The Tejano Diaspora: Mexican Americanism and Ethnic Politics in Texas and Wisconsin

2 Inclusion and Mexican Americanism: High School Acculturation and Ethnic Politics in Crystal City

2 Inclusion and Mexican Americanism high school acculturation and ethnic politics in crystal city In the late 1950s and early 1960s, mainstream public school systems of the Southwest became increasingly open to Mexican American students . A variety of changes, including statewide public school reform and a shift in attitudes among some parents, brought large numbers of Mexican American teens into high school for the first time, where they began an epistemological encounter with the meaning and practice of American citizenship.1 Some Mexican American students in Crystal City embraced idealized forms of Americanism and their identity as Mexican-ancestry people while rejecting the racial hierarchies of South Texas. Much as Mexican American and African American veterans did in the decades after World War II, teens and young people born in the United States sought inclusion and acceptance within a framework of Americanism in contrast to what they increasingly considered the local misinterpretation of the nation’s values. These changes took place as state reform efforts brought about a restructuring of Texas schools after the war. By 1955, one in six students attending Texas schools had a Spanish surname, and thirty-one counties, including Zavala County, enrolled a Mexican American majority . Though dropout rates remained high among students from families engaged in migrant work, the 1950s witnessed an overall growth in the number of Spanish-surnamed students completing high school across Texas, the Southwest, and California. Indeed, the number of Spanish-surnamed students attending Texas high schools increased 63 percent between 1950 and 1960.2 In Crystal City, Mexican American students became a majority population in the high school for the first time. inclusion and mexican americanism 39 As historians of education have pointed out, public schools in the United States often provide a forum for the expression and maintenance of the dominant social hierarchies outside the schools. The politics of the schoolyard, while often considered “game play,” tend to reproduce dominant class relations and a∞rm the social biases of the dominant group. In most cases, these “games” are of limited political consequence. In the case of newly integrated school systems, however, wherein racial and ethnic change alters the social life of the school, they take on an oppositional character as minority students seek inclusion within preexisting institutions. Reflecting broader changes taking place outside the schools, they can also have serious “real-world” consequences .3 Across the Winter Garden District of South Texas, Mexican American students sought inclusion in the full range of student activities . In the process, some of them became politicized for life. To understand the origin point for later Mexican American migrant activism among Cristaleños (Crystal City residents) in Texas and Wisconsin , this chapter explores how the contested space of the high school facilitated the creation of a student activist vanguard. After graduation, several of these school-based organizers, now attending junior college, joined to aid a coalition of local Mexican Americans, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the Political Association of Spanish Speaking Organizations (passo) in 1963 to elect an “all-Latin” slate to the city council. Teens and young adults, many too young to vote, joined this campaign and learned the basics of electoral organizing from the professionals sent to their city. These young volunteers familiarized themselves with grassroots organizing, as well as the factors that work against social movements. These lessons served them well as they matured politically and followed the migrant stream to Wisconsin, taking their activism with them. The Transformation of South Texas Schooling The post–World War II era witnessed rapid structural changes in Texas education. At the federal level, the United States implemented the Good Neighbor Policy under the direction of the O∞ce of Inter-American Affairs to encourage cross-cultural understanding between the United States and Latin American countries, and through this policy it funded educational and other outreach efforts in Texas. After Mexico banned inclusion and mexican americanism 40 the importation of its guest workers to the state in 1943, Texas sought to reform its image as a border state with a history of racial and ethnic discrimination against Mexican-ancestry people. This same year, Texas established the Good Neighbor Commission to improve the lives of “Latin Americans,” avoid embarrassing cases of discrimination, and encourage Mexico to allow the contracting of braceros. Made permanent in 1945, the commission promoted education reforms, sponsored a Pan-American teacher exchange, funded a number of international scholastic...