In Defense of La Raza

The Los Angeles Mexican Consulate and the Mexican Community, 1929 to 1936

by Francisco E. Balderrama

Mexican communities in the United States faced more than unemployment during the Great Depression. Discrimination against Mexican nationals and similar prejudices against Mexican Americans led the communities to seek help from Mexican consulates, which in most cases rose to their defense.

Los Angeles’s consulate was confronted with the country’s largest concentration of Mexican Americans, for whom the consuls often assumed a position of community leadership. Whether helping the unemployed secure repatriation and relief or intervening in labor disputes, consuls uniquely adapted their roles in international diplomacy to the demands of local affairs.

Texts

Published

Metadata

  • isbn
    978-0-8165-3784-6
  • publisher
    University of Arizona Press
  • publisher place
    Tucson, AZ
  • rights
    CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • rights holder
    University of Arizona Press