La Villita.
The word is out in the “barrio”: Be on the lookout for strange men, especially if they are riding in green Fords; be cautious of who you talk to, since Chicano informers are known to work with them; and stay away from 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue, where immigration agents have been spotted at a corner gasoline station.[1]
In the early to mid-1970s, Little Village was quickly transforming into an ethnic Mexican neighborhood.[2] As European ethnics left their Little Village homes, more and more Mexican families moved into Little Village. For many these families, moving to Little Village in some ways was considered a sign of social mobility. Little Village or la Villita had larger homes, yards, and garages, at least in comparison to Pilsen.[3] The growth of the ethnic Mexican community in Little Village came with harassment by Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) officials. The “green Fords” or the INS vehicles sparked uneasiness and sometimes outright fear in the neighborhood. In the fall of 1974, some la Villita residents experienced INS harassment at a local Shell gasoline station on the corner of West 26th Street and South Kedzie Avenue. There, immigration agents questioned, and sometimes apprehended, people believed to be “illegal” immigrants.[4] Local residents voiced their complaints to leaders of El Centro de Acción Social Autónoma-Hermandad General de Trabajadores [Center for Autonomous Social Action- GeneralBrotherhood of Workers] or CASA, a Mexican and Latina/o immigrant rights organization. The CASA-Chicago office was located at 1859 South Throop Street. There, a señora [lady] reported that la migra [INS officers] had interrogated her son at the gasoline station, and that the incident resulted in his deportation.[5] CASA activists or casistas called out the Shell gasoline station for being a spy post, a place to detect and capture undocumented immigrants.[6] However, it is critical to consider: how does one “detect” an unauthorized immigrant? An undocumented immigrant could be anybody, a person of any race/ethnicity, class, and gender. Casistas organized to halt the persecution of ethnic Mexicans and Latinas/os by INS officials locally and nationally.
CASA was one of the most important immigrant rights organizations to emerge from the Chicano Movement. In 1968, labor leader Humberto “Bert” Corona and Soledad “Chole” Alatorre among others co-founded CASA in Los Angeles. CASA framed the politics of immigration during the 1970s in a transnational context. Casistas adopted what I conceptualize as a “sin fronteras politics,” a transnational imagining that brought ethnic Mexicans together, regardless of birthplace, generation, or citizenship status. CASA served as a community-based organization to meet the needs of the Mexican and Latina/o immigrant population in the United States. CASA chapters proliferated throughout and beyond the U.S. Southwest, including California (Oakland, San Jose, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Santa Ana), Arizona, Texas, and Colorado as well as New York City and Seattle.[7] CASA was a social services agency for immigrants. Between 1968 and 1973, CASA had its peak period of membership, a number between 12,000 and 15,000 members.[8] In 1972, its leadership changed and in the years that followed CASA drastically transformed from a mutualista orientation to a Marxist-Leninist organization in defense of the Mexican immigrant worker.[9]
The Chicago chapter of CASA was established in 1974 at the crux of the organization’s major rift as a result of brewing internal tensions and disagreements. Months after the founding of CASA-Chicago, Bert Corona and other key leaders left the organization because of stark ideological differences and clashes with a cadre of younger leaders.[10] The change in leadership transformed CASA from an immigrant serving organization into a revolutionary group. The new focus was to organize against U.S. capitalism and its consequential role in the labor exploitation of undocumented Mexican and Latina/o workers in the United States.[11] Membership waned as CASA branded its new identity as a revolutionary organization. The internal divergences and debates led CASA’s base to decline from 1976 through 1978. Its formal demise was in 1979. The Chicago chapter of CASA continued to exist until 1983: the year when key casista Rodolfo “Rudy” Lozano was killed.[12]
During the 1970s, CASA-Chicago leaders initiated various pro-immigrant rights campaigns. Casistas organized “to militantly combat this blatantact of racist repression (sic)” committed by INS agents, such as the boycott against Shell gasoline station. As quoted in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, December 15, 1974, Rudy Lozano explained the significance of the Boycott Shell campaign at a press conference. He stated, “We are protesting the firm establishment of the immigration service in our community, which is causing misery and instilling fear in our community.” Depending on the day, about twenty to fifty people participated in the weekly demonstrations against Shell.[13] Protestorsconfronted Dan Torres, the gasoline station’s boss, for enabling INS harassment of Little Village residents. According to a CASA memorandum, Torres claimed he “displays immigration cars in the front of his station to show the people that the immigration is not a bad bunch and only doing their jobs.” Furthermore, Torres stated he had to honor a two-year contract for the maintenance and repair of the green Fords and other government cars. Despite the presumed legal bindings of the contract, the polemics rested in the hybervisibility of immigration agents at the Shell gas station who apprehended the gasoline station’s customers as well as passersby.
