The Homestead Act is passed in Congress. The act allows squatters in the West to settle and claim vacant lands often those owned by Mexicans.
Cristobal Aguilar is elected mayor of Los Angeles.
Romualdo Pacheco is elected as the first, and only, Latino governor of California. Pacheco later becomes the first Latino to chair a standing committee in Congress.
The Mexican Revolution begins, and hundreds of thousands of Mexicans seek refuge in California.
In response to labor shortages during World War I, many Mexicans move to California to labor in farms, mines, and railroads on a temporary basis.
Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1917, requiring migrants to pass a literacy test. Mexicans are exempt, because they are needed as laborers.
In May the Selective Service Act is enacted, requiring that Mexican noncitizens register for the draft.
-1930s Mexican farmworkers organize agricultural strikes throughout California for example, in the Imperial Valley melon fields (1928, 1930), El Monte strawberry fields (1933), Hayward pea fields (1933), and the San Joaquin valley cotton fields and fruit orchards (1933).
La Opinion, a daily Spanish-language newspaper, begins publication. Chicanos living California establish the Confederacion de Uniones Omberas Mexicanas (Confederation of Mexican Labor Unions, or CUOM) to combat wage and racial discrimination in the workplace. The stock market crash and the inception of the Great Depression contribute to growing anti-immigrant sentiment, leading to the deportation of over one million Mexicans living in California many of them United States citizens.
During the Great Depression, thousands of people from the Dust Bowl migrate to California in search of better living conditions, displacing Mexican workers, especially in the agricultural sector.
California Photo Gallery
Maybe You Like Them Too
- The Best Cities To Visit in The World
- World’s 10 Best Places To Visit
- Coolest Countries in the World to Visit
- Travel to Santorini, Greece
- Map of Barbados – Holiday in Barbados
