{36 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION

Let us contrast the two views of the Mexicans who come into the Southwest.
The unorganized element, which undoubtedly constitutes the great majority of
the people, and which is fighting desperately against the peon invasion from the
South, points out that those who are coming here in such vast numbers are the
lowest type of Mexican Indian, dull, stupid, vicious, predatory, immoral animals,
who can not even compete with their own class in their own country. Picking
over garbage, petty thievery, liquor traffic, and smuggling are all regarded as
normal methods of getting by. |
The following statement made to the author by an American who lives in a
border city seems to reflect the general sentiment of those who are deeply concerned
 with the future welfare of this country:
“Their minds run to nothing higher than the animal functions—eat, sleep, and
sexual debauchery. In every huddle of Mexican shacks one meets the same
idleness, hordes of hungry dogs and filthy children with faces plastered with flies,
disease, lice, human filth, stench, promiscuous fornication, bastardy, lounging,
apathetic peons and lazy squaws, beans and dried chili, liquor, general squalor,
and envy and hatred of the Gringo. These people sleep by day and prowl by
night like coyotes, stealing anything they ean get their hands on, no matter how
useless to them it may be. Nothing left outside is safe unless padlocked or chained
down. Yet there are Americans clamoring for more of this human swine to be
brought over from Mexico.
“This immigrant is the new type of American and may foreshadow what our
country will be some years from now if these ‘laborers’ keep flooding in and
breeding like flies as they have done for the last 10 years. Down in their own
country they die off; infant mortality, pestilence, and God knows what all gets
them. But here we coddle them and give them free hospitalization, charity
relief, and all that. Down there an old hag will say: ‘I have 3 alive and 15 dead,’
but here that is reversed.
“What I have described here is the Mexican pelado or pela’o, which means
‘skinned’ or ‘peeled’—in other words it signifies destitution. These pela’os
are scorned by the so-called ‘high class’ Mexicans, the educated class.
“Now the difference between a high-class Mexican and the common pela’o
is about the difference between a skinned skunk and one with the showy fur on.
It is only skin deep. The education referred to is comparable to that of a 10-yearold
 boy in the eastern schools who has reached the sixth grade and then jumped to
high school for a year. The women in this class are more sneaking in their
adultery, and the men drink better liquor; they live in better houses, wear
better clothes, and exploit their poorer brethren with heartless cruelty. They
have the same treacherous nature, false tongue, and lack of character as the
others; are impudent or hypocritical with foreigners, whereas the pela’os is
either cringingly servile or openly hostile. As between the two I prefer the
pela’o,. who knows he is no good and generally is willing to confess it freely.
If you mix in a erowd of pela’os they will tramp on your feet like mules: but the
‘aristocrat’ will step on your neck if he gets a chance.”
I have quoted this statement at such length because I have found from extensive
 research and observation that it seems to reflect accurately the general
sentiment of the American element which has nothing to gain from the exploitation
of the Mexican immigrants throughout the entire Southwest wherever they are
found, although it seems to be true that the conditions improve somewhat as one
moves northward from the border. However, it should be noted that these
gentiments do not seem to apply to the true Spanish-American element in the
Southwest, for, as has been pointed out, an effective social and racial barrier
seems to exist between the two elements, Spanish-American and Mexican.
There seems to be a general protest against Senator Borah’s advice, *‘ Be kind
to them.” In reply to his statement I was informed that “ Mexicans won't let
you. They will abuse every privilege. ‘Give them an inch and they will take
a rile’ is a common expression one hears of them here. The sense of moral
obligation is too weakly developed in them to treat them as we treat each other.”
The point was emphasized frequently that ‘the most arrogant of them all is
the American-born, especially if he has a little property. He has the Indian
sign on -us; the Constitution protects him and we can’t throw him out, and he
knows how to take advantage of all that.”
A reliable American citizen living in a border city discussed with me the fights
which are of constant occurrence across the border between Federal officers and
Mexican smugglers. He stated: “These fights show how ‘docile’ the Mexicans
are, as that term is applied to them in dispatches going out from here. As a
matter of fact some Mexicans are docile. So are some bulls’?