Discussing the “illegal” immigration problem of the 1970s begs an understanding of the structural conditions that produced this pressing local and national concern. The general population of Mexican immigrants from 1965 to 1985 consisted of a largely undocumented, young, able-bodied male population, most in their early twenties.[14] Many came from small towns. Elders, women, and children also migrated during this era—though a smaller segment of the immigrant population.[15]The Bracero Program—the contracted labor program between the United States and Mexico, the economy in Mexico, and the Immigration Act of 1965 all played a role in this demographic profile of “the Mexican” during this time period. Through a series of agreements between Mexico and the United States, in 1942 the governments created the Bracero guest worker program to have temporary Mexican workers fill labor shortages in the United States brought on by World War II. Although Mexico experienced the Mexican Miracle (1940-1968), an economic boom, this period of prosperity coupled with foreign investment did not provide sufficient economic opportunities for many Mexican families. Consequently, many braceros came to the United States to support their families in Mexico, and some came undocumented. The program ceased in 1964, nineteen years after World War II officially ended, highlighting the capitalist desire for exploitable Mexican labor well beyond the wartime period. Many Mexican workers continued to migrate to the United States in the decades after the Bracero Program. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 or the Hart Celler Act also contributed to the steady growth of Mexican migration. This act restricted Mexican immigration to the United States to an annual limit of 120,000 immigrants. Prior to the law, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans migrated annually. The hemispheric quota of 120,000 visas on a yearly basis reflected a forty percent reduction from previous levels of immigration. Still, Mexican immigration continued. The 1965 immigration policy produced an “illegal” status for those Mexican immigrants whose numbers fell outside the numerical quota. Thusly, the migration of undocumented Mexicans escalated during the late twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.
The unequal power relations between the state and Mexican and Latinas/os—historically and in the 1970s—exacerbated an already fragile relationship during this anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant time period. Alarmist imagery colored discussions on immigration. The idea of the “illegal alien” that presumed Mexican-ness and Latina/o-ness (re)circulated widely in popular news media. The usage of panicky frames, such as crisis, invasion, plague, and loss of control reflected the national mood about Mexican and Latina/o immigration.[16] These troubling images also played a critical role in shaping the discourse of immigration as a national crisis that demanded immediate government intervention. To no surprise, some politicians, officials, and leaders responded to this call to action in problematic and dehumanizing ways. In October 1974, for example, the Attorney General of the United States William B. Saxbe (1974-1975) pledged the Justice Department would deport one million “illegal aliens.” This proposed solution failed to account for the structural conditions that have produced an undocumented population in the United States. The idea of removal neglected to acknowledge how the lives of the undocumented are enmeshed in a complex web of familial, social, and intimate relations. The idea of removal also glossed over the gross implications of human rights and civil rights violations in this pursuit of the undocumented.
The undocumented immigration problem led to the racial profiling of Latinas/os in the search for the undocumented immigrant. Immigration officials often questioned Mexican Americans and Latinas/os about their juridical and social belonging in the nation. CASA and other groups challenged these state practices of racial profiling. The Illinois Migrant Council, for instance, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court against the INS for its discriminatory practices in the search for the undocumented immigrant. Furthermore, the iteration of racist epithets in mainstream newspapers was not uncommon. Quoted in the Chicago Tribune on December 1, 1974, William Bartley, the immigration district director, stated, “This guy Lozano is leading a bunch of ignorant apes who don’t know what they are talking about.”[17] In response to Bartley’s dehumanizing reference, CASA Chicago stated in a press release, “… this blatant display of racism typifies the discriminatory nature of the immigration department. This slanderous rhetoric is viewed by our community as harmful to all sectors of the latin working force and will not be tolerated idly (sic).”[18] The usage of the historically specific idea, a “Latin working force” demonstrates the inclusiveness of ethnic Mexicans and other Latinas/os in the campaign to denounce INS harassment. Various community organizations in the city along with CASA voiced opposition to Bartley’s racist, flippant remarks. These groups included Pilsen Neighborhood Community Council, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, the African American Solidarity Committee, St. Vitus Roman Catholic Church, and Casa Aztlán. Many diverse groups, including CASA aimed to educate the public on the multiple dimensions of the immigration problem.
