I also grew up around Mexican people, and to a lesser degree there was prejudice against Mexicans. I think it’s common among people of all races to look with suspicion on those who are different from them.
I attended high school with a young man named Marcello Aguero. You would have to work hard at not liking Marcello. He was so likeable that he was voted the most popular boy in school. He was a great athlete, a “swivel hips” half back who could zip through the line of scrimmage with the speed of lighting. One night we went to Cross Plains to play football. The Cross Plains players were yelling at Marcello. They kept calling him a “pepper belly.” That really made all of us mad. However, we would have probably done the same thing to some Mexican we didn’t know. Marcello was our Mexican, just as Rufus was our black man.
I think that illustrates much of the attitude toward people of different ethnic origin at that time. We rejected other people who were different from us as a group, but we accepted many of them as individuals.
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