Runaways not welcome

 

Examples abound in Mexican history of laws and circulars designed to prevent the immigration or settlement of Africans in Mexico. In 1833 the Mexican consul Francisco Pizarro Martinez refused to grant immigration rights to free-blacks from Texas because in his view "'people of color' were immoral and lazy."  

In the 1920s, the Mexican ministry of the interior (gobernacion) issued a circular prohibiting African Americans in the United States from crossing the international border for even a brief visit to Mexico: "The measure prohibiting persons of the black race from immigrating to Mexico applies to the entire border in such a way that no American citizens of this race can spend even a few hours of recreation in any of the Mexican border towns."

The Mexican consul in San Antonio, perhaps in response to pressure from the NAACP, recommended to the foreign minister that citizens of la raza negra, the black race, be allowed to visit Mexico within a zone of thirteen miles along the border for a period of three days. The Foreign Ministry relented and agreed to allow black Americans to visit Mexican border cities, but reduced the time of their cross-border visits from the proposed three days to fourteen hours and stressed that they be allowed only "occasional visits."

 Foley, N., 2010. Quest for equality. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.