ABSTRACT
This chapter intrigues with some of the questions involving decisionmaking, specifically with regard to acculturation. Pushed by the economic and political chaos generated by the Mexican Revolution and lured by jobs in US agribusiness and industry, over one million Mexicanos migrated northward between 1910 and 1930. Segundo Barrio or South El Paso has served as the center of Mexican community life. Today, as in the past, wooden tenements and crumbling adobe structures house thousands of Mexicanos and Mexican Americans alike. Some immigrant traditions were valorized more than others. Celebrating Mexican heritage did not figure into the Euro-American orientation pushed by Houchen residents. Settlement workers held out unrealistic notions of the American dream, romantic constructions of American life. It is as if they endeavored to create a white, middle-class environment for Mexican youngsters, complete with tutus and toe shoes.
