Indigenous peoples lived in the area now known as Texas long before Spanish explorers arrived in the area. However, once Spaniards arrived and claimed the area for Spain, a process known as mestizaje occurred, in which Spaniards and Native Americans had mestizo children who had both Spanish and indigenous blood. Texas was ruled by Spain as part of its New Spain territory from 1520, when Spaniards first arrived in Mexico in 1520, until Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836, which led to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848). In 1830, the Mexican population fell to 20 percent and in 1840 down to 10 percent. When Spanish rule in Texas ended, Mexicans in Texas numbered 5,000. In 1850 over 14,000 Texas residents had Mexican origin.[1][2]
In 1911 an extremely bloody decade-long civil war broke out in Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to Texas, raising the Hispanic population from 72,000 in 1900 to 250,000 in 1920. Most job opportunities for them involved working on a ranch or a farm starting from South Texas and moving north and northeast. The number reached 700,000 in 1930, 1,400,000 in 1960, and 4 million in 1990.[3]
In the 2020 Census, 33.3% of Texans identified as "Mexican, Mexican Am., or Chicano".[4][5]
Media
La Prensa was a daily Spanish language newspaper published in San Antonio. It was started in 1913 by Ignacio E. Lozano and covered the Mexican Revolution and other stories from Mexico. It was closed in 1963.[6]El Bejarano (San Antonio) was a Spanish language newspaper published in San Antonio. It was started in 1855 and became a platform for Mexican and Mexican American activism.
Hispanics of Mexican descent dominate southern, south-central, and western Texas and form a significant portion of the residents in the cities of Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The Hispanic population contributes to Texas having a younger population than the American average, because Hispanic births have outnumbered non-Hispanic white births since the early 1990s. In 2007, for the first time since the early nineteenth century, Hispanics accounted for more than half of all births (50.2%), while non-Hispanic whites accounted for just (34%).
Lynching of Mexican-Americans in Texas
From 1848 to 1928 there were hundreds of lynchings of Mexican-Americans across the American West.[7] Many of these lynchings occurred in Texas against people of Mexican descent. One such case was the case of Paulino Serda of Edinburg, a city in south Texas. Paulino Serda was killed by Texas Rangers on his ranch in 1915 during questioning.[8] In September of that same year, Texas Rangers encountered Jesus Bazan and Antonio Longoria riding their horses near their ranch in Edinburg, Texas.[9] Even though they had committed no crimes, the Texas Rangers shot and killed the two men on the assumption that were Mexican bandit sympathizers; they left their bodies where they were shot to be found by locals two days later.[10] Many more Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans living in the Texas-Mexico border were killed during this period, now designated as La Matanza.[11]
Education
Post Mexican-American War the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which extended the racial category of white to Mexican Americans[12], as well as the Texas Constitution which guaranteed equal rights to Mexican-Americans such as the right to free public education[13]. Despite having access to education, and being considered white in the eyes of the law, public schools in Texas were segregated Mexican students from white students until 1965,[14] and often times Mexican-Americans living in Texas didn’t receive the same treatment compared to their white neighbors. This differential treatment towards Mexican-American student included (but was not limited to) the banning of speaking Spanish on school grounds, in which violators could legally be punished through beatings[14]. Some Mexican American organizations who played a major role in the fight against racism in public schools are the American G.I Forum, LULAC, and MALDEF.[15]
^James-Gallaway, ArCasia (January 19, 2023). "Under a Black Light: Implications of Mexican American School Segregation Challenges for African Americans in Texas". Teachers College Record. 124 (12): 220–251 – via SageJournals.
^Guadalupe, San-Miguel (December 1982). "Mexican American Organizations And The Changing Politics Of School Desegregation In Texas 1945 to 1980". Social Science Quarterly. 63 (4): 701–715 – via EBSCOhost.
6. Kanellos, Nicolas and Helvetia Martell. 'Hispanic Periodicals in the United States Origins to 1960s: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography'. Arte Publico Press, 1960.
Further reading
Anders, Evan. Boss Rule in South Texas: The Progressive Era (U of Texas Press, 1982).
Barragán Goetz, Philis. Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas (U of Texas Press. 2022), winner of multiple prizes
Castañeda, Carlos E. Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; reprinted, New York: Arno, 1976).
De León, Arnoldo. Ethnicity in the Sunbelt: A History of Mexican-Americans in Houston (University of Houston Mexican American Studies Program, 1989).
De León, Arnoldo. San Angeleños: Mexican Americans in San Angelo, Texas (San Angelo: Fort Concho Museum Press, 1985).
De León, Arnoldo. They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes Toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821–1900 (U of Texas Press, 1983).
De León, Arnoldo, and Kenneth L. Stewart. "Tejano Demographic Patterns and Socio-economic Development," Borderlands Journal 7 (Fall 1983)
García, Mario T. Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880–1920 (Yale UP, 1981).
García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930–1960 (Yale UP, 1989).
García, Richard A. Rise of the Mexican American Middle Class, San Antonio, 1919–1941 (Texas A&M UP, 1991)
