Arvind Dilawar:
In Chicano Communists, you mention that the Communist Party had some difficulty connecting with Mexican Americans in the Southwestern United States because the party failed to recognize their radical traditions, such as their organizing with the Industrial Workers of the World. What were Mexican-American workers’ relationship to socialist politics prior to the CPUSA’s arrival?
Enrique Buelna:
Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants already had a long history of radical organizing in defense of their communities and working lives. These communities often formed defensive organizations (self-help organizations), forged local alliances, or joined labor unions, such as the Western Federation of Miners and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). In other examples, Mexican immigrants recreated mutualistas (mutual aid associations) from their home communities, formed extensions of the anarcho-syndicalist Partido Liberal Mexicano (Mexican Liberal Party), or joined local branches of the Socialist Party.
In other words, many of these immigrants brought with them extensive experience in modern labor militancy, but also agrarian radicalism that fused anarchist and socialist ideas with communal traditions.
AD:
Part of the difficulties Mexican Americans faced within the Communist Party was being relegated to a “national minority,” rather than an “oppressed nation,” like African Americans. How were these categories distinguished, and what did they signify to the party?
EB:
Some members of the CPUSA tended to mirror the same misconceptions about Mexican Americans as the broader society. Viewed largely as a transient population with no deep roots in the country, Mexican Americans were identified as new arrivals with similar historical experiences to those of German, Irish, or Italian immigrants. In other words, they had come to this country from the outside in search of a better life and better economic opportunities.
Although this assessment was not universal across the entire organization, it clouded the view of many in the CPUSA leadership, who would come to believe that blacks and Mexican Americans were inexorably different and, therefore, necessitated distinct approaches. With African Americans viewed as an “oppressed nation,” this meant that their struggle would be prioritized and that they would be key in the dismantling of American imperialism.
AD:
Can you elaborate on the difference between European immigrants and Mexican Americans in relation to the Southwestern United States?
EB:
Mexicans and Mexican Americans have had an extensive presence in the Southwest, longer than many history books and popular culture would have us believe. Since the early 1500s, indigenous peoples, mestizos, blacks, and Europeans commingled — trading, intermarrying, and warring with one another. As fraught as these relationships were, they managed to carve out new social, political, and economic spaces from which to live and coexist.