Nuevo Progreso Report and Review Of No Mexicans, Women or Dogs Allowed

Nuevo Progreso Report/Review Of
No Mexicans, Women or Dogs Allowed
(The Rise of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement)
Also NuevoProgresoReportMay14,2011
By Cynthia E. Orozco

As I’m writing this review I’m torn between my latest Nuevo Progreso Report and South Texas History. Of course the history isn’t going anywhere and Nuevo Progreso Tamps Mexico will survive as well. But now in the interest of convergence and coming together, here’s a mixta of border reportage and historical review.

Saturday, just before noon, May 14, 2011:
I cross into Nuevo Progreso in the solitary singularity of myself. In other words, alone. My girlfriend was set to go with me, but the night before she had came down with “chicken syndrome” or “gallinasidad”, chickened out if you will. While all along the frontera, from Boca Chica beach to the Valley of Juarez, to San Diego, murder and mayhem were occurring right on schedule, just like so much sickening clock work, things seemed about the same. People also were no longer quite so shocked. The edge of their horror had been dulled. We human beings are both blessed and cursed with our extreme adaptability. Unique amongst the creatures of the earth. Nonetheless, she didn’t want to go. The truth is she is very wise in the ways of Mexico.

At the turn of the century and in the early decades thereafter, The Texas and Southwest regions of the country began to fill with immigrants from the Midwest and South along with immigrants from Mexico. Before, dating all the way back to the Spanish Conquest, it was an empty land, sparsely populated even by the Native-American Tribes. There were a few ranchos and settlements, and government for the most part was sparse as well. In Deep South Texas everyone spoke Spanish and English was rare. For the inhabitants of Mexican Heritage, they were in point of fact Ethnic Mexicans. Mexican Expatriates that, while in spite of being born on American Soil and being officially United States Citizens, had a very unclear sense of themselves as being Americans. In almost every way they thought of themselves as Mexicans. Most made little attempt to learn English, they were Catholic, as was all of Mexico, kept to their traditions, and always, even if it was not expressed, felt that the border had crossed them, that this land was really Mexico. And the European-Texans (as Cynthia E. Orozco calls them, author of “No Women, Mexicans, Or Dogs Allowed” were in agreement with this assessment. The other Texans called them “Mesqins” at best, The delineation between Mexicans and Mexican- Americans was very unclear right up into the 1960’s and 70’s.

Just before the bridge there is a little park with a bamboo covered jacal and bamboo benches around a dry fountain. A nice spot for a little quite meditation. It was all stylized humility, a counterfeit facsimile of the real thing. Still a nice spot to take a load of one’s feet. It, of course, had a strong black fence surrounding it that shot westward to merge with the official border fence. Beautiful young bougainvilleas were blooming along the fence up through the wrought iron ending in dagger points. People are always getting after me about this, they say I see too much, and then think too much about it afterwards. Perhaps they have a point (pun intended). There are happier campers out there…The fact remains the razor wire rolls were all pointed in towards the American side. Who are they keeping out? Or who are they keeping in?

Irrigation came to the Rio Grande Valley in the early 1900’s, along with the railroad and with progress came change, lots of it. Throw in the Mexican Civil War and massive Mexican immigration and the melting pot is boiling over and spewing out chunks.
Lots of new people arrived; Immigrants from both North and South. In 1915 a Swedish Settlement was established just west of what is now Lyford TX. The Swedes named their town Stockholm.

Vassberg Video

They all spoke Swedish. Many of them became tri-lingual, using Swedish at home and in church, English in school and Spanish with everyone else. Read Swedes in Texas

There was a great change in the Valley from almost entirely mono Spanish speakers with a smattering of bilingual Anglo-Texans to large amounts of mono-linguals that came with the large population increase. Most European –American Immigrants were assimilating into the American Culture, but still in 1925, the town of McCook was founded in Hidalgo County by Polish Settlers. The Germans were also slow to assimilate; but eventually they did.

The Ethnic Mexicans of South Texas took a while longer, for various reasons that Dr. Orozco covers in her book

Quiet and peaceful, with that slower pace of life that is a cliché in Mexico. There was a smattering of tourists, but not enough. The hook men outside of the pharmacies and dental offices seemed more desperate than usual. Their pitches went on a little bit too long in the face of mine or another’s disinterest. I purchased some anti-cramp cream from a vendor. He was both a naturalist and an evangelical; but his cream worked in a most excellent manner. This is just my opinion, but while I would not hesitate to buy ointments and topical potions, the tonics and medicinal brews sold at the herberias for internal usage could be another thing altogether.

In Mexico, family still hangs together. A young girl who knew a smattering of English was helping her Father at his small shoe shine stand. She was so helpful and positive and proud to be helping her father. The family might not have a lot, but they do have each other.

I came back a few days later in the morning; the town looked like it hadn’t been unwrapped yet. Definitely, tourism is down. I doubt too much that those in the halls of the power elite are at all concerned about this little town. And I wonder: Can the Mexicans even begin to fix their country while my country is so broken, and breaking faster all the time? The answer is yes…but it’s not very likely.’

The Rio Grande Valley was settled by Southerners and Midwesterners. The Southerners were often proudly and enthusiastically racist. In fact the Ku Klux Klan did make an impact in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1920’s. It was run out of the Valley by other Anglos, who didn’t want any thing to do with these clowns.

With the history of war and distrust between Mexico and the United States, The infamous Plan of San Diego (covered in the book), The Mexican Civil War and other issues, it took a civil rights struggle over many years for Mexican Americans to become first class citizens. The League of United Latin American Citizens, or Lulac, was at the forefront of the struggle, Dr. Orozco recounts the names and the people that made up the movement. All the infighting, both large and small, and all the issues and conflicts as well. It is a scholarly book and a heavily researched and annotated book. Dramatic as well, for it’s the history of a people… A people between cultures; Alienated by a boundary and the influence of the Anglo culture from Mexico and never really accepted as a full member of the United States either.

Discrimination still exists. Cubans, South Americans, Brazilians, Puerto Ricans are more welcome than Mexicans and Mexican-American in this country. Hopefully, this is a temporary condition.