chicano culture questions

Race and Class in the Southwest A Theory of Racial Inequality

Mario Barrera

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS

NOTRE DAME - LoNDON

-. •

CHAPTER I Introduction

AT THE CONCLUSION of the Mexican American War in 1848, the United States added a vast and potentially rich territory to its possessions. This territory, while by no means densely settled, was certainly not unpopulated. In addition to numerous Native American groups, the area that is now called the Southwest contained a number of former Mexican citizens who, in terms of their origin, were part Indian, part Spanish, and part African. Separated by vast reaches of terrain and internally divided. by class distinctions, this Spanish-speaking population nevertheless had a certain common identity which has persisted up to the present day. This group has responded at different times and in different places to various designations. Mexican American, Mexican, Latin American, Hispano, and Latino are some of the more common variations, Chicano being the most recent. Neither the variety of labels, however, nor the undeniable heterogeneity of this group should conceal the very real sense of a common origin and a common fate. The concept of ''La Raza,'' probably the most generally accepted self-designation (and properly understood as "the people" rather than "the race") best ex- presses this feeling of unity.

While one major source of this group identity is a cultural heritage with certain core common elements, another and very important source has been the collective perception of injustice based on a fundamental and persistent condition of group inequality with respect to the "Anglos" in American society (the term "Anglos" as used by Chicanos refers to all Americans not members of a racial minority, and not just to those who trace their origin to the British Isles). The perception of injustice has been the motive for innumerable planned as well as spontaneous political activities on the part of Chicanos, from guerrilla warfare in the last century to agricultural workers' strikes, community control movements, party-building, and urban uprisings in the present one. The condition of inequality which underlies the perceptions of injustice has been the subject of innumerable government and academic studies, which have, however, made little dent in the problem.

In recent years these interlinked phenomena of inequality and group identity have taken on a new urgency because of changing demographic patterns in the Southwest. Whereas in the past most Chicano political activi-

2 • R

A C

E A N

D C

LA SS IN

T H

E SO

U T

H W

E ST

ties have been contained because o f the m

inority status o f this group, the

. com bination of a high birthrate and a continued high rate o

f im m

igration from

M exico now

threatens, or prom ises, to bring about a C

hicano m ajority in

several states in the not t.oo distant future. T hese trends have raised the specter

o f a "C

hicano Q uebec" in the Southw

est .in-the m m

ds o f m

any observers. T

he question o f C

hicano inequality, o f course, is one aspect o

f the broader question o

f racial inequality in the U nited States. H

ow are w

e to understand thC causes o

f this condition, perhaps the m ost profound and divi-

sive social problem that this country has had to face? B

riefly, three kinds o f

answ ers have been provided by analysts o

f inequality: (1) they're to blam e,

(2) w e're to blam

e, (3) the system is to blam

e. In m ore form

al term inology,

these three types o f explanations m

ay be called deficiency theories, bias theories, and structural discrim

ination theories. D

eficiency theories hold that racial m inorities are poor and pow

erless because o

f som e deficiency in the group itself. T

he classic racist theories, for exam

ple, advance the argum ent that non-W

hite racial groups are characterized by biological deficiencies, such as inferior intelligence.· M

ore m odem

defi- ciency theories nam

e the fam ily or the culture as the culprit.

B ias theories typically place the responsibility for inequality on racial

prejudice. G unnar M

yrdal, in his A n A

m erican D

ilem m

a, developed a pro- totype o

f this theory. H e felt that prejudice produced discrim

ination, that discrim

ination kept m inorities subordinate, and that a vicious circle w

as set up w

hen the perception o f subordination by subsequent generations reinforced

· the stereotype o f m

inority unw orthiness that had created the situation in the

first place. T he K

erner C om

m ission and its condem

nation of •'W hite racism

'' is a recent exam

ple o f this type o

f theory in the W ake o

f the racial unrest o f the

m id-1960s.

A third type o

f racial inequality theory focuses on structural discrim ina-

tion. L ike bias theory, it places an em

phasis on prejudice and discrim ination,

but w ith som

e m ajor differences. Structural theory stresses institutionalized

patterns o f discrim

ination based on individuals' prejudiced attitudes. E xam

- ples o

f s,uch institutionalized discrim ination are dual labor m

arkets (discussed m

ore fully in later chapters) and school segregation and tracking. Political gerrym

andering and other form s of system

atic political m anipulation are other

exam ples.

. W

hile I favor a variety o f structural

theory called colo- nial theory, this tradition shares w

ith the others a neglect o f the class dim

en- sion in A

m erican society. From

m y reading o

f Southw estern econom

ic history (presented below

in chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5), an understanding o f racial in-

equality is incom plete w

ithout taking into account class dynam ics. In the

concluding chapter, therefore, I m ake the attem

pt to integrate this w ith other

elem ents in order to produce w

hat I hope w ill be a new

, im proved structural

theory.

