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ch ap ter s ix Latin Americans in Postwar Houston, 1946–1958 the years immed iatel y fo ll owing wor ld war ii were as expansive for Mexican Americans in Houston as they were for the rest of the city. The economic boom created by the war continued apace and Houston’s population skyrocketed. Technological advances and the petrochemical industry, which tied Houston to world markets, required greater numbers of workers and ensured a proliferation of businesses. Although many of their problems continued, the war had generally acted to improve things for Mexican Americans in Houston. During these postwar years, their expanding middle class, their increasing educational attainment, their broadened horizons as a people, and their general ability to cash in on the relative affluence of the era allowed more of them to insinuate themselves into broader activities. The Mexican American community saw its numbers parallel the fantastic growth of the rest of the city. By 1950, approximately forty thousand Mexican Americans resided in Houston and its environs. The process of assimilation into Houston’s society, incipient by the late 1930s, accelerated in t he postwar period as Mexican Americans (most commonly called “Latin Americans” in this era) evidenced an increased familiarity with their urban environment. True to the direction established in the previous two decades, the community leaders of the 1950s saw their future squarely in the United States. They fought discrimination more openly as they struggled to share in the prosperity of a society buttressed by their sacrifices nd hard work. Mexican American veterans who came back to Houston after the war wanted to do more than pick up where they had left ff. After all, their wartime experiences had raised their horizons and consciousness. They wanted the equality that they felt they had earned by risking their lives in a war against the specter of racial supremacy. 58 ch ap ter s ix The conditions that they found in Texas, however, reawakened their old feelings of uneasiness. Even in their service uniforms, many were not allowed to enter segregated public facilities such as movie houses and restaurants . Regardless of their status as veterans, the policy of refusing service to Mexicans continued. Th s practice seemed especially prevalent in the small towns around Houston: Richmond, Rosenberg, Wharton, New Gulf, and others. Houston’s Mexican Americans were sharply reminded of this situation when Macario García was refused service at a café in Richmond, a few miles south of Houston, in September 1945. García, of Sugar Land, had been the much-publicized recipient of the Medal of Honor for heroism in Germany the year before and would come to symbolize the plight and contributions of Mexican American veterans of World War II. While such discrimination usually took more subtle forms in Houston, it nonetheless comprised a part of everyday life for the average barrio resident . Some cases in Houston were as blatant as those in the nearby small towns. One café near downtown, infamous among the Latin Americans as a principal offender, displayed its “No Mexicans or Dogs Allowed” sign until the war’s end and refused to serve even Mexican American ex-servicemen who came in for refreshments. Mexican Americans in Houston would no longer tolerate such conditions . LULAC Council 60 b ecame especially active in the advocacy of Macario García’s case and in the fi ht to reverse such discriminatory practices as it rallied local Mexican American clubs, organizations, businesses, and individuals to support its efforts. Although not an avowed political organization, LULAC in Houston quickly emerged as the most important advocate for Houston’s Mexican American community in this period. The LULACs, most of whom belonged to the Democratic Party, articulated the general concerns of Houston’s Mexican Americans since they also belonged to many other organizations and understood the needs of the community. Almost as the opening salvo for Mexican American rights in the postwar period, LULAC Council 60 hosted the national LULAC convention in the Bayou City in 1946. As with the 1937national convention, Houston LULACs in 1946, such as John J. Herrera, Rudy Vara, Dr. John J. Ruíz, Joe Castillo, Fernando Salas A., Isidro García, Frank Brett, Adolfo Martínez, Felix Tijerina, Philip Montalbo, Ernest Villareal, and Joe Luna, brought Houston media attention to this event and its efforts to publicize the contributions and potential of Mexican Americans in this society. In the postwar era, LULAC leaders immediately enlisted Anglo sympathizers in positions of authority. [18.118...

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