Mexican Immigration
Although Mexican-Americans had been living in the United States since the 1840s, almost one million Mexican immigrants began entering America in the 1910s, shortly after the Mexican Revolution, with a large percentage arriving in families. A small number of these families picked cotton in fields farmed by Punjabi men. The Punjabi men are thought to have chosen women of Mexican ancestry for many reasons. Mexican women were accessible in southern California (in the central and northern areas of the state most Punjabi men remained bachelors).
Mexican women, much like the women of Punjab, covered their heads and bodies to protect themselves from the blazing sun while working in the fields. Mexicans and Punjabis shared a rural way of life; with similar types of food and family values, and thus maintained a similar material and social culture. Furthermore, Mexicans and Punjabis shared an initially lower class status in American society.
Read more about this topic: Punjabi Mexican American
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