page_title: History of Mexican Americans
section_title: At war
hierarchical_section_title: History of Mexican Americans / World War II / At war
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Navy Lt. Arthur Van Haren, Jr. with his Grumman F6F Hellcat in flight (No. 32) with Fighting Squadron 2 "Rippers", circa 1944.
context_page_description: The history of Mexican Americans, or American residents of Mexican descent, largely begins after the annexation of Northern Mexico in 1848, when the nearly 80,000 Mexican citizens of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico became U.S. citizens. Large-scale migration increased the U.S.’ Mexican population during the 1910s, as refugees fled the economic devastation and violence of Mexico’s high-casualty revolution and civil war. Until the mid-20th century, most Mexican Americans lived within a few hundred miles of the border, although some resettled along rail lines from the Southwest into the Midwest.
  In the second half of the 20th century, Mexican Americans diffused throughout the U.S., especially into the Midwest and Southeast, though the groups’ largest population centers remain in California and Texas. During this period, Mexican-Americans campaigned for voting rights, educational and employment equity, ethnic equality, and economic and social advancement. At the same time, however, many Mexican-Americans struggled with defining and maintaining their community's identity.
context_section_description: World War II was a watershed for all the Latino groups. Enthusiasm for the war was high. Some 500,000 men were drafted or volunteered; even larger numbers of women and older men worked in high paying munitions plants, ending the hardship years of the depression and inspiring demands for upward mobility and political rights. The LULAC and El Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española (the Spanish-Speaking Peoples' Congress), founded before the war, expanded their membership and more successfully demanded full integration for their middle-class constituents. LULAC expanded from its Texas base into New Mexico.
  In Arizona, community organizations were very active in patriotic efforts to support American troops abroad and made efforts to support the war effort materially and to provide moral support for the young American men fighting the war, especially the young Mexican-American men from local communities. Some of the community projects were cooperative ventures in which members of both the Mexican-American and Anglo communities participated. Most efforts made in the Mexican-American community, however, represented localized American home front activities that were separate from the activities of the Anglo community. Mexican-American women organized to assist their servicemen and the war effort. An underlying goal of the Spanish-American Mothers and Wives Association was the reinforcement of the woman's role in Spanish-Mexican culture. The organization raised thousands of dollars, wrote letters, and joined in numerous celebrations of their culture and their support for Mexican-American servicemen. Membership reached over 300 during the war and eventually ended its existence in 1976.
caption: Mexican American pilot Lt. Arthur Van Haren, Jr. with his Grumman F6F Hellcat, ca. 1944.
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