History of Mexican Americans in Houston
Throughout most of the 19th century most Mexican immigrants traveled to the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, and San Antonio and did not go to East Texas cities like Houston.
[4] Mexican migration into Houston increased with the expansion of the railroad system and the installation of Porfirio Díaz as the President of Mexico.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s Mexican Americans and immigrants from Mexico began to stay in Houston permanently.
This increased to 2,000 by 1910, Treviño said "[...]the haphazard trickle had become a steady influx[...]"[6] In 1907 a junta patriótica (cultural committee) opened Mexican Independence Day festivities.
Jesus Jesse Esparza of Houston History magazine said that the Second Ward "quickly became the unofficial hub of their cultural and social life.
Treviño said that the Mexican American community "took root in a society that had been historically black and white but one that increasingly became tri-ethnic— black, white, and brown[...]"[12] He added that "In a city that considered them nonwhite, Mexicans stood out even though their numbers were smaller than those in such places as San Antonio and Los Angeles.
"[12] José F. Aranda, Jr. of Rice University, who reviewed the book The Church in the Barrio, wrote that historically Mexican immigrants "found the racial landscape particularly unwelcoming" because Houston was not in proximity to the, at the time, larger Mexican American communities in Texas.
[15] Several Mexican-American organizations, such as the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and the Sociedad Mutualista Obrera Mexicana, provided relief services to the community during that era.
Most Mexicans in the immigrant wave in the 1970s and 1980s originated from Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas, states along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Nestor Rodriguez wrote that the percentage of those with a bachelor's degree or higher illustrates "a major educational disadvantage" and "partly explained the low median household income".
De León said that the traditional residents disliked how they believed that the new immigrants were giving the Mexican-American community in Houston a bad reputation but added that, at the same time, the new immigrants kept the city's Mexican-American community in touch with the home country.
Houston's air transport links to Mexico and the lower prices of luxury houses compared to other American cities made it attractive to wealthy Mexicans.
[23] Historically many Mexican immigrants to Houston came from areas where folk religion was common, and this conflicted with existing American Catholicism.
[7] In 1911 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston brought the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a series of priests intended to minister to the Mexican population of Houston.
[7] Due to an increase in demand in Catholic services, oblates established missions in various Mexican-American neighborhoods.
The Rice University Baker Institute director, Tony Payán, stated that uncertainty regarding the Trump Administration's attitudes towards immigration and the decline in value of the Mexican peso were factors.
As of 2001[update] Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA) is the largest advocacy group for Hispanics in the Houston area.
[29] The Sociedad Mutualista Benito Juárez, a mutual aid society was established in Magnolia Park in May 1919.
According to Stephen Fox, who specializes in the history of architecture, this is the city's first ethnic Mexican-oriented public building not made for religious purposes.
Until 1970 the Houston Independent School District (HISD) counted its Hispanic and Latino students as "white.
[29] From 2001 to 2021 the Consulate-General of Mexico was formerly located in the Greater Southeast Management District,[36][37] on 1.7 acres (0.69 ha) of area adjacent to Interstate 69/U.S.
[20] In 1969 Lauro Cruz was elected in the Texas House of Representatives in District 23, making him the first Mexican American in what author Mikaela Garza Selley described in Houston History Magazine as a "major political position".
Selley stated that his restaurant "became "the most recognized Mexican American business success story in Houston.
[40] Selley described four restaurants as "long-standing Houston institutions whose political involvement remains as well-known as their house special-ties.
According to the Morales's grandson, Anthony Espinoza, the restaurant is the Tex-Mex style as both founders had been born and raised in Texas and were accustomed to American cuisine.
[41] Doneraki, established by Cesar Rodríguez, had tacos al carbon inventor Don Erakio as its namesake.
Some white persons not of Hispanic origins tried registering under falsified Spanish family names to become players.
[4] The 2011 novel What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Pérez is about a Mexican-American teenage girl torn between the demands of her family and her ambitions for the future.
