By Aron Ramirez – TheDowneyPatriot.com – Photo: Courtesy Downey Historical Society.
The experiences of Downey’s first middle-class Mexican Americans were shaped by the white demographic majority. Ethnic differences might have been irreconcilable in Downey if not for the Mexican Americans’ public emphasis on “Americanness” in language, business, and politics. It was this way that Mexican Americans secured their place in the middle-class suburb—and the capital that came with it.
