ustxtxb_obs_2004_05_07_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

BgfPZ Solution Our mutual, funds are for people like you who want to invest in their future and make a difference. Domini Social Equity Fund offersgrowth opportunities through a portf olio of stocks selected for their social and environmental performance. p rides Dorrdni Social Ekwycl Fund* drversification while supporting s and snail business owners in struggfing communities. Domini Money Market Accotate ears safety and liquidity through FDIC-instead deposits that help promote community development. Please obtain a current prospectus for more complete information including rfsits, fees, and expenses, by calling 1-800-5304321 or online at www,domini.com . Domini *OCIAL tillifirineutiere rite 049, nu lowest Matter, Visit www.dorninteorn or Call us at 1 -800-530-5321 Di kW NM 800 fail ad es Ikeda Seal SW Fed re MOM Is surisi pi* sal we In Wind. ispi any inn UMW UM SUN Ma Malin connulty Otondinno Imennets snl in wed ell Gm pony 01111 AM Ma ate ROM allay innammn. Tin IWO kW Sol fen mg* lea s Sam inneolou if in ROO to nernintionn se es. Mg IWins oft le reel *a Om suntia VW mpg In prIndon lin, wilid noy Ow On Mgt Mons inneni it Is Mont al lowor iniven flat WHOM tato Lit Me& WU a There are always two sides to every history. On the one side you have the mayor’s silk underwear; on the other side you have my great aunt’s melted shoes. restrictions, any health department restrictions?’ of the century, also recalled how easy it was to cross the border. “Coming from Juarez across the bridge… they never asked you for any identification. They didn’t ask you for anything. In fact, there wasn’t but one old man and he was half asleep at a soapbox back there. You could go and come back and nobody ever bothered you. You could bring in whatever you wanted and they never said anything at all?’ Before 1917 Mexicans were legal. It was mostly the Chinese, ,Syrians, and Greeks who were considered the “illegal aliens” along the El Paso-Juarez border. Many of them would dress up as Mexicans, get on the electric trolley, and sputter a few words of memorized Spanish trying to sneak by the sleepy customs inspector at the bridge. One of the most famous coyotes who smuggled Syrians and Greeks into El Paso was Teodoros Kyriakopulus, a good friend of Pancho Villa, who lived next door to him on Sunset Heights. But 1917 changed all of this. Suddenly the sleepy customs inspector was replaced by real efficient S.O.B.s with instructions to bar a whole bunch of other groups from crossing. The bridge inspectors came equipped with a booklet published by the U. S. Public Health Service, entitled Manual for the Physical Inspection of Aliens. Some of the leading medical scientists, progressive reformers, and eugenicists of the country had come up with a rather poetic list of new illegal aliens: imbeciles idiots feeble-minded persons persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority vagrants physical defectives chronic alcoholics polygamists anarchists persons afflicted with loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases prostitutes contract laborers all aliens over 16 years old who cannot read The Manual for the Physical Inspection of Aliens gave the Public Health officials at the bridge very detailed instructions for alien examination. The immigrant’s upper eyelids were everted to check for trachoma and conjunctivitis. The hands were inspected for clubbed fingers, incurved nails, and “other deformities?’ The list of abnormalities the bridge physicians checked for included some seemingly innocuous ones asthma, bunions, arthritis, varicose veins, hernias, and flat feet. Sometimes the border crossers would be asked to put together a children’s puzzle, solve a couple of “simple addition sums” or write a few sentences to make sure the alien was not an idiot, imbecile, or feeble-minded. One enterprising U.S. Public Health inspector at El Paso wrote Washington requesting an intelligence test which he administered to Mexican children at the Santa Fe bridge. He concluded that the average I.Q. of the Mexican race was 78.1. \(A similar test administered at Ellis Island put 83 percent of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe within the imbecile and “Pathological liars, vagrants, cranks and persons were medically certified as “persons with constitutional psychopathic inferiority” by the health officials could also be sent back to Mexico. “Any suggestion, no matter how trivial, that would point to abnormal mentality is sufficient cause for detaining the alien for a thorough examination,” the manual explained. continued on page 18 8 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5/7/04