Education and Americanization in New Mexico and Puerto Rico, 1890s-1940s

John Nieto-Phillips

This project compares Americanization policies and practices in New Mexico and Puerto Rico in the early decades of the twentieth century. The ostensible aim of Americanization programs was to mold Spanish-speaking youths into loyal U.S. citizens and integral members of society. Once equipped with an understanding of American culture and the English language—and rid of their native language and "foreign habits"—students were thought to be ready for the responsibilities of “full citizenship” and for participation in the United States' body politic. In both lands, Americanization efforts proved largely disastrous. Rather than inspire admiration or the unquestioning acceptance of "American" culture and the English language, they bred resentment and alienation. Officials in New Mexico, for example, reported high absenteeism, attrition and resistance among students to a prohibition against speaking Spanish on school grounds. Parents, in growing numbers, began protesting such language policies, as well as the tracking of their children into "remedial" classes. In Puerto Rico, teachers reported similar trends. By 1946, popular opposition to English—the island’s official language of instruction since 1900—brought about the official reinstatement of Spanish. Likewise, in New Mexico, growing discontent with English-only policies prompted the expansion of bilingual programs or dual-language programs, many of which were directed by Mexican American women educators. The distinct yet sometimes parallel experiences of Puerto Ricans and New Mexicans raise some compelling questions about how Latinas and Latinos have figured into the nation-building project of U.S. education. To what extent did U.S. officials at the local, regional, and national levels purposefully coordinate Americanization policies aimed at Spanish-speaking children? How and why did programs designed to incorporate Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans into the United States' body politic result in their further marginalization from it? In what ways did Latino and, increasingly, Latina (women) educators shape Americanization programs and/or respond to them? This project promises to yield complex answers to these questions. More broadly, it will explore how Latinas and Latinos contested and defined civic identity in their own terms.

About John Nieto-Phillips

I received my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). My research and teaching focus on how Latinas and Latinos have negotiated their civic identities, cultures, and languages in the context of U.S. public education. My early work, however, focused on ethnic relations between Pueblo Indian and Hispano communities in northern New Mexico, a subject inspired by my family’s roots there. My current project examines efforts to “Americanize” children in the public schools of New Mexico and Puerto Rico in the early decades of the 20th century. I have taught at New Mexico State University and the University of Paris, and held a two-year postdoctoral position at Hunter College. I recently joined the Department of History at Indiana University.