A New Life in México City: Jewish Immigrants in 1924-1925

Anita Brenner, a Jewish woman writer who was born in Aguascalientes, México (1905-1974), from Latvian parents, was living in México City in 1924, when a large group of Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the country. They were fleeing political persecution, war and antisemitism, and couldn't enter the United States of America because of the immigration quota laws.

From the methodology of written culture and a gender perspective, I examine the writings of Anita Brenner. From drafts and copies found at the Anita Brenner Papers in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin to the news publications, I examine her vision of the immigrants that arrived in México City, the community they formed, the cultural activities in which they took part to preserve their traditions and language, the struggles of many of them to make a living, going from raising pigs to selling crucifixes on the streets, and the way they reinforced their Jewish identity getting together in their Sinagoga at Tacuba Street.

Her writings range from assimilation, nationalization, Mexicanization, and agricultural colonies to economic development of the immigrants in México.

Her writings also show that most of the Jews that arrived through the Port of Veracruz, decided to go to the Mexican capital because there the B'nai B'rith would help them, so they didn't go to other places in the country. México City became the urban space where they felt they could begin their lives again and build a living intertwined with the Mexican people.