It is not expected that the average Mexican girl in our elementary school can comprehend chemical terms as applied to Household Science, but we can teach her a general knowledge of foods for regulating, building and furnishing energy to the body, also the methods of preparing, cooking, and serving them.
-Pearl Idealia Ellis, Americanization Through Homemaking 1929
Nativism, racism and anti-immigration have remained constant themes throughout American history. In 1929 Pearl Idelia Ellis wrote Americanization Through Homemaking, a book now emblematic of American’s racist and anti-immigrant sentiments towards Mexicans entering the U.S. at the time. The book includes a how-to-guide to assimilate female Mexican immigrants into American culture. Chapter titles include, A Sewing Class of Mexican Girls, A Cooking Class of Mexican Girls and Table Service.
Ellis follows the melting pot method of Americanization, which was used at the time, while also highlighting the domestic expectations of women in the U.S. In the book’s preface Ellis writes, “The teacher of homemaking has a large field for instruction. Here is not a mere calling but an opportunity. It is she who sounds the clarion call in the campaign for better homes” (12). Americanizing Mexican girls through housework while simultaneously promoting domestic work as women’s most important calling are recurring themes throughout the book. Although the book was written with good intentions, it makes broad stereotypes about Mexican women, including that they inherently love sewing and are not capable of higher intellectual thought.
Mexican immigration to the United States increased dramatically in the early twentieth century. The book by Ellis represents Americas culturally-insensitive reaction to the first surge of what would prove to be a large-scale migration. According to the Library of Congress, “Between 1910 and 1930, the number of Mexican immigrants counted by the U.S. census tripled from 200,000 to 600,000” (Library of Congress). Having experienced a civil war in 1910, it took Mexico decades longer to solidify a stable government and economy. One could argue Mexico still struggles to develop.
In historian and professor Mark Wasserman’s, Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico, Wasserman outlines this dilemma. Wasserman writes, “The thirty-five years of the Porfirian peace crumbled in 1910 and 1911. The Mexican Revolution and nearly three decades of continuous civil wars ensued. The issues over which Mexican’s fought were the same as those that had haunted Mexico for its first cry for independence a hundred years before: who was to rule, and how were they to rule?”(Wasserman, 229).
A civil war, an unstable government, corruption, and a revolving door of leaders did nothing to halt a steady stream of Mexican citizens from migrating to the U.S. Unlike the Ottoman Empire, the U.S. does not convey an all-inclusive spirit to immigrants, especially regarding religion and language. Despite facing insurmountable obstacles and oppression, Mexican-American’s and immigrants continue to persevere, thrive and establish roots in the U.S., while combatting the culturally insensitive process of Americanization by maintaining cultural traditions within family and community.
-Joseph Foley