11/6/09 Carlos Blanton discusses the politics of immigration in new article

Carlos Blanton, professor of history

• Sacrifice: Mexican Americans, The Saunders-Leonard Report, and the Politics of Immigration, 1951-1952," in the Western Historical Quarterly.
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• In this piece, Blanton continues his investigation of 20th century Tejano attempts to gain civil rights and equal citizenship.
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• This article will be a part of Blanton’s second major book project Integrating the Mexican American: The Intellectual and Civic Struggle of George I. Sanchez, a study of Mexican American history in the 20th century told through the fascinating life of Dr. George I. Sánchez.
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Carlos Blanton discusses the politics of immigration in new article

Carlos Blanton, associate professor of history, recently published a journal article titled "The Citizenship Sacrifice: Mexican Americans, The Saunders-Leonard Report, and the Politics of Immigration, 1951-1952," in the Western Historical Quarterly.

In this piece, Blanton continues his investigation of 20th century Tejano attempts to gain civil rights and equal citizenship.

His point is that in order to defend their U.S citizenship rights in Texas during the 1950s, Mexican Americans felt that they had to abandon recent immigrants from Mexico. They gained little in their struggle against a Jim Crow system, but they also had few options.

To embrace open borders would have put them at odds with liberal groups that had supported civil rights; such a stance would also have made them allies with the very growers’ groups that sought to exploit Mexican laborers for pennies a day and who did not support civil rights.

Blanton argues that this was a painful decision for the Mexican Americans, and they paid the price for it politically with absolutely nothing to show for it by the end of the 1950s. However, by the 1960s Mexican American leaders began to embrace a more open immigration policy, which they continue to hold today.

This article will be a part of Blanton’s second major book project Integrating the Mexican American: The Intellectual and Civic Struggle of George I. Sanchez, a study of Mexican American history in the 20th century told through the life of a prominent civil rights activist from the 1960s.

Blanton holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and came to Texas A&M University in 2001. He has published articles on Mexican American education history in Pacific Historical Review, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and the Journal of Southern History. His book The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836-1981 was published in 2004 by Texas A&M University Press and won the 2005 Tullis Prize for best book in Texas history by the Texas State Historical Association.

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Contact: Tiffany Neal, varsitycolt@libarts.tamu.edu, 979.862.4879