Immigrants In Orange County

The wave of immigration is not strange to anyone in America. The United States of America is an immigration land from the very beginning. The immigrants came from other countries, and they all have the same purpose to have a better life. Two factors make people from outside the U.S. want to come here to settle down. The pull factor is that the immigrants see the country as a land of economic opportunity, stability, and hope.

On the other hand, the push factor was more pessimistic, where people had to leave because of war, dictatorship, or failed government. The immigrants usually chose the best states to begin a new life, and California is their finest choice—especially Orange County. But the new life in Orange County is easy as it seems where. Many Californians don’t want to welcome immigrants and never consider them Californians. I had a chance to read a book called “Orange County: A Personal History” by Gustavo Arellano, in which he tells a story from his own experiences and his point of view on how Mexican immigrants, in general, had been through and how they defined their place in California and other ethnicities.

Source: New York: Scribner

In this book, Arellano was so brilliant and dedicated when he drew back a dark yet glorious picture of the life of Mexican immigrants and his family when they first came to America. Dark because they suffered from all the racism, discrimination, and unfair treatment from everyone around them. The most painful thing is that during that time, they did not have a voice or the right to protect themselves and not being recognized as citizens of California. Glorious because Mexican immigrants understood what they had to face and stood up for themselves against all the bad things toward their community. So that the generation of Arellano or any other generation in the future can be proud of their heritage.

In 1849, the Gold Rush hit California and led many gold miners to come here to find gold with a dream to change their life. With their appearance, the population in Orange County had increased but dropped due to “devastating droughts and floods that cursed the region during the 1850s” (Arellano, 16). Soon after the end of WWII, the population was booming in Orange County “from vast nothingness into hyper-suburbia” (Arellano, 17). Another wave of immigrants to Orange County was after 1975 when Saigon had fallen, and Vietnamese refugees came here to find freedom. But the thing is that the residents of Orange County were mostly white, and they considered themselves Californians, excluding Mexicans and other ethnicities because they were not white and American enough to be a part of California, even though the immigrants come here a lot every year.

When Arellano’s grandfather and other Mexicans stepped foot in the U.S., they had to work on every citrus farm to provide for families and suffered from many unfair treatments from the growers. The climax of the unfair treatment led to the citrus war in 1936, where many workers went on strikes to object to the growers paying them unfairly. The citrus war was between the laborers clashing with growers and the police. The need for laborers in the citrus increased with a mix of white, Filipinos, Chinese, Indians, and mostly Mexicans. But the working conditions they received were terrible and unjustified. It was like sweatshops, where people suffered labor exploitation. The orange harvesters were also unhappy with the pay rate of 5 1/2 cents a box (about 50 pounds of oranges) because they worked so hard and thought they deserved more than that. The growers wanted to hit harder, so they asked: “the immigration authorities to deport the same men the growers had gladly overworked just weeks earlier.” (Arellano, 52-53). It was one of the unfamiliar wars because most powerful people shut down the workers without letting them talk; the media only wanted to hear from one side. Arellano brought back this strike to tell people that Mexicans in Orange County did not have the voice to speak up or have the chance to express their anger toward an individual. The way that he described the 1936 citrus war touched the feeling of every reader because of the harsh reality of what Mexican immigrants had been through, and it is continuing nowadays, where there was a president who wanted to build a giant war between two countries and separated children from their parents in a cage.

African Americans had been through a dark time during the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s. They were segregated, they were treated differently, and they were murdered brutally by murderers who were never being prosecuted. It is the same thing happening to immigrants nowadays due to their skin color their ethnicity. The immigrants had to hear the racial slurs, which they didn’t deserve to hear. Arellano mentioned in his book how people compared Mexicans to the Indians as “lazy and ineffectual” (Arellano, 174). Or segregate them from illegal immigrants as “skinned and fried” (Arellano, 185). It sounds like the immigrants look like fried fish. The Indians were here in the first place, and when the Europeans came and took away everything, the Indians became nothing. White people stole things which supposed to belong to the Native Indians.

From the beginning of Orange County’s days, Mexican immigrants worked hard on every orange farm in harsh and unfair conditions. Until now, they still work hard and harder to provide for their families, and many are successful. It was such a disgrace and an unacceptable comparison. Another thing that Mexican immigrants were being discriminated against was mocking Mexican culture when telling the “fat burrito eater” (Arellano, 185) in an interview with the Los Angeles time from the residents of Newport Beach in 1985. Burritos, tacos, or any Mexican cuisines belong to their pride and culture. It is funny because right now, everyone can eat Mexican food. Who is laughing now?

The Arellano family had to come to the U.S. for a better life because their life back in El Cargadero, Mexico, was so harsh due to the lack of every essential need. According to Gustavo’s mom, they did not have electricity or running water, and they had to make everything themselves to survive. It was as if they were living in the stone age. Every immigrant, not only Mexican, always strongly believes that America is a paradise; coming here makes your life happy. But the reality is more crucial than that. When Arellano’s grandfather, Papa Je, came to Orange County, he worked with other fellows on an orange field, but they were being treated differently.

Meanwhile, the white laborers got higher pay than he and his fellows. Any Mexican at that time was segregated. They were not allowed to get inside restaurants, not allowed to live in white neighborhoods, not allowed to use the same restrooms as the white, or not allowed to be inside a movie theater. (Arellano, 33). It sounded familiar. Wait, that’s right. It was precisely what happened to the African Americans in the South. The Jim Crow law, which was “separate but equal.” But unlike African Americans, there was no equal to Mexican immigrants.

Born and raised in America, Arellano just wanted to blend in with other teenagers and enjoy American life. He did not want to participate in anything related to his Mexican root. On the other hand, his parents wanted to keep all the Mexican cultures for the next generations. They should be proud of their heritage. Perhaps all the previous generations, when they came to the U.S., want to bring their cultures and the memories of their countries with them to remind themselves who they are and why they are proud of it.

Gustavo Arellano finally understood his Mexican heritage after a series of discrimination that Mexican immigrants faced. In the eyes of California residents, Mexican immigrants were like that, but what about California lawmakers? Arellano described all the conservatives in Orange County as the “greatest stereotype. The one that has dominated the American psyche for decades. Wealthy, white, Republicans” (Arellano, 83). There is no doubt that all of the Republicans want to end illegal immigration instead of helping them. Proposition 187 was the climax of all discrimination against Mexican immigrants. It was “a ballot measure drafted in Orange County for fall midterm elections that year seeking to deny illegal immigrants government benefits” (Arellano, 191). Then, Harald Martin, an Anaheim police officer who doubled as the president of AUHSD, supported Proposition 187 and compared Mexican children to Tribbles, which were legendary furry pests from Star Trek, on National Public Radio. Cute but not nice was what he meant. All the racist things and the unfair laws that were being put on Mexican immigrants at that time made Arellano realize that Mexican heritage always runs inside him no matter what, and when they need him the most, you will stand up for your heritage. He joined MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán), which he never joined any club before. They had one purpose: to improve the world, and many people, not only Latinos but African Americans and Asians, joined them to help. That made Gustavo more aware of his race and awakened his political activism. “Long live the Mexican race” (Arellano, 206).

The racism or discrimination against immigrants has no sign of stopping. It’s still happening daily to Latinos, Mexicans, and Asians, who are being discriminated against and blamed when Covid-19 hit. But it doesn’t mean they give up. With the pride of heritage inside them, they will stand up to fight against that unfairness and define their place in Orange County, California, and everywhere in the U.S. as One nation under God.

Source: Gustavo Arellano, Orange County: A Personal History (New York: Scribner, 2010)