14.4: Hispanic and Latino Americans

Latinos, mainly Mexican Americans, form major portions of the population of Southern California, especially in Los Angeles, as well as the San Joaquin Valley. The city of Los Angeles is often said to be the largest Mexican community in the United States. Census records kept track of the growth since 1850, but Mexicans and Mexican Americans have lived in California since Spanish colonial times. However, the number and percentage population of Latinos living in California increased rapidly in the late 20^th century.

The Imperial Valley on the U.S.-Mexican border is about 70–75% Latino; communities with many Latinos can also be found in Riverside County, especially at its eastern end, and the Coachella Valley. The Central Valley has many Mexican American migrant farm workers. Latinos are the majority in 14 counties: Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Tulare, and Yolo counties.

Latinos make up at least 20% of the San Francisco Bay Area. Many live in San Mateo, Redwood City, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties, as well in San Francisco. The Napa Valley and Salinas Valley have predominantly Latino communities established by migrant farm workers. San Jose is about 30–35% Latino, the largest Latino community in northern California, while the Mission District, San Francisco and Lower/West Oakland have barrios established by Mexican and Latin American immigrants. The Mexican American communities of East Los Angeles and Logan Heights, San Diego, as well the San Joaquin Valley are centers of historic Chicano and Latino cultures.

California also has the largest populations of Hispanics/Latinos in the country. Most of the state's Latinos have Mexican ancestry, having the largest Mexican population in the United States, making up about 31% of the state population. California has a large and diverse population, having the largest Central American, especially Salvadoran population in the United States. Guatemalan Americans are spread out in Southern California after previously being centered in Los Angeles between 1970 and 2010. California also has many Cuban Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Honduran Americans, and Nicaraguan Americans, along with people of Chilean, Colombian, Peruvian, and other South American ancestry. Los Angeles has had the United States' largest Central American community, as well as the largest Mexican American community, since the 1910s. In fact, the 1900 census record finds 319 to 619 out of 100,000 residents in the city of Los Angeles were "Spanish" or "Mexican". Nearly 31% of Los Angeles itself is of Mexican descent, having the largest Mexican population of any city in the United States. 12,392 Belizeans also live in California.

In Mariposa County, there is a very small community of Californios or Spanish American people as they identify themselves, that dates back before the U.S. annexation of California. Hornitos is home to an estimated 1,000 people and many have Spanish heritage. The community's "Spanish" Californio culture is closely linked with Mexico and other Latin American nations.

Brief History

The Hispanic presence in California has a long and rich history. The first European explorer of the California coast was João Rodrigues Cabrilho (Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo) in 1542. He was commissioned by the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico) and sailed into what is now San Diego, California. He continued north as far as Pt. Reyes, California.

California became part of the Spanish trading route, but it was not well explored due to its remoteness from Europe and challenging terrain. In the 1700s, Spain claimed California and divided it into two parts: Baja California and Alta California. Baja California consisted of the Baja Peninsula and terminated roughly at San Diego, California, where Alta California started. After the establishment of Missions in Alta California after 1769, the Spanish treated Baja California and Alta California as a single administrative unit, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, with Monterey, California, as its capital.

In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and Alta California became one of the three interior provinces in the First Mexican Empire north of the Rio Grande, along with Texas and New Mexico. The Mexican government was unable to keep full control of its peripheral provinces, leading to the inundation of American immigrants inside its borders and the subsequent annexation of California by the United States in 1846.

During Mexican rule, California was sparsely populated, with only a few thousand Mexican residents, compared to tens of thousands of Native Americans, and a handful of Yankee entrepreneurs. At the time of the annexation, "foreigners already outnumbered Californians of Spanish ancestry 9,000 to 7,500". The advent of the California Gold Rush in 1848 led to a massive influx of settlers – including thousands of Mexican miners, but also tens of thousands of Americans from the East. Other substantial immigrant groups included Chileans, Peruvians, and Chinese people.

In the early 1930s, the US began repatriating those of Mexican descent to Mexico, of which 1/5^th of California Mexicans were repatriated by 1932.

During the first half of the 20th century, Mexican-American workers formed unions of their own and joined integrated unions. The most significant union struggle involving Mexican Americans was the effort to organize agricultural workers and the United Farm Workers' long strike and boycott aimed at grape growers in the San Joaquin and Coachella valleys in the late 1960s. Leaders César Chávez and Dolores Huerta gained national prominence as they led a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to an effective union of farmworkers almost overnight. The struggle to protect rights and sustainable wages for migrant workers has continued.

Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). She was born on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico but moved to Stockton, California, in the in 1933. Huerta is a tireless advocate for the rights of farmworkers, Mexican American immigrants, women, and LGBTQ populations. She has been arrested over 20 times for her activism, and she has received numerous awards for her work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is also known for inspiring the official motto of the Union Farm Workers of America, ‘Sí, se puede’.

Figure 14.6: Photo of Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta, a California Civil Rights & Labor Activist. Image by Tom Hilton is licensed under CC BY 2.0.