Dear George J. Sanchez,

Your words touched on some of the most important and poignant issues that minorities in America have historically faced and continue to face today, and I saw many parallels between the feats of Mexican immigrants and those of African Americans. The fact that the American government tried to Americanize Mexican immigrants does not surprise me, nor do some of their tactics, such as forcing people, through economic means, to give up their homes or property. The fear about losing jobs to immigrants and "white flight" ring true when I think about the black community as well.

But there is one overwhelming difference, and while I do not mean this as an accusation, I am curious to hear how you think about it. The biggest difference is that Mexican American immigrants chose to come to the United States. They were perhaps pushed out by economic difficulties in Mexico, or pulled in by the possibility of a better life or to reunite with family members, but in the end, they made the decision to come; they were acknowledged as autonomic humans with agency to make that decision. Africans were stripped of all humanity and forced to come to America in chains, and have been fighting their way out of those chains ever since, continually looked at as a problem, as a competitor for jobs, as a cause for white flight - much like Mexican immigrants.

My question, then, is do you see this as a relevant factor in the treatment of Mexican immigrants, of their "assimilation" into American culture, or of their resistance to that assimilation? African slaves tried to maintain their customs and culture but had it forcibly taken from them; their family units were split and displaced; they were eventually forced into accepting American language, religion, and culture. Is there perhaps a tension between Chicano immigrants and African Americans, a tension in the labor market, culturally, etc, in part because of this recognized difference in the reasons for their subjection to cultural assimilation and economic disadvantage? What does this difference mean for the future of African Americans and Mexican Americans in America, for each as a group, for relations between them, and for the very terms of ethnicity, minority, and "white"?

Best,
Toni


Questions

1) Sanchez's book obviously seems to call for an end to racial intolerance against Mexican and Mexican Americans and an exploration of the social and economic inequities they face, but does it also call for affirmative action programs? In what ways might affirmative action contribute to the enforced loss of culture and governmental "Americanization" that Sanchez observes in the 1920s?

2) Jacobson spends a lot of time in chapter 1 discussing the "Celtic race" and how Irish immigrants were seen as much more racially different - and as a much bigger racial threat - than German immigrants. Why did the fact that German immigrants didn't see a separate national and ethnic identity as "terribly appealing" ease their transition into "whiteness"?