Spanish speaking people have always lived in North America and the first identified immigrants did not cross any borders, it is said that the borders crossed them. Mexicans were first to arrive in what is now New Mexico and in 1598 the Mexican government founded the city of Santa Fe. By the 1800’S, Spaniards governed Mexico as a colony for 300 years. Although the Spaniards held dominant power over the Mexican territory the main part of the population consisted of Mestizos individuals with both Spaniard descent and Indigenous.
2. Where did the groups settle, both initially and in subsequent migrations?
The Northern sections of Mexico especially those of North of the Rio Grande were not as populated up until the 19th century. Mexican government officials merchants, and trappers and hunters as well from the United States chose to reside in small settlements, mostly chose around a series of small churches. This remained the same until Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821.immigration patterns?
War broke out between Mexico and the United States over the US annexation over the Texan territory Mexico was defeated and in 1848 the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. The Treaty granted the winning region with an enormous amount of land. One more piece of important Land changed hands in 1854, when the US bought what is now Southern Arizona and New Mexico from the Mexican government for 10 million. This land purchase was known as the Gadsden Purchase, this allowed the US to buy a much needed railroad route, and open the West to further expansion. The larger nation had expanded its size by ⅓. And almost overnight tens of thousands of Mexican citizens had become residents of the United States.
4. How were the immigrants received by the current citizens of this nation?
At the turn of the 20th century, the borderlands between Mexico and the US were undecided by political and social instability. Often times immigrants that attempted to cross the border where harassed by bandits and Rustlers. Law enforcement was scarce, and justice was often rough and quickly executed. Lawmen were said to be as much of a threat as Mexican Americans. The Texas Rangers came in for especially fierce criticism.
5. How did United States government policies and programs affect
immigrants' assimilation into the life of the nation?
Under the treaty that ended the Mexican War, most of the Mexicans who lived in the new United States.The treaty also assured their safety and property rights .In practice, however, the new territories were far from the centers of the U.S government, and the arguments were not reliable. By the end of the 19th century, many Mexican Americans had been deprived of their land, and found themselves living exposed in an often hostile region. Because they were being shaped by hard times and long distances, these storytelling songs were like musical Newspapers and carried news for current events and popular legends.
Mexican immigration in the 20th century originated in three great surges of development. Between 1910 and 1930, the number of Mexican immigrants counted by the U.S census expanded from 200,000 to 600,000. El Paso, Texas, assisted as the Mexican Ellis Island- a gateaway to a different life for Mexican immigrants and an influential symbol of change and survival for their children and grandchildren. For various Mexican immigrants moving to the United States was not a permanent stay. Distance from Mexico to the US was not so far they were able to return relatively easy. In the early 1900’s, it estimated that more than 1 million Mexican immigrants returned to Mexico.
7. How did cultural heritage affect an immigrant's place of settlement? Whatimpact did immigrant cultural traditions have on the United States?
As the Mexican American population grew it was more visible in public affairs. Former Mexican territories became states, they began to affect the balance of power in the U.S government. National political figures started to count voters in Mexican American regions of the country, even though the applicants themselves were still tremendously European Americans. Publishers and songwriters began to incorporate Mexican themes in well known plays and popular songs. These works usually had little or nothing to do with the realities of Mexican life, in the U.S, or anywhere else. Ethnic stereotypes and racist slurs began to take place. Other groups sought to eliminate the Mexican influence because it appeared to be a negative influence to the American citizens. Americanization through Homemaking” suggested that putting Mexican girls into sewing, cooking, and cleaning classes was the key to social harmony. It began the basic structure of their social order- their home.
It's interesting how the United States was so ambitious for power and land that they were willing enough to go to war for it. It's also interesting to wonder how history would've been different had Mexico won the Mexican-American war.
ReplyDeleteIt is astonishing to me that the United States and also Mexico did not agree upon or discuss the boundaries of the territory if anyone one the Mexican-American war, it is as if they did not exactly know what they were frighting for.
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