The Faces Of Immigration

Miguel Vega

ILAS 100

Professor Weffer

The faces of Latino immigrants.

Latino immigration in the United States stirs up a lot of controversy in both political and social aspects. Many people assume that all Latino immigrants share the same background and struggles in coming into the United States, people for the most part assume that all Latino immigrants are Mexican immigrants and that they crossed the Rio Grande illegally. The truth is, Latino immigrants come from various places of Latin America and they came into the United States in very different ways, in this blog I will talk about the three major Latino immigrants (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban) in the United States and how they differ from one another in terms of arriving into the United States and their integration into society.

Let’s begging with Mexican immigrants, Mexican immigration to the United States is not a recent occurrence this can be dated back to the 1800’s! When Mexico still owned most of the U.S South west states. We can say that Mexican immigration was a consequence of the U.S expansion to the south west, the article The Latino Immigration Experience: The Case of Mexicanos, Puertorriqueños, and Cubanos by Alicea Marisa states “The story of Mexican immigration to the U. S. starts with the invasion of the United States into Mexico”².  Marisa tells us that Mexican immigration was an event that was bound to happen since the United States set up a working environment which made it the center for opportunities and economic growth for new immigrants.  Another major event that brought Mexican immigrants was the Bracero Program of the 1940’s. This program brought in millions of Mexican workers for manual labor according to http://braceroarchive.org/about “From 1942 to 1964, 4.6 million contracts were signed, with many individuals returning several times on different contracts, making it the largest U.S. contract labor program.”

Puerto Rican and Cuban immigration to the United States was much different. In the case of Puerto Ricans there was an open route to the United States since Puerto Rico is a U.S territory and its people are American Citizens the reason why people started moving from Puerto Rico to the United States was a lack of jobs. For Cubans the route to the United States came in the form of visas and refugee statuses, since Cuba is a communist country the United States wanted people out of Cuba to get rid of communism.  “On October 3, 1965 President Lyndon B Johnson stated that those who seek refuge in America will find it” http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/exile/refugees.pdf this statement was a response to Fidel Castro when he addressed his nation that those who seek to leave Cuba were welcomed to leave.

The social statutes of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans were also different, Cubans were the most educated group most Cubans that came into the country had an established place to stay and a place of employment. Cubans also came into the country with their families so their integration into society was easier. Mexicans that came into the country were mostly males so they had to establish themselves on their own. Puerto Ricans were in between they had a mixture of both Mexican and Cuban immigration Characteristics.

With this blog I informed you about the differences in immigration when it comes to the different Latin American countries. People should recognize the different faces of immigrants and how their story changes with each country.

 ¹ Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. Third ed. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.

² Alicea, Marisa. The Latino Immigration Experience: The Case of Mexicanos, Puertorriqueños, and Cubanos. Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States: 3 March 25, 2015. Web.

Source for image:  Mexicanboarder.web