This Day In Latino History

On this day in 1942, Mexico entered World War II on the side of the Allies, with Mexican foreign secretary, Ezequiel Padilla, taking the lead to encourage all other Latin American countries to follow suit. Though Mexico’s impact in battle was small, it’s official position as ally improved relations with the U.S. and opened the door for the Bracero Treaty, also establish that year, which encouraged thousands of Mexicans to enter the country to fill the labor gap left by American draftees. (Tom Tancredo never really got over that one.) The war also changed the economy in Mexico, creating an industrial revolution not before seen in that country due to the low amount of trade coming in from other nations.

And on this day in 1959, Steven Patrick Morrissey was born at Park Hospital in Davyhulme, Urmston, Lancashire to Irish Catholic immigrants. Some say it was this immigrant experience that would make his music so relatable to Mexicans 30 years later. Morrissey would go on to found the seminal 1980’s band The Smiths, taking the stage name, “Morrissey” and eventually launching a solo career. All of which would endear him in the hearts and minds of fey Chicanos and Mexicanos everywhere. So much so that in 2004, William E. Jones directed a movie about the phenomenon called Is It Really So Strange? whose title played off a popular Smiths song. MORRISSEY IS FIFTY, Y’ALL.