Farm Workers and the Churches: The Movement in California and Texas

Chapter 5. Churches, Mexicans, and Farm Labor in Texas, 1930-60

Chapter 5: Churches, Mexicans, and Farm Labor in Texas, 1930–60 As I look at the total scene, it seems to be that the local churches are doing the least to help. The County Public Health Department is doing something, though it knows it isn’t enough. But it has no more funds. The schools are again doing something but not a complete job. They, too, are concerned about the whole problem. But the churches, what are they doing? Practically nothing. There are three [mainline] Protestant churches—and two Southern Baptist churches, the combined pressure of which could materially improve the whole outlook of this part of the [Rio Grande] Valley. However, the churches themselves , [sic] have a vested interest in a continuation of the status quo. Migrant Minister, Alamo, Texas, 1942 The lack of interest shown by our diocesan priests in our recent regional conference [on the Spanish speaking] was certainly discouraging . I remarked at the time that interested priests came to the congress from as far away as California and Michigan but most of our own priests did not show up. Robert E. Lucey, Archbishop of San Antonio, 1958 Unlike California, Texas did not suddenly become populated by men seeking fortunes in gold. Nor did large groups of midwesterners pour into Texas in response to real-estate promotions. Instead, the Lone Star State received a steady stream of immigrants over the course of an entire century . Small Anglo-American colonies were first established in the 1820s and early 1830s. After winning independence from Mexico in 1836, the Republic of Texas encouraged not only old-stock Anglo-Americans to relocate from the lower and upper South but also Europeans. This trend continued after Texas was admitted into the United States. As in California , the early 1900s witnessed a flood of refugees escaping the economic and political hardships of the Mexican Revolution. 116 Chapter 5 These groups all brought with them their various faith traditions. Plantation owners along the upper Gulf Coast were often Southern Episcopalians and Presbyterians, while many of their slaves often embraced revivalist Christianity. Yeomen from Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas settled in Central and Northern Texas. They subscribed to the Southern Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Church of Christ communions , or none at all. In contrast, the immense brush land of South Texas remained a stronghold for Tejana/o Catholics. Last were those who settled in the shatter belt of Texas, which stretched westward from Houston to San Antonio and southward to Corpus Christi. This geographical band defied ethnic and nationalistic homogeneity. It became home to nearly all of the aforementioned populations, including Europeans as well. Germans , Czechs, Irish, and Poles departed their ancestral homes to forge new lives in Texas. Most of them were Catholics, Lutherans, or Moravians , while a small percentage were Freethinkers. As Anglo-American Southerners settled in Texas, the region experienced a gradual but significant change in its religious census. Officially Catholic under the Mexican flag, the republic and then state of Texas soon compared favorably to the religious diversity of much of the rest of the United States. By the late 1800s, though, Catholicism appreciably declined as a percentage of the population, overtaken first by Southern Methodists and then by Southern Baptists. Reflecting a subtle but definite shift in demographics, this decline in no way suggested a lack of effort on the part of the Catholic Church. On the contrary, the U.S. hierarchy, which assumed local responsibility after 1836, conscientiously strove to meet the spiritual needs of this new part of its flock. As more European Catholics migrated to the state, however, the church instead focused on them and subsequently neglected Tejana/o Catholics. Only a handful of religious orders, notably the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, continued to labor faithfully among the Mexican apostolate in South Texas. While Texas Protestants cared mainly for their own groups, a few of them felt called to evangelize Mexican Americans. As early as the 1830s, Southern Presbyterians and Methodists distributed Spanish-language Bibles and later, along with Southern Baptists, held Sundays schools and revivals for Tejanas/os. Soon thereafter Mexican laymen were recruited as ministers. By the 1910s Methodists had founded a number of settlement houses and schools for the Spanish speaking. Finally, the National Migrant Ministry entered the Texas field in the early 1930s. As in California, Churches, Mexicans, and Farm Labor in Texas 117 however...