Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Date of Award
8-2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. Michael Faubion
Second Advisor
Dr. Gregory Gilson
Third Advisor
Dr. Sonia Hernandez
Abstract
Between 1920 and 1970 laborers in Hidalgo County were degraded and ranked among the lowest paid workers in the nation. Colonizers including land developers seeking to exploit the commercial agriculture potential of the Rio Grande Valley divided the working poor along race, gender, and class lines. Such labor strategy allowed Anglo Americans and in some cases elite Mexicans to subjugate working class Mexicans and Mexican Americans to substandard wages and miserable working conditions. This thesis argues the origin of the degradation of the working poor by analyzing wages, work conditions, race relations, and gendered dimensions of labor in the region. Overall, this thesis defines the working poor as people who have not accumulated wealth. Colonizers, represented by landed elites who mainly invested in commercial agriculture and modern irrigation believed in a society grounded in a racial and class based hierarchy which guided much of their ideas about labor.
Granting Institution
University of Texas-Pan American
Comments
Copyright 2012 Edward David Avila. All Rights Reserved.
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/history-labor-degradation-on-border-hidalgo/docview/1152540862/se-2