We are descendants or relatives of Repatriados, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who, between the years 1929 and 1939 were forced or voluntarily went to Mexico at the behest of the United States government. Most had been recruited by Ford Motor Company to work in Detroit. When they came here, they did not intend to leave. Many of the people who left never told their own children why they uprooted their homes and families, and they did not discuss it when they returned. Many did not return. Sixty percent of those deported were U.S. citizens.
For the past several years, members of the Mexican community in Detroit have been interviewing our elders about this period of the Repatriation We have been compiling oral interviews with our family members, friends, and neighbors, to finally tell us a story which few would talk about for the past fifty years.
It is still not known how many never returned, how many died along the painful journey, or how many returned years later. We do know that there was a wave of immigration during World War II, and that many who came only found out then that they were already U.S. citizens, many of whom had never been to Mexico.
In 2000, we received a grant from Detroit 300, a foundation created to celebrate the 300th birthday of Detroit. We produced a documentary film, Los Repatriados: Exiles from the Promised Land, interviewing elders and descendants of the original Mexican families, and telling the story for the first time.
When the people returned to the U.S., they told their children not to speak Spanish, not to live where the Mexicans live. This accounts for the reason so many Mexicans of that generation don't speak Spanish. It was not until the 1970s, when our generation came of age and began to question this cultural phenomenon,that we began to uncover the story.
(may take a few minutes to download)
Corrido de Los Repatriados
Caravana de Melancolia
