Center for Research on Latinos in a Global Society

Historians of Chicano, Southwest labor, and U. S.Mexico relations cannot avoid bumping into archival documentation that testify to the significant presence and activism of the Mexican government via its consulate corps within the expatriate communities across the United States. Numerous published studies verify that consuls actively engaged an interest in the political affairs of the immigrant colonias between 1920 and 1940, the period of interest to this study. Several strands of twentieth century (Chicano history, in particular community and political development, union organizing, and the California agricultural labor strikes of the 1930s, defy explanation without reference to the high level interventions by various Mexican consuls. However there is no consensus on the political significance of consular conduct upon Mexico de afuera. This study is an attempt to systematically address that question posed by Chicano historiography by never satisfactorily answered.