Mexican American - History - Encyclopedia II

Main article: History of Mexican-Americans

Between 1845 and 1854, the United States acquired half of the territory of Mexico. Eighty thousand Mexicans lived in these annexed areas at the time. These new Mexican-Americans often worked as railroad crew, general laborers, ranch hands, farm workers, farmers, domestic servants and laundresses.

During the Great Depression, the Repatriation Movement caused much hardship for Mexican-Americans. After World War II ended, the Bracero Program was soon introduced. This program made it easier for Mexicans to come to the United States, but it often lead them to be exploited by their employers. César Chávez lobbied to end the Bracero Program. Later he helped found the United Farm Workers movement.

According to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, mayor of Mexico City, the main reason there have not been bursts of social unrest in Mexico is due to Mexican migration to the United States. Mexico has been the single largest contributor of immigrants to the U.S. At least four million Mexicans immigrated to the United States in the 1980s: 45% of the nine million immigrants who entered the country. During the 1990s, approximately five million Mexicans immigrated to the United States. In 2000, Mexican immigration is estimated to have been 350,000 and the most recent estimate (2004) is 500,000 per year.

The term Reconquista is used by some to describe the notion that some Mexicans or Mexican-Americans wish to return those portions of the United States formerly belonging to Mexico to the control of Mexico. The notion often exists more prevalently as a fear or threat in the beliefs of Americans of non-Mexican ethnicity, yet is an established notion. While immigrants in the U.S. of other ethnic backgrounds had to make a "break" with their home nations as a result of the geographic separation of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, Mexican-Americans often reside in close geographic proximity to their former home.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page