like to read your book and am positive there are many others who do as well. My family began collecting history books last fall in fear of losing an abundance of knowledge, knowledge like this.
I was aware of this story, I learned about it in my undergrad Mexican American Studies classes at Sonoma State University in the late 70's. It is a buried story like the hyperbole published in the LA newspapers in the 40's owned by W R Hearst, vilifying "Pachucos" and setting the police up against Chicano youth. "Nothing new under the sun," as I have read it said...
I always bring up this story! Then I get angry when people don’t know about it. Of course I educate them about it. We must educate everyone about this story. 🙏🏼 Thank you for sharing.
If you can’t publish in the US, Alisa, why not pitch to an off-shore publisher? You have introduced the story beautifully here, and given the horror of those of us watching your country from the outside, I think there would be a keen audience…
I had read the "repatriation" carried out in the 1950s, but not the one in the 1930s. Thanks for getting the information out there. You are correct in saying that the fascistic methods are different and more thorough now. I have been thinking along the same lines.
Yet many people are just keeping their heads in the sand and don't realize the dangers to everyone, although brown and black people, LGBTQ and others are at higher risk. And they don't want to hear about it. How are your plans going for emigration?
I have no money, so I can't leave.
Sorry to hear that
It really pisses me off when people talk about leaving as if everyone can afford to do it. My husband and I left in 2018 for Guatemala and then Mexico. It was primarily because we had both lost our jobs in our 50s and 60s, respectively, and couldn’t find work in the US. Of course, trump’s installation in 2016 was another motivation. Fortunately, I had a small amount of money in a retirement account, because I made good money 1998-2012 until I was downsized, which is what we used to leave. We needed to find somewhere cheaper to live. Our financial situation improved in 2023, and we were able to return. We know how blessed we are that that happened. Even if we could leave again, which we cannot—I need my part-time job and my husband is disabled—we would not.
Read the book "Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s" by Francisco E. Balderrama
Thank you. I had never heard of this. It is valuable information that could promote helpful discussion right now. If you could self publish an ebook version or put it for sale on Amazon it might make a difference, raise awareness and open some muddled MAGA minds by exposing the corrupt political intentions underlying abusive immigration claims.
We are living in dangerous times. The elites: technocratic, political and commercial control everything and their grip on power grows ever stronger.
Community power and realistic alternatives to capitalism which support everyone are desperately needed.
Thank you for sharing this story. Information is power, these lessons from history and also from science are being forgotten and we will regret not heeding them when it is too late.
Thank you so much for sharing this. My grandparents came to Michigan from Mexico in the 1920s. My dad's oldest brother was born in Detroit in 1934. I remember learning about Mexican Repatriation for the first time in 2017 and being horrified and also amazed that my family managed to stay here; according to this article, as many as 90% of Detroiters of Mexican ethnicity were deported: https://stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/research/2016-03-10/how-thousands-of-mexican-workers-were-sent-away-from-michigan-with-the-help-of-diego-rivera
I did learn about this in school in Texas, but not in history class. Like you, from grandchildren of citizens who had been removed.
I learned about it (indirectly) from the music of Woody Guthrie. His song was about the 1950s, but I did more reading based on that.
Thank you for writing this, I didn’t know about this!
I heard about this on a history podcast called Backstory.
Wow. Just wow.
Thank you for posting this, so important!
Thank you
History is a key to the future that only works when it is taught. I would very much like to read your book and am positive there are many others who do as well. My family began collecting history books last fall in fear of losing an abundance of knowledge, knowledge like this.
I was aware of this story, I learned about it in my undergrad Mexican American Studies classes at Sonoma State University in the late 70's. It is a buried story like the hyperbole published in the LA newspapers in the 40's owned by W R Hearst, vilifying "Pachucos" and setting the police up against Chicano youth. "Nothing new under the sun," as I have read it said...
sharper tools?
i like to play with sharp tools too ;)
Thanks Army!
And Thanks Johnny Jihad