Mexican Voting Research Paper

The climate for hispanic in North America, particularly in the United States and Mexico during the 19th and early 20th century were riddled with racism and the oppression often overlooked, despite their contributions to the United States. There were some variation to the severity of the racism and to the extent that the people worked together. To understand this hostility we must look at the underlying causes, which stemmed from the Mexican War. The end of the Mexican War was called to an end with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which was signed in 1848. Guadalupe-Hidalgo called for the states of Arizona, Colorado,California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Texas in itself was gained and was one of the starting motivations behind the …show more content…
Unfortunately the United States made it impossible for many reasons. Many tactics were used one way was with poll taxes, much with African Americans, where the Mexican Americans were unable to afford the tax, especially given their little pay. Another form of manipulation was with the inclusion of all white primaries, where it set who the candidates would be without their input. Literacy exams again similarly to those used to keep African Americans from voting were used and as a result bared people from being able to vote. Even if there were no literacy exams per se, in places ballots would be in only english, so that not only would you have to be able to read but also read proficient in English. The form of English proficiency needed to vote once again decreased the amount of Mexicans who would be able to vote, given that a new Mexican in general would not know English well enough and be only proficiency in Spanish writing. Indirect forms of racial exclusion were not the only forms to pop up at the time. Anglo Americans would often times in places where Mexican Americans were allowed to vote, stand outside the voting polls and beat up any Mexican Americans attempting to vote. The only exception was when a boss would organize their employees to go in a group. In conditions such as these boss organized groups the Mexican Americans were not allowed to vote as they wished, but …show more content…
Forms of social inequality included lynching. Lynching is a mod action, where they kill the individual without a trial. Many times even if an individual was not murdered, Mexican Americans were convicted of crimes without evidence or trials. Many times the Mexicans would try to explain what was occurring and they did not listen. An example of these social racial discrimination, was of Tiburcio Vasquez. He had a crop of land. Then White Americans came over and demanded he leave his land. In response to him not moving, the White Americans tied him to a post, then proceeded to rape and kill his wife in front of him. The White Americans had no repercussions and proclaimed like many other, that they were acting for justice. So Vasquez left his land and traveled to his half brother after some time and borrowed his brother’s horse. Somehow the horse came to be recognized as a stolen horse, instead of hearing him out, the Americans threw him in jail. Following his time in jail, he went on to lead a life of crime and when he tried to turn his life around was accused of killing a white woman. So much like Vasquez other forms of racial discrimination included the stealing of land. The government itself did not help with land, if anything the American government took the newly admitted Mexican Americans land. This occurred because many times the titles were nowhere to be seen. According to the American government, in