Today was our first day with Professor Lopez. The main theme of the class was the frequent omission of a Mexican perspective and account in U.S. history. We began with a John Wayne clip from The Alamo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Y3SMMrVJs&feature=PlayList&p=29A7E6E1B05FC6B6&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=19), which helped to portray common accounts of Mexican-American relations: that of the Americans being brave and just, while the Mexicans were savage and deserving of their defeat. The Alamo is still referenced today as being an example of American freedom and democracy, while the Mexican perspective is generally all-together ignored.
We discussed the omission of non-Anglo perspectives in U.S. history as they apply to different events. For example, high school classes learn about The Manifest Destiny as a time of innocent exploration and American citizens realizing their "divine" right to expansion. Seldom do we consider the U.S. residents who were not included in this destiny (slaves, women, etc.) or the people whose land was being acquired (that of the Native Americans, Mexicans). We discussed the concept of American land acquisition as a concept of annexation rather than conquest, and of U.S. history's omission of accounts of the culture and land before Anglo-Americans "found" it.
We then looked at important dates from a Mexican-American account, which Vicki Ruiz emphasizes in her article, "Nuestra America: Latino History as United States History." Professor Lopez focused on three time periods as follows:
1830-1848: "The Conflicts" This was a time of Anglo settlement on previously Mexican land, which was made possible in part by unrest and disorder from the country's recent independence. During this time Anglo-Americans attempted to push Mexicans into Central Mexico. This was also a period of racialization and dehumanization of Mexicans, some of which still remains today.
1848: End of Mexican-American War
1848-1875: "The Resistance" During this time, both Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans acted in a push-and-pull cycle of violence. An increasing number of Anglo-Americans migrated to the contested lands, and conflicts surrounding racial hierarchies exacerbated already-raw relations between residents of the area.
1875-1900: "Subordination" The Texan Rangers continued lynchings of Mexican-Americans and Mexican identity was largely ignored, as Anglos emerged as the racially dominant social group.
Finally, we discussed several documents from Vargas' book, Major Problems in Mexican American History. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was significant as it ended the Mexican American War, and also set the stage for future relationships between Mexicans and Americans in the contested areas. One significant problem with the treaty was its purported inaccessibility to the masses. Mexicans had to decided whether they wanted to adopt U.S. citizenship or retreat to the new Mexican border within a year of the treaty's signing, yet it is difficult to determine how such citizens would know about this choice. Furthermore, the treaty was full of loopholes and ambiguity that ended up exploiting Mexican land ownership and in many cases, allowing Anglo-Americans to take over formerly Mexican land. We discussed the story of Joaquin Murieta in a police journal, which illustrates the stereotyping of Mexican Americans as savage, sub-human, violent land hoarders. Meanwhile, the Anglo-American is portrayed as innocent and justified in his constant state of pioneering.
We were left with a few questions to ponder over the next couple of weeks. Firstly, why was the matter of landholding so tenuous for the Mexican-Americans? We addressed this question in part through considering the importance of racialization of the hierarchies. Secondly, what caused the anti-Mexican sentiments? For this question, we considered the unawareness of the incoming Anglo-Americans, who were often immigrants and at times clueless about their surroundings. This fear of the unknown often turned into hostility, which was then fueled by Mexican stereotypes and the dehumanization that had occurred in these areas. Professor Lopez concluded this class period by mentioning the economic instability of the West during these times of hostility and shifting relationships between the Mexicans and Americans.
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