Chronology xvii
eventually abandon their rural communities and head north to work
as contract laborers, also known as braceros. Abuses in the Bracero
Program, especially in terms of the poor work and living conditions
provided by employers, are widespread.
Los Angeles police round up more than 500 mostly Mexican young
people and indict nearly two dozen for the murder of José Diaz, a Mex-
ican immigrant, at the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir near Los Angeles, Cali-
fornia. The trial, riddled with legal errors, captures the city’s attention
for several months, and the young men are eventually convicted and
sentenced to long prison terms. Determined family and community
members help organize appeals of the convictions, however, and the
case is finally overturned by a California higher court.
1943 Anglo sailors and other servicemen on leave rampage through down-
town Los Angeles targeting young men wearing zoot suits, a fashion
style associated with Mexican youth culture. Los Angeles police offi-
cials refuse to intervene, and the rioting continues for days, often with
the support of Anglo residents of the city, before officers finally step in
to halt the violence and the terrorizing of Mexican young men and
women.
1946 In a landmark civil rights case from southern California (Méndez v.
Westminster), Mexican parents and civil rights attorneys force the local
school district to abandon its policy of requiring separate schools for
Anglo and Mexican children.
1947 Operation Bootstrap (Manos a La Obra) is initiated in Puerto Rico. The
program, a broad dual-focused plan, seeks to lure North American
industries to relocate to the island and also stimulate migration out of
Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland (an aim justified by supposed “over-
population” on the island). Under the plan, U.S. businesses are encour-
aged to recruit Puerto Rican contract laborers to supply their
employment needs.
The Puerto Rican government establishes the Migration Division, with
offices in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast, that seeks to place workers
in agricultural jobs, where they harvest fruits, vegetables, and tobacco,
and in heavy industry such as railroads and steel factories. Puerto
Rican women are also actively recruited as domestic workers.
1948 Perez v. Sharp is decided by the California Supreme Court. Andrea
Perez, of Mexican descent but labeled “White” according to the gov-
ernment, and Sylvester Davis, an African American, had applied for a
marriage license in Los Angeles but were denied the right to marry on
the grounds that their marriage would violate California’s law against
intermarriage. Perez and Davis successfully challenged the constitu-
tionality of the law. Perez v. Sharp foreshadows a point when American
courts will abandon their reliance on racial categories. Nearly twenty
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