Between 1900 and 1930, political turmoil in Mexico combined with the rise of agribusiness in the American Southwest to prompt a large-scale migration of Mexicans to the U.S. There were reasons on both sides of the border. Transformations in the Mexican economy under President Porfirio Díaz left many peasants landless and desperate; when he was overthrown in 1911, ten percent of Mexico’s population departed for the U.S. There they found work in mining and agribusiness, which were transforming the economy of the Southwest from a region of small, entrepreneurial landholders into one dominated by large enterprises employing wage labor.
The documents in this collection explore the social, political, and economic dimensions of the first mass migration of Mexicans to the United States. Migrants found themselves in a strange position—desired as workers by large business concerns but facing intense legal, political, and social discrimination. The collection offers multiple perspectives on the phenomenon of Mexican migration, including the accounts of scholars, journalists, employers, and migrants themselves.
This collection is designed to demonstrate the following historical understandings:
- To escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), tens of thousands of Mexicans immigrated to the southwest United States, where U.S. corporate investment in agriculture created many new labor opportunities.
- Diverse and often contradictory stereotypes of Mexican immigrants reveal both the complexity and diversity of this period of immigration, as well as American over-simplification of it.
- Mexican immigrants advanced their station by participating, both independently and in collaboration with other marginalized workers, in strikes for higher wages and better working conditions.
journal article
Mutual Benefit Societies in Argentina: Workers, Nationality, Social Security and Trade UnionismJournal of Latin American Studies
Vol. 30, No. 3 (Oct., 1998)
, pp. 573-590 (18 pages)
Published By: Cambridge University Press
//www.jstor.org/stable/158030
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Abstract
In the 'pre-history' of Argentina's labour movement lie the mutual-benefit societies. Although these associations embraced almost half of the workers of Buenos Aires at the time of the Centenario (1910) little is known about them. The article explores the main parameters shaping the development of the mutual benefit societies, their relationship to the immigrant communities and their role in relation to social security. It traces, finally, the ambiguous relationship between the mutual benefit societies and the emergence of Peronist trade unionism in the mid-1940s.
Journal Information
Journal of Latin American Studies presents recent research in the field of Latin American studies in economics, geography, politics, international relations, sociology, social anthropology, economic history and cultural history. Regular features include articles on contemporary themes, specially commissioned commentaries and an extensive section of book reviews. Instructions for Contributors at Cambridge Journals Online
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Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org) is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Cambridge University Press is committed by its charter to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible across the globe. It publishes over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries. Cambridge Journals publishes over 250 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide range of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today. For more information, visit //journals.cambridge.org.
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