http://web.ebscohost.com.ihcproxy.mnpals.net/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=98acf12e-e334-4704-901f-324412dd30ff%40sessionmgr13&vid=10&hid=20. This article explains how before the 19th century, the majority of Mexican immigrants or Mexican peasants, were isolated into rural areas that did not have any railroads or transportation systems to allow them to immigrate. "But the presidency of Porfirio Diaz (1876-1910), changed the history of Mexican immobility. Diaz pursued program of modernizing Mexico in the image of nations such as Argentina and the United States." Throughout his campaign that he called "Order and Progress" he expanded Mexico's transportation systems which provided a better railroad system leading to better transportation. Diaz also encouraged a switch from peonage to wage labor which led to the loss of access to communal land holdings to five million Mexican peasants. Their search for work started a mass labor migration between the United states and Mexico. "By 1920, the Southwest served as an orchard and winter garden to the world. With almost 31 million acres of crops valued at over $1.7 billion in California and Texas alone, the Southwest was the nation's most productive and profitable agricultural region." Soon after, the number of acres of crops that could be harvested boomed to a combined total of over 39 million in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California." The migrant workers were used to plant and harvest the crops and were heavily depended on to do so. "By 1930, an estimated 1,422,533 Mexicanos lived in the United States. But substantial numbers of Mexican workers had also begun to follow the harvests and railroads northward into the Pacific Northwest and had settled in industrial centers such as Chicago, which hosted an estimated 20,260 Mexicans by 1930." The immigrants were able to find work that they could make reasonable wages off of.
After I read through this article, I was shocked that almost one and a half million Mexicans lived in the U.S. by just 1930. Before Diaz began the "Order and Progress" campaign, there weren't any railroad systems for the migrants to travel on. Diaz gave them a reliable form of transportation by train which would later lead to other forms of transportation. It amazing just how for instance how the Southwest drew so much attention just by harvesting. Its sort of like a gold rush. Once people find out about it, they flock over to get their piece of it. Once word got out that the Southwest had $1.7 billion of crops that were harvested, people came to work and people continued to come which resulted in even more land that could be planted and harvested which gave just about all of them a job. It doesn't surprise me that many Mexican workers moved up north to find work in the factories. I found this article very interesting because it really shows just how many people traveled to find work and made the journey to the U.S. to do so.