Misunderstandings—or outright ignorance—of the underlying forces that has produced undocumented immigration is clearly reflected in the anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican sentiment in popular news media. On December 3, 1974, the Chicago Tribune opinion piece “The Danger From Illegal Aliens” berated CASA Chicago for the protests at the Shell station as well as CASA Chicago’s advocacy for the undocumented. The anonymous writer wrote, “The existence of great numbers of improperly admitted aliens in the United States is harmful to this country and to the aliens themselves. It is therefore lamentable to find organizations encouraging aliens in illegal practices.”[19] The writer emphasized that the undocumented had broken the law without making note of the structural conditions of this “illegal” transgression. Framing undocumented Mexican immigration with this logic of “illegality” foreclosed the possibility of the pursuit of immigrant rights in the eyes of the author. However, CASA-Chicago disputed this belief. Casistas, in collaboration with other organizations, organized marches, rallies, workshops, and other public displays of immigrant rights in la Villita and other places in the Chicagoland area.
Special thanks to the Ruth Landes Memorial Fund, Reed Foundation for the research support.
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[1]George Emmett, “Chicanos Contest Illegal Alien Hunt,” Chicago Tribune, Dec 1, 1974, 36.
[2] Following historian David Gutierrez’s definition, my usage of ethnic Mexicans refers to Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans.
[3] In 1970s, Pilsen became Chicago’s first neighborhood to have an ethnic Mexican majority.
[4] My usage of quotes in “illegal” is a political move for two main reasons. One reason for the usage of quotes is to bring attention to the political construction and structural conditions that produce this particular immigration status. The second reason is to recognize how the term illegal is a dehumanizing term that criminalizes undocumented immigrants for this particular administrative status.
[5] Chicago Local Committee, 1974-1977, Box 20, Folder 6, Centro de Accion Social Autonoma Papers, 1963-1978, Stanford University, Special Collections, Palo Alto, CA.
[6]George Emmett, “Chicanos Contest Illegal Alien Hunt,” Chicago Tribune, Dec 1, 1974, 36.
[7] Ernesto Chávez, “¡Mi Raza Primero!” (My People First!): Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002).
[8]Arnoldo García, “Toward a Left without Borders: The Story of the Center for Autonomous Social Action-General Brotherhood of Workers,” Monthly Review (July 2002): 77.
[9] Laura Pulido, Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles, (Berkeley:University of California Press, 2006), 7.
[10] Ernesto Chávez, “¡Mi Raza Primero!” (My People First!): Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002), 99.
[11] Ernesto Chávez, “¡Mi Raza Primero!” (My People First!): Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002), 106.
[12]In the late stages of the organization’s life, CASA-Chicago had a central focus on electoral campaigns in hopes of electing political officials with pro-immigrant agendas. For instance, casistas (Rudy Lozano, Guadalupe “Lupe” Lozano, Linda Coronado, and Jesus García) fought against the stronghold of machine politics. Moreover, this cohort of casistas and other leaders promoted a multi-racial, progressive political representation at the neighborhood, city, and state level. They worked to establish the Independent Political Organization of the 22nd Ward, an organization that aimed to promote a political vision and leadership that would meet the specific needs of the growing ethnic Mexican and Latina/o population in Little Village families.
[13] Chicago Local Committee, 1974-1977, Box 20, Folder 6, Centro de Accion Social Autonoma Papers, 1963-1978, Stanford University, Special Collections, Palo Alto, CA.
[14] Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002).
[15]The migration of women and children during the late 1960s (and since then) played an important role in shift from circular migration to long-term residence in the United States. See Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 24.
[16] Leo R. Chavez, Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), 216.
[17] Emmett George, “Chicanos Contest Illegal Alien Hunt,” Chicago Tribune, December 1, 1974, 36.
[18] Chicago Local Committee, 1974-1977, Box 20, Folder 6, Centro de Accion Social Autonoma Papers, 1963-1978, Stanford University, Special Collections, Palo Alto, CA.
[19] “The Danger From Illegal Aliens,” Chicago Tribune, December 3, 1974.
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Dr. Myrna García is a Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies and Latino Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She earned her doctorate in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and holds a Master’s degree in Education from Fordham University. Her research and teaching interests include critical ethnic studies, Latinx migration, Chicana/Latina feminism, and social movements. She’s working on a book project entitled Sin Fronteras [Community Beyond Borders]: Immigration, Labor, and Community Activism in Latina/o Chicago, 1965-1986.