Applied English for American History ... Fall 2005

Help with Worksheet due Monday, November 7, to Professor Jopp

 

 

Vocabulary

 

Cape Blanco and Cape Sebastian =names of places on the Oregon coast

 

crews =the staff of a ship=all the workers on a ship

 

moved freely =could travel without problems or immigration rules

 

the Civil War=the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865)

 

vaqueros =Mexican cowboys

 

mule pack train system =a way to transport things by using a line of mules

 

frontier=an unsettled area

 

The Illinois Valley, The Dalles, Lewiston, Walla Walla =places in Oregon and Washington

 

 

 

 

The Mexican presence in Oregon

 

The Mexican presence in Oregon dates to the 1600s with the early Spanish explorers who left place names on such sites as Cape Blanco and Cape Sebastian.  In the 1800s, the Pacific Northwest witnessed many more visits by crews of Mexican, Peruvian, and Spanish sailors searching for settlement sites along the coast.  For years, people moved freely along the open border between the Oregon Country and Mexico, trading supplies and cultural influences.  Even before the Civil War, Mexican merchants, miners, soldiers, adventurers, sheepherders, and vaqueros were in southern Oregon. 

 

Mexicans are credited with introducing the mule pack train system to the region, which helped develop transportation on the frontier.  By the 1850s, Mexican mule packers had established routes to the Illinois Valley of southern Oregon, and to The Dalles, Oregon, Lewiston, Idaho, and Walla Walla, Washington.  In the 1860s and 1870s, Mexicans, along with workers from China, Japan, and the Philippines, built railroads linking the East and West coasts, eventually making mule pack operations obsolete.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                           



 

 

1910 Mexican Revolution = The most famous Mexican revolution perhaps. The people of Mexico were tired of the dictator President Diaz. People of all classes were fighting in the revolution.

 

the Great Depression =A global economic slump that began in 1929 and was worst in 1933.

 

the armed forces =the military

 

The Bracero Program = (1942 through 1964) was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments that permitted Mexican citizens to take temporary agricultural work in the United States

 

were instrumental =were very important

 

The program =the Bracero Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1910 Mexican Revolution increased immigration to the United States, including Oregon, where fertile land offered work opportunities.  During the Great Depression, however, the number of Mexicans in Oregon decreased because jobs disappeared.  Later, World War II created a huge labor shortage in the United States as men joined the armed forces.  The Bracero Program alleviated that shortage by encouraging thousands of Mexicans to come to work in communities around the state.  Between 1942 and 1947, Oregon's agricultural labor market was boosted by 15,134 low-wage workers.  Braceros were moved wherever significant labor shortages occurred and were instrumental in agriculture as well as in maintaining of the region's railroads.  Their importance was officially recognized, but their living conditions and treatment were not always what had been promised.  The program, instituted in 1942 and revived in 1951, created a steady flow of Mexican immigration that continues today, contributing more than 8% of Oregon's population.