Mexican American Day 1 Notes

Front 1

stats on mexican downward social mobility btwn 1850 and 1900

Back 1

1850 – landowning class 34%, skilled labor class 29%, Manual Labor class 34%
1900 – landowning class, 16%, skilled labor class 12%, manual labor class 67%

Front 2

three major factors for mexican downward social mobility

Back 2

extensive land loss, integration of regional economies into national markets, violence

Front 3

Factors explaining land loss in the new region

Back 3

• proving land claims in court
• rising taxes on landowners
• violent dispossession

Front 4

land loss

Back 4

In the transfer into the US, Mexicans had to prove their land claims in a US legal system based in land and property laws, major reason they lose their land.

First of all, under mexican land claims and land laws, many ways their land was recognized was communally, several members of a family would own a plot of land, not everyone had the grant to prove this claim of ownership, once it had to be proven in US court, it was hard to prove who owned the land in tracing the history. Expensive and time consuming process. Land tended to be marked in informal ways which are difficult to prove in court

Didn't have the funds to go through this process, the average claim took 17 years to make its way through the court

800 claims, 600 or so were successfully claimed. Half of those original owners went bankrupt during these claims

Newcomers into the areas saw what was happening, squatters moved into the land. They would get preferential treatment – added extra pressure on M landowners. Dealing with the physical presence of squatters on their land waiting for them to loose it. Squatters were white americans

Front 5

rising taxes

Back 5

now that regions in TX and CA were part of the US, there was a tax system that rose on their land, and as increased competition for the land, land prices increased thus taxes increased. Lost land because they couldn't pay taxes. Many people got land for paying back taxes on land that M couldn't pay. Consider the tax situations when anglos moved into TX and settled these big land grants. They got tax breaks for the first six years. Land went to newcomers of a region. EX: King Ranch

Front 6

king ranch

Back 6

5000 acres by 1885. increased the size of the ranch at 1.25 million acres of land. However, since that time its shrunk to 850k acres. The way the son gained a lot of the land is by paying mexicans back taxes who lost their land through back taxes. The economy couldn't compete. Once it became integrated into a national market, and so they ended up losing out economically, and they lost a lot of land, having to sell in desperate situations.
Also used Texas Rangers to intimidate Mexican landowners

Front 7

Integration from the regional to national mkts

and barriers mexicans faced

Back 7

Long been a cattle mkt, small mkt mostly to north mexico and TX. They weren't connected to a larger mkt. Once the area became part of the us and ranchers ammassed a lot of land, this is when texas cattle industry grew. This is the 'western' time period. They couldn't compete in the same way.

- Many innovations that hadn't been in existance since before. Ex: Fencing. It made cattle in certain areas and easier to control access to water. Once the ranch land became enclosed, then ppl who didn't have access to water on their own land lost out. Mexicans did not have the money to undergo the improvements that they would need to operate to make improvemetns. They were operating on a disadvantage.

Because of their financial difficulties, the mexicans couldn't finance these big trips, so the mexicans had to sell their cattle locally at lower prices to anglos who would move them up north.

- Language issues: ppl preferred dealing with non-mexicans

differential access to credit

RESULT: they weren't able to withstand the rigors of fluctuations of the cattle economy as well as they could have. If there was a bus in crisis, mexicans really suffered. Also, if there were droughts, mexicans really suffered. Instead of selling their land at a profit in good times, they ended up selling their land for bad prices in rough times.

Front 8

Ricardo Rodriguez case
(1896-97)

Back 8

○ Court case for naturalization. Wanted to block his petition of nationalization because he din't meet the race requirements in the US naturalization law. If a judge ruled against, it could be used to ban a lot of immigrants from becoming naturalized. The reason that they brought it forward because they wanted to bar mexicans from voting, they were afraid of an increasing mexican presence in San Antonio, and that the vote could be manipulated.

- Mexican Immigrant living in San Antonio who applied to become a naturalized US citizen
- Court challenge against the petition based on racial grounds and the 1790 Naturalization Lane
- Judge upheld Mexicans' naturalization rights based on the Treaty of Hidalgo

Front 9

1790 naturilization law

Back 9

3 kinds of white ppl can be naturalized. Stayed on the books until 1952. However, there was one amendment to it. With the 14th amendment, extended citizenship to the african americans (1858). What effect did it have on the 1790 law? Free white person, or a person of african descent or color.

Naturalization can be based other than on race.

Front 10

argument against ricardo rodriquez

Back 10

Whatever the case, he is not white. Appeal to common sense of whiteness
Scientific approach to race and whiteness. Classified based on the hue of his skin. He's not african nor white, so he can't fulfull his
Historical argument (primary argument) even according to history, there was always a sense of distaste for Mexicans in the place that they lives. The discussion in Congress about taking
Aruges the treaty of hidalgo didn't grant mexicans citizenship right away