Juan Crow: Anti-Latinx Racism in America

F*** Your Racist History

In the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, the anti-Latinx violence that continued to dominate Texas became state-sanctioned as it seeped into federal policies. During the early 20th century, Mexican citizens began to migrate into the United States to seek refuge from the Mexican Revolution's violence and turmoil. In response, the U.S. government sent Texas Rangers and soldiers to the border. Thousands of Mexican-Americans were lynched, burned alive, or brutally murdered by local ranchers, vigilante mobs, law enforcement, and the Army. "Juan Crow" laws codified discrimination against Latinx people in voting, employment, housing, education, and other key areas of life. And in the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Operation Wetback" program deported as many as 1.3 million Latinx immigrants, including 25-percent of all immigrants in Texas. For decades, U.S. health authorities also used noxious, often deadly chemicals like Zyklon B (the same chemical gas used to kill Jews during the Holocaust) to delouse Mexicans seeking to cross the border into the United States. Our story includes the account of the 1917 Bath Riots at the Santa Fe Bridge, when Carmelita Torres decided to fight back, and it sparked a massive resistance. We also trace the history of other violence and discriminatory policies targeting Latinx peoples and the continued anti-immigrant sentiment that still exists towards them today.