Latinos in Michigan

Contents

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p. ix-ix

Introduction

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pp. 1-2

The history of Latinos in Michigan is one of cultural diversity, institutional formation, and an ongoing search for leadership in the midst of unique, often intractable circumstances. While facing adversity as rural and urban immigrants, exiles, and citizens, Latinos have contributed culturally, economically, and socially to many important developments in the state’s history. They have coalesced into an internallydiverse entity as they have engaged in work, residence, and religion,...

Tejanos, Mexican Immigrants, and Mexican American Communities

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pp. 3-14

In the early decades of the twentieth century Mexican Americans in the ranches, towns, and farms of the lower Rio Grande Valley and the Winter Garden area in Texas began expanding as far north as Montana and Minnesota. Large corporations involved in the growing and processing of beet sugar contracted with local growers for the employment of out-of-state seasonal labor, thereby introducing Mexicans into the Michigan economy. The Texas Mexicans, or tejanos, Michigan’s first...

Pioneers of Latino Catholicism

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pp. 15-24

Part of the Latino contribution to Michigan lies in the community’s importance to religious institutions, both in lay participation and in the changes the Latino presence brought for archdiocesan and parochial policies on the part of Anglo clergy. Detroit, among the oldest cities in the United States, has played a particularly significant role historically in the implantation of Roman Catholics in the Great Lakes region, a role it has maintained for native-born and immigrant Latinos....

Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Other Latinos

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pp. 25-36

Michigan Mexicans generally enjoyed more rapid assimilation of American culture than was possible in the Southwest. Nonetheless,prevailing prejudices since the 1920s portrayed Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Michigan, particularly those in agriculture, as cheap, docile, and temporary laborers to be forgotten when no longer Caribbean contingent of Latinos—the Puerto Ricans. Technically considered migrants rather than immigrants because of U.S. citizenship...

Rise of Rural and Urban Activism

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pp. 37-48

The post–World War II decades brought about a rising awareness among Mexican Americans nationally of the need for collective mobilization to achieve full civil rights. One organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), had been active in Texas since 1929 in seeking equality regarding education, housing, and other launched investigations regarding discriminatory hiring practices in American veterans formed the G.I. Forum to alleviate discriminatory...

Regional Migration and the Metropolis

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pp. 49-54

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, since 1990 Latinos have accounted for more than half of the Midwest’s net population growth. More than ever, globalism, suburbanization, and neighborhood change have emerged as crucial determinants of Latino migration across borders and regions. Mexicans account for over two-thirds of the Midwest’s Latinos and for roughly three-quarters of Latino growth while the non-Latino white population has decreased. Other ,...

Contemporary Ethnicity and Leadership

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pp. 55-59

The Latino presence in Michigan increasingly involves integration into all areas of the state and integration into a wide variety of the state’s political, social, and cultural institutions. Michigan’s Mexican American communities, concentrated since the mid-1900s around Detroit, the “thumb,” and a few counties bordering Lake Michigan, now extend throughout the Lower Peninsula and even show some inroads ...

Community Redevelopment in Southwest Detroit

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p. 19-19

In 1989, the Southwest Detroit Business Association (SDBA) joined the Hubbard-Richard Community Council to form the Mexican town Community Development Corporation (MCDC), a nonprofit corporation. Securing state funds,the organization identified issues that impeded retail growth in the area, such as lack of parking, security, and amenities. Local community residents sought to...

The UFW, La Lucha, and Michigan

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pp. 44-45

The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) worked to carry the farmworkers’ struggle in Michigan across the United States (and as far even as Puerto Rico and Europe) to gain support for La Causa (The Cause), or La Lucha (The Struggle), a key aspect of the Chicano Movement. Organizers rented office facilities and made valuable contacts for the formation of boycott committees with ...

Latino Music and Culture

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pp. 58-59

Cuban music was derived from a fusion of Spanish and African elements. Afro-Cuban musical forms directly influencing salsa musicians include the son, the rumba, and the religious music of the bata used in Santer�a. The conga, which takes its name from a large African drum, had its origin in these festivities. African ceremonies require the appropriate music, and drums summon the spirits in ...

Notes

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pp. 61-67

For Further Reference

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pp. 69-74

Acuna, Rodolfo. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Harper and Baba, Marietta L., and Malvina H. Abonyii. Mexicans of Detroit. Detroit: Wayne Babson, Steve. “Living in Two Worlds: The Immigrant Experience in Detroit.”Badillo, David A. “The Catholic Church and the Making of Mexican-American Parish Communities in the Midwest.” In Mexican Americans and the ...

Index

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pp. 75-77