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The New Latin America
Over the past 70 years chaos and political tension in Latin American countries have pushed people to flee to the safety of the land of the freed. This mass immigration has also caused some backlash in America. Tensions rise when Americans begin to feel threatened by the bombardment of new cultures and language. Passionate protestors want to reprimand those living on American soil undocumented, but this question begs to be answered; America was founded on the basis of refugees seeking religious tolerance, so what makes it different now?
During the Great Depression Puerto Rico was affected more than the United States. Puerto Rico's main crop is sugar and when the sugar prices crashed the economy crashed as well. Because Puerto Rico is a US territory, a mass amount of Puerto Rican migrated to America. The majority of immigrants were working in the sweat shops. Operation Boot Strap was a program that advertised cheap labor and no taxes in order to boost the industrial economy. This operation created the first air bourne mass migration in US history. East Harlem becomes coined the term “El Barrio” or communities of Hispanics living in American cities. The Latino culture was booming in these areas and their ways of making ends meet even proved this. Rent parties were a common thing in the el barrio, were the host would have music and a place to dance and would use the fees they charged to pay for rent. This era is only the beginning of racism that became so prevalent with Hispanic/Latino immigrants. The size of Puerto Ricans living in east Harlem caused them to venture outside of the el barrio. Already established Italian and Irish immigrant communities began to push back on the growing size of the el barrio. Young men began to fill the role of “protecting the turf” and Latin gangs such as: The Latin Crowns, The Vampires, The Scorpions and The Dragons emerged. The Puerto Rican community began to gain a reputation for gangs, violence, drugs and sex work. This stereotype is evident in some of the popular media of that time like the movie “The West Side Story” which forever painted a image of a gang-banging knife wielding Puerto Rican.
In Cuba Fidel Castro overthrew the current government and gained power. Many Cubans fled to Miami, Florida as a temporary asylum from Communism. It was believed that the US would not tolerate Communism in Cuba and eventually these part-time immigrants could return home. Operation Peter Pan brought minors from Cuba to the US to await their parents arrival. At the same time the US began to crack down, children could not reenter Cuba and their parents were denied access to America. Politics ignored mass Hispanic communities because they were not heavy voters. Not only were they ignored, but Hispanics had to also pass a literacy test in order to gain votership rights.
By the 1973 Miami is considered officially bilingual and one third of their population was Spanish speaking. Emmy Schafer was the face of anti-bilingualism in the 1980's. She petitioned bilingualism and argued that the Americans living in Miami began to feel like the foreigners. By now the US government is tightening their reigns on immigration and many were not granted asylum. Employing undocumented workers also became illegal and many illegal immigrants found jobs as day laborers. The 1986 Amnesty granted people who were already living in America residency. Although there was some forgiveness from the US government, HR4437 and SB1070 declared it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or hire/help undocumented workers. American Citizens even took an active role in protecting America from illegal aliens, like the Minute Men Project in Arizona. This militia surveys the border and reports any suspicious activity to border officials.
Although political tensions fly, during this time we also see an embrace of Hispanic cultures. Entertainers like Enrique Inglesias, Jlo, Mark Anthony and Ricky Martin endeavor to bring Latin culture and music to the masses of America. Hollywood became focused on Hispanics and quickly their style was sought after by many Americans.