Chapter 12 of Takaki - El Norte

I read Chapter twelve of Ronald Takaki’s book which is entitled “El Norte, The Borderland of Chicano America”. In this chapter I learn of Mexican immigrants, and all of their struggles and hardships looking for jobs with better money and opportunity for their families. The chapter also describes how the Mexican people were forced from their original lands, and in turn their lands became part of American territory. From the past into the present Mexican people continue to strive for the opportunity to do bigger and better things to help have better lives for themselves and their families.

For the Mexican people America was El Norte a land full of hopes and dreams. A great number of Mexican immigrants were fleeing the country to escape the starvation going on in Mexico. The great migration to America after 1900 was an extension of population movements already underway within Mexico. Once many of the people were in America they migrated to urban industrialization cities, many people found themselves trapped in a condition of cyclical unemployment as industries expanded and contracted. In 1883 a land law allowed private land development companies to receive up to one-third of any land they surveyed and subdivided. By the 1890’s about one-fifth of Mexico’s entire land area had been transferred to these companies. In 1910 frustration and anger exploded into the Mexican Revolution. Francisco Madero overthrew the Diaz government in 1911. Madero was overthrown by General Huerto, Huerta was later forced into exile. The warring factions plunged the country into chaos and violence. The civil war seemed endless forcing tens of thousands of refugees to move northward. Abouth one-tenth of the Mexican population migrated to United States, during the twentieth century Mexicans were encouraged to migrate to America because their labor was needed.

I believe that Mexican people have struggled to overcome many of the problems within their own country, then many found their way to America where they thought it would be a lot better for them. Instead many found America to be a place where they were paid low wages for very hard work, and only allowed for the most part to take jobs that didn’t require much skill.
My question is why were the Mexican people treated this way ?
I think the reason most American white people treated the Mexican people like that, is because they felt like they inferior and readily available to be taken advantage of. Also like many of the other races they discriminated against they felt like they weren’t smart enough to do anything else except for what they felt they were capable of doing.