How Do You Start History? Are There Consequences to When You Begin the Story?

1
How Do You Start History?Are There Consequences
to When You Begin the Story?

• Mexican Americans and PoliticsClass 2January
  12, 2006

2
Is There A Consequence to Where You Begin the
Story?

• ?
• 1835
• 1848
• ?

3
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• The U.S.-Mexican War (1845-1848)
• The negotiations
• Provisions
• Repatriation and retention of Mexican citizenship
• U.S. citizenship
• Land rights
• Partial abrogation
• Federalism
• Administration of land rights

4
Mexican (American) Politics and Society in 1848

• Politics
• Choice of citizenship
• Mexican American elites central to state politics
• Spanish a language of governance
• Economics
• Southwest and California incorporated into U.S.
  economy
• Small Mexican (American) middle class
• Society
• Mexican class system and social institutions
• Mexican American population small 75,000-100,000

5
Dynamics of Change (1848-1860)

• Politics
• Reduction of Mexican American elite political
  rights
• Removal of Spanish from political discourse
• Economics
• (Beginning of) Mexican American loss of land
• Labor shortage spurring migration from East (not
  South)
• Gold rush
• Railroads
• Society
• Replacement of Mexican elites and institutions
  with Anglo elites and institutions

6
Partial Exceptions

• New Mexico
• Greater Mexican American population concentration
• Small Mexican American middle class
• Less incorporated into U.S. economy than Texas or
  California
• Mexican American dominance of politics into 1900s
• Texas border (the Rio Grande Valley)
• Smaller Anglo population
• Some cross-border migration
• Mexican Americans retain control of land into
  1900s

7
Mexican American Politics at its Nadir (1860-1900)

• Politics
• Destruction of Mexican American political
  leadership
• Disenfranchisement of poor and minorities in
  South
• Emergence of political machines dependent on
  Mexican American votes
• Some local resistance Las Gorras Blancas

8
Nadir (Economic)

• Economic
• Decline in Mexican American elite / continued
  loss of land
• No Mexican American middle class
• Patron-client relationships among landless
• Emergence of unions in Mexican American areas
• Economy of Southwest dependent on land and land
  was a poor investment in this era
• Few economic opportunities for the poor

9
Nadir (Social)

• Social
• Mexican Americans predominantly rural
• Whitening of elite / exogamy
• Few cooperative institutions
• Little contact across Mexican American
  communities
• Little new migration (domestic or international)

10
Mexican Immigration to Permanent Residence
11
Blacks Mexican Americans in the late-19th
Century

• Both lost politics rights
• Blacksformal denial of political rights
• Mexican Americans
• Loss of economic resources that allowed for
  leadership
• Manipulation of Mexican participation
• Roots of division with BlacksMexican Americans
  recognized by courts as white
• Each has exceptions (that proved the rule)

12
For Next Time

• How were Las Gorras Blancas able to challenge
  Anglo domination in Northern New Mexico?
• What resources did they have?
• Was it a movement primarily of the
  socially/economically disadvantaged?