In today’s La Times Opinion Section, David Dorado Romo, author of Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez, 1893-1923 wrote about the delousing of Mexican border crosses and related it to changes in immigration policy.
All immigrants from the interior of Mexico, and those whom U.S. Customs officials deemed “second-class” residents of Juarez, were required to strip completely, turn in their clothes to be sterilized in a steam dryer and fumigated with hydrocyanic acid, and stand naked before a Customs inspector who would check his or her “hairy parts” — scalp, armpits, chest, genital area — for lice. Those found to have lice would be required to shave their heads and body hair with clippers and bathe with kerosene and vinegar.
My great-aunt, Adela Dorado, would tell our family about the humiliation of having to go through the delousing every eight days just to clean American homes in El Paso. She recalled how on one occasion the U.S. Customs officials put her clothes and shoes through the steam dryer and her shoes melted.
My grandfather’s family moved to Juárez during the Mexican Revolution because if they would have stayed in their home state of Zacatecas, they probably would have starved. My grandfather was born in Juarez in 1920. I wonder if his mother, father or older siblings ever had to go through the humiliating delousing when they crossed in to El Paso.
Although this occurred in El Paso, there were also fears that Mexicans were dirty and spreading disease in Los Angeles. Social reformers in Los Angeles who advocated Americanization for Mexican immigrants. They worked with Mexican women being a good citizen also meant being of clean mind and body. However, the reformers were told that thei task would be difficult because, “Sanitary, hygienic, and dietic measures are not easily learned by the Mexican. His philosophy of life flows along the path of least resistance and it requires far less exertion to remain dirty than to clean up” (from Becoming Mexican American, by George J. Sánchez).
At the same time, many Mexicans in Los Angeles lived in slums constituted a quarter of the tubercolisis cases despite making up ten percent of the population at the time. However, a study found that those who had tubercolosis had lived in the US for over five years and suggested that the tubercolosis was a result of living in substandard conditions and was not specifically something they brought from Mexico as they escaped war and poverty.
A stereotype and Americanization programs are just words and indoctrination. However, when you see it in the form of the delousing, it really hits how messed up things are and makes me question how much still needs to change.
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it when I saw this picture on Nathan’s blog. Makes you wonder what other stories like this are yet to be told.
That picture on Nathan’s blog, and all of this makes me sick.
and today’s unauthorized (im)migration are also of the same racism. but what makes me even angrier, are those latinos who don’t see their family history in these folks, they are blinded by class, by their privilege.
a couple of weeks ago i was teaching a class about mexican american education in the early part of the 20th century. among other things, we were talking about the conditions of the segregated mexican schools. we were discussing the lack of resources–old books, dilapidated buildings–as well as how teachers treated mexican students–punishing them for speaking spanish, tracking them into lower level classes, encouraging to go to trade school instead of college (even if they had excellent academic records).
one of my students, raised his hand, and asked, “are we talking about history? because this stuff is still going on!”
the de-lousing on the border was a publicly humiliating act, but as a public act, can be monitored. what happens inside a classroom, however, is more difficult to monitor because it’s all behind closed doors.
things *are* better than they were fifty years ago, but there is still a lot that needs to change.
I am constantly amazed by the shockingly despicable racial history of this country… and like Jen says, things are better, but we still have a long way to go.
“what happens inside a classroom, however, is more difficult to monitor because it’s all behind closed doors.”
I totally agree with that. Many of the teachers on my campus don’t think half of the kids will ever go to college. They think they’re not smart enough. Although I complain about their apathy, I still think they can go to college.
What gets to me the most is that they talk about heterogenous grouping, but certain teachers are given a group of kiddos who are at a higher level than others. And this Pre-AP and GT stuff, I don’t know that I totally agree with having them in different classes.
I almost freaked out when I read this, thinking “Wait, this is still going on?!”
The good thing is, delousing no longer is. The horrible thing is that similar behavior still exists, though it’s more subtle or hidden. No, we might not be using DDT or Zyklon B but we are still exposing thousands of farmworkers to dangerous pesticides. And that’s just one example. La rabia que me da pensar en todo esto and the fact that yes, we still have a long way to go.
George Sanchez – now that’s a name I haven’t heard since undergrad!
whoops, lost my original comment by not filling the required fields..sniff sniff =(. Anyways, i just said, thanks for sharing the article. Its always nice to read about these issues, especially in my end of the woods where there so little talk or information on it.
How sad and enraging. Thanks for sharing Cindy.
All I can say is, WOW. I knew that there was segregation, but I never knew of this horrible treatment of Mexicans back then… For those that live on the West Coast you probably have a greater advantage of finding out about our ancestors history. Living in Michigan you’ll get nada. To think that this image of Mexicans being “dirty” stems from this delousing period. What a joke.
Everyone must read “Americanization through Homemaking” (1929) by Pearl Ellis. It’s full of all these horrible stereotypes about Mexican women and children (targets of Americanization programs, of course). It’s short, and sure to piss many people off.
it is a steriotype that mexicans are dirty. It is also the truth that so many mexicans have poor hygene and are covered in dirt. One mexican told me that he had no plans to shower after he worked all day and was covered in filth. He said “why shower… i will just get dirty again tomorrow”
maybe the problem is that they are stupid….and that leads to the dirty part.