This paper will be divided into three main parts, each of which connects to help answer my research question. The first part will describe the mistreatment of Mexican-Americans in the Southwest United States during the time period specified above. It will address not only individual cases of violent discrimination, but also structural discrimination that affected the political and economic status of Mexican-Americans during this period of time. The second part will focus on how the discrimination against Mexican-Americans caused the development of Mexican-American communities and mexicanidad. These communities embraced their Mexican ethnic heritage, choosing to continue Mexican traditions. The third part, however, provides the alternative
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Regarding physical violence, throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, news of the murder of Mexicans was increasingly common. In Corpus Christi, Texas, an 1886 New York Times article described how the town’s citizens raided the constable’s house (prison) in order to seize and execute two Mexican-Americans accused of stealing horses. In Santa Ana, California, a mob took an alleged Mexican-American murderer from his prison cell at one in the morning and lynched him from a telegraph pole. The article even justified such treatment by claiming that, “while generally condemned, the lynching is the result of a belief that this Mexican’s friends intended to swear him free and that the court would be unable to punish him.” By differentiating this man’s lynching from what is “generally condemned,” the New York Times condones such mob justice and presents it as an acceptable method of enforcing the law, demonstrating how such discrimination and mistreatment of Mexican Americans was normalized in the United States. And those were only official accounts of the abuse, which could be justified by the American public because the Mexican-Americans they were killing were allegedly criminals. In William Carrigan and Clive Webb’s discussion of the lynching of Mexican-Americans, they describe even more vicious attacks, such as the 20-year-old Mexican laborer who was “bound to a mesquite tree, doused with kerosene and burned alive.” They also report that, while only 547 cases of lynching have been identified between 1848 and 1928, the real number of Mexican-Americans murdered is somewhere in the thousands. Violence against Mexican-Americans in the Southwest was so prevalent in part because it was almost officially sanctioned, particularly in Texas, where the infamous Texas rangers embraced, and contributed to, the killing of Mexican-Americans. In fact, McWilliams
Regarding physical violence, throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, news of the murder of Mexicans was increasingly common. In Corpus Christi, Texas, an 1886 New York Times article described how the town’s citizens raided the constable’s house (prison) in order to seize and execute two Mexican-Americans accused of stealing horses. In Santa Ana, California, a mob took an alleged Mexican-American murderer from his prison cell at one in the morning and lynched him from a telegraph pole. The article even justified such treatment by claiming that, “while generally condemned, the lynching is the result of a belief that this Mexican’s friends intended to swear him free and that the court would be unable to punish him.” By differentiating this man’s lynching from what is “generally condemned,” the New York Times condones such mob justice and presents it as an acceptable method of enforcing the law, demonstrating how such discrimination and mistreatment of Mexican Americans was normalized in the United States. And those were only official accounts of the abuse, which could be justified by the American public because the Mexican-Americans they were killing were allegedly criminals. In William Carrigan and Clive Webb’s discussion of the lynching of Mexican-Americans, they describe even more vicious attacks, such as the 20-year-old Mexican laborer who was “bound to a mesquite tree, doused with kerosene and burned alive.” They also report that, while only 547 cases of lynching have been identified between 1848 and 1928, the real number of Mexican-Americans murdered is somewhere in the thousands. Violence against Mexican-Americans in the Southwest was so prevalent in part because it was almost officially sanctioned, particularly in Texas, where the infamous Texas rangers embraced, and contributed to, the killing of Mexican-Americans. In fact, McWilliams