Immigration Tragedy during the 1930s Great Depression: Repatriation Fears and Racial Criminalization of the Cortez Family in Houston’s Segundo Barrio

This poster will visually chronical the life and death of Mexican National Elpidio Cortez, whose family’s short residency in Houston, Texas during the 1930s Great Depression represented the hardships of repatriation and criminalization faced by the immigrant generation. The Cortez family followed many Mexican immigrants who left their nation in the 1920s to escape economic changes of the Mexican Revolution. Unfortunately, their relocation to Houston was marked by the outbreak of anti-immigration sentiment of the 1930s Great Depression. With the use of City Directories, Sanborn Maps, and U.S. Federal Census records, this poster will chronical the various residences of the Cortez Family in Segundo Barrio to illustrate the uncertainty and complications of being an immigrant at this time. I argue that while the Cortez Family escaped the Repatriation Movement in Houston, Elpidio and his family were unable to avoid the repercussions of injustice served by Houston’s law enforcement and court system toward Mexican Nationals.

The City Directories, U.S. Federal Census Records, and birth records suggest that the Cortez Family’s first years in Houston’s Segundo Barrio were marked by stability even family growth. Between the Great Depression years of 1932 and 1936, the Cortez family resided in four different alleys in the impoverish neighborhood of El Alacrán. I argue their mobile existence reflected the uncertainty of permanence and instability brought on by the repercussions of anti-immigration rhetoric and repatriation. Sanborn Maps will be used to visually show the shared built environment the residents encountered in the “shot-gun” homes of El Alacrán alleys. Directories and census records will be utilized in conjunction with the Sanborn Maps to highlight living conditions faced by the Cortez family and their neighbors. In these alleys, the Cortez family encountered recently vacated homes emptied by the fervor of repatriation. Other alleys included Mexican immigrants who moved as frequently as they did. The Cortez Family’s last residence implied an attempt to conceal their immigrant identity as they lived amongst a predominantly African American community.

While the Cortez family avoided being repatriated in the early 1930s, Elpidio’s beating death by the hands of two Houston Police Officers placed his family in the path to experience the double-sided nature of Texas law toward Mexican Nationals. On April 20, 1937, Houston Police officers beat Elpidio in front of his family; he was drunk and accused of domestic violence. He later died from his injuries. His death captured the attention of the Mexican Consulate and began a city-wide probe into police brutality toward Mexican immigrants. The criminal courts’ acquittal of the two officers upheld the injustice of kangaroo courts that were notorious for deporting convicted Mexicans in the 1930s. Elpidio, known only as “the Mexican” in court, symbolized the criminal nature of immigrants, and his death was a justified act of violence and racism by Houston Police. The failure of living in Houston was apparent, and by 1940 the entire Cortez Family were no longer in Houston’s residential records.