Good Neighbor at Home: Mexican Americans’ Bid for Political Empowerment in the World War II Era, 1930s-1940s

FAIN: FT-291146-23

Natalie Mendoza
Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80303-1058)

Writing a book on Mexican Americans’ efforts to advance civil rights during the World War II era by leveraging U.S. geopolitical aims. 

My project captures a rare moment in the 1930s-1940s in which the pro-democratic, anti-fascist ideology of WWII gave some communities of color in the U.S. unprecedented potential to wield political power. Especially useful for Mexican Americans was the “Good Neighbor” policy—Latin American foreign policy that aimed, in part, to promote a common democratic heritage in the western hemisphere. I show how Mexican Americans leveraged geopolitics to pressure federal officials into addressing domestic race issues; I also show that a rare moment of political empowerment was not sufficient for advancing civil rights. Federal officials chose expediency—winning the war, advancing foreign policy—over meeting citizens’ needs. Only after publicized episodes of discrimination threatened geopolitics did federal officials deal with domestic race issues. I trace these episodes to uncover how Mexican American success in securing civil rights depended upon federal officials’ geopolitical priorities.