I examine in this dissertation the historical significance of Texas Mexican agricultural labor and the formation of Latino communities across the southern United States in the latter twentieth century. Their primary destinations chosen for work, as well as their experiences in those locations, established patterns of migration and settlement followed and faced by subsequent flows of Latino workers. The lives of Texas Mexicans are, thus, critical to understanding the process of Latino migration and settlement in the region. I utilize the term Tejano Diaspora to help understand the northward movement and eventual settlement of agricultural workers from their home communities in South Texas. This framework also situates Tejano labor migration as a consequence of forced displacement and reflective of a larger systemic phenomenon between the United States and Mexico. In turn, this dissertation expands and complicates most extant writings on Latinos in the New South that remain limited to the contemporary period and neglect the historical presence of Texas Mexicans as part of the literature. In this examination, I focus on four distinct localities that serve as individual chapters in this dissertation: South Texas, the Mississippi Delta states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, then South Florida, and, finally, North Carolina. These geographies represent the primary destinations chosen by Tejano workers in chronological order, and were also principal centers for agricultural production. To undertake this task, I conducted extensive archival research at various local, state, and federal repositories across the country, and I utilized the interlibrary loan system to review related newspaper articles from the region. In addition, I conducted seventeen select oral history interviews for this project.
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