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The University of Texas at Austin

Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs


Conference Paper

Hispanics, Immigration and Housing the Poor in Texas Under the Great Society: Then and Now


Peter M. Ward, C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair in US-Mexico Relations and Professor of Public Affairs and Sociology

Peter M. Ward
C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial
Chair in US-Mexico Relations
and Professor of Public Affairs

This paper examines Johnson’s background and relationships with Mexicans in South Texas during his early years, as well as his interactions with Mexican-American organizations while he was in Congress.  How those relations translated into some of his major actions as President (Civil Rights, Voter Registration, and the Housing Act)  are evaluated insofar as they came to shape the environment for housing and urban development from the 1970s onwards.  Immigration and population growth of Hispanics led to dramatic growth and to their emergence as the first minority today (45 million), both nationally and in Texas. The paper focuses upon how immigrants and low income Hispanics (principally) search for housing in the informal sector and argues that such informality of housing production in colonias and informal homestead subdivisions represents a viable and rationale response to structural poverty and inadequate public and private housing policies.  The essay concludes by reflecting upon whether President Johnson would have viewed informality as indicative of policy failure, or pragmatically as a creative bootstraps response whereby low income Hispanics and others have a shot at breaking into the “American Dream”.

 

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