The hidden history of the “repatriation” by the U.S. government of over one million Mexicans in the 1930s became an emotional topic for professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos’ Monday night class.
Vazquez-Ramos invited Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodriguez, authors of “Decade of Betrayal,” to speak to his Chicanos and the Law class about their book, which covers the illegal deportation of over one million Mexicans back to Mexico during the Great Depression.
“Over one million Mexicans were deported and yet, have you read about it in your history books or heard about it before coming to Long Beach?” Rodriguez asked. “Not knowing is the greatest tragedy of all. We know about the Holocaust. We know about the Japanese camps in World War II, but we don’t know about the Mexicans.”
Rodriguez and Balderrama both stressed that of the” one million-plus Mexicans who were deported, only 50,000 were actually deported legally. According to Rodriguez, over 60 percent of those deported were children born in the U.S. and were thereby natural-born citizens of the very country that was expelling them.
“Everything that was being done was unconstitutional, was illegal. The Fourteenth Amendment applies to everyone. Where is the due process when a van backs up to a pool hall?” Rodriguez said in reference the nationwide raids.
For some students in the class, the repatriation of the 1930s hit close to home. Luis Martinez, a senior Chicano/Latino studies major, spoke of his grandfather, whom had been illegally deported during the 1930s.
Martinez had always assumed his grandfather had been born in Mexico. He later discovered while interviewing him for an elementary school assignment that he was actually born in Downey, but he refused to give him details.
Balderrama and Rodriguez found that same reluctance while doing interviews for their book.
“People who had been repatriated and came back never told their families because they were ashamed,” Rodriguez said, holding back tears. “Maybe that’s one of the reasons it never got out.”
The subject matter proved emotional for many in the audience.
Nehemias Hernandez, a senior Chicano/Latino and religious studies major, had difficulty containing his emotions while discussing the return of those whom had been repatriated.
“This land has been ours for 1,000 years … whatever flag may be on this country, it’s la tierra [the land] that calls us back. People don’t understand that this is our land,” Hernandez said.
During the two-hour lecture, Balderrama and Rodriguez talked not only about the repatriation itself, but also about the aftermath that accompanied those who had been deported to a country that they didn’t belong to.
“They might as well have sent us to Mars,” said Rodriguez, quoting one of the children that were deported to Mexico during the 1930s repatriation.
Balderrama also discussed the culture shock and the impoverished conditions that many endured upon their arrival to Mexico. Some of the children who had been born in the United States didn’t even speak Spanish. Others had to accustom themselves to a new manner of dressing and a more conservative, restrictive lifestyle. Many were deported with nothing but the clothes on their back and dumped on the border.
The authors also drew parallels between the actions of the 1930s and the climate of the nation today.
“When you read ‘Decade of Betrayal,’ draw comparisons between then and today,” Balderrama said, saying Mexican immigration becomes lax in times of American prosperity. “There are cycles of acceptance and rejection occurring and reoccurring – be watchful.”
Balderrama and Rodriguez considered one million to be a conservative estimate of the actual number of Mexicans that were illegally deported during the repatriation of the 1930s.