Introduction

O N

H IST

O R

Y A

N D

T H

E O

R Y

T he approach that I have follow

ed is that o f an extended historical and

interdisciplinary case study. U nfortunately, A

m erican scholarship tends to

suffer from a division betw

een history and theoretical social science. T he kind.

of approach that w as follow

ed by such nineteenth-century w riters as K

arl M

arx and M ax W

eber is studied in the universities but never follow ed, as far

as com bining historical m

aterials w ith a system

atic theoretical fram ew

ork. O

ne does not need to be as am bitious as M

arx and W eber to take up this kind

of and to attem

pt a w ork w

hich is m ore integrative than fragm

ented. A

historical approach allow s us to see the persistence of patterns as w

ell as changes over tim

e. T he changing historical conditions provide a kind o

f natural variation that allow

s us to see w hich factors m

ake a difference in racial inequality and w

hich do not. N aturally occurring historical variation can

provide w hat m

ight be seen as_ "crucial experim ents" that tend to verify one

kind o f theoretical explanation over others. T

o give one exam ple, taken from

the follow

ing m aterial: if w

artim e labor shortages in the U

nited States provide · racial

m inorities

w ith

opportunities for

occupational m

obility, and

if m

inorities take advantage o f those opportunities and perform

satisfactorily in their new

roles, theories that explain occupational inequality on the basis o f

cultural or other deficiencies, rather than on the structure of opportunities, tend to be underm

ined. W hile no one instance is decisive, a num

ber o f cases

w hich point in a consistent direction eventually add up to persuasive evidence

for one theory. _ A

historical approach also allow s us to see com

m onalities in the experi-

ence of different groups. F or exam

ple, it appears that C hicanos in the second

half o f the nineteenth century w

ere concentrated in certain occupations in w

hich B lacks w

ere al8o concentrated in other parts o f the country, for exam

- ple, agriculture, railroads, lum

ber. It also appears that both groups suffered dow

nw ard m

obility during the sam e period. T

hat these patterns could be repeated in different sections of the country for different racial groups seem

s to indicate that the sources o

f the patterns lay not in regional characteristics or in factors peculiar to a racial group, but in broader national characteristics, a type of explanation consistent w

ith structural theory. · H

istorical investigation can also clarify chains o f causation w

hich are not obvious through studies c<>nfined to one tim

e period. F or exam

ple, studies w

hich attribute occupational stratification to educational deficiencies am ong

racial m inorities are seriously m

isleading in that they do not take into account the historical conditions under w

hich the pattern o f segregated and inferior

schooling for m inorities w

as established. If it can be show n that such patterns

w ere deliberately instituted and that the interests o

f certain groups, such as agricultural and industrial em

ployers, w ere involved in their establishm

ent, a very different light is throw

n on _the pattern o f racial inequality.

4 RACE AND CLASS IN THE SOUTHWEST

The study that follows is part of a broad school of Chicano scholarship that has emerged in the last few years. Under the stimulus of the social activism of the 1960s and early 1970s, a number of relatively young Chicano scholars have begun systematic research into several areas. While. there had been significant earlier studies, they remained the .work of isolated scholars pursuing particular research topics. Only in the last few years has there emerged what might be termed a generation of Chicano scholars, many of whom are dealing with a set of interrelated topics such as labor, economics, community institutions, social relations, and politics. Numerous articles and dissertations on these topics have now been completed, and I have drawn heavily on them in the present study. One of the hopeful signs in this research is that considerable exchange has taken place between researchers trained in history and in the social sciences.

TERMINOLOGY

The term ''Chicano'' is used here in the demographic sense rather than in regard to conscious political identification. It refei:s to persons of Mexican origin who reside permanently in the United States and thus is synonymous with "Mexican American." The term "Mexican" or "Mexicano" when used to refer to persons in the Southwest, means persons from Mexico who are in the United States temporarily or on an irregular status. Given legal and social complexities, there is no clear divi<Ung line between Chicanos and Mexicanos. They live in the same communities and generally do the same kind of work. Unless otherwise specified, ''Chicano'' will often refer to both groups. In the past, many writers have used "Mexican" to refer to both groups.

The term "Anglo" will refer to all Caucasian residentS of the United States. This is the common meaning of the term as used in the Southwest, illogical as that may seem to some.

Racial and ethnic terms are often mixed together in discussions of discrimination, and the results can be confusing. I use "ethnic" to describe cultural factors such as language, customs, or religion where these charac- teristics are used to identify a group or to serve as the basis of group identity. "Race" refers to physical characteristics, such as skin color, when these characteristics are used in a similar manner. Both sets of characteristics are, of course, subject to social definition, and have different meanings in different settings .. The term "minority" refers· to a racial minority. Chicanos are a minority groµp which is defined partly on the basis of racial characteristics and partly on the basis of ethnic characteristics.

,, ' CHAPTER 2

The Nineteenth Century, Part I: Conquest and Dispossession

Westward the course of Empire wends its Way.

-slogan favored by William Blackmore,

British land speculator in the Southwest

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY the area that is now the Southwest was incor- porated into the United States through a war of conquest. With the Southwest caine a population of former Mexican citizens who were now granted Ameri- can citizenship by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. These were the original Chicanos. During the remainder of the century a social and economic struc- ture crystallized in the Southwest in which Chicanos and other racial minorities were established in a subOrdinate status. It is into this structure that succeeding generations of Chicanos have been fitted during the twentieth century, with some modifications.

There were certain key developments affecting the Chicano's social and economic status in the nineteenth century. The first of these .was the Mexican American War. In considering this topic, my main concern has been with· the identification of the interests that motivated that war, since such an analysis has an important bearing on subsequent developments. The second key factor was the displacement of Chicanos from the land in the various areas of the Southwest. The third was the emergence of a labor system in which Chicanos and other minorities constituted a clearly subOrdinate segment, which I call a colonial labOr