Friday, November 09, 2007

The great unknown "repatriation"

This week CBC Radio One's show, The Current, broadcast a short documentary on an unknown episode of US Depression and immigration history: the expulsion of perhaps a million or more "Mexicans" (some actual immigrants, some children of immigrants, some people with "Mexican sounding names") during the Hoover Administration. The producer talks to an 82-year-old man who was born in the USA but was "repatriated" with his family from Montana (!), being allowed to take with them only the clothes on their backs. I like to think I know a lot about US history but I've never heard of this; and though apologies and compensation have become a political matter in some areas I'd guess most Americans are equally in the dark.

If you'd like to hear the Current segment, it's available on the Web, as is other information about the expulsion.

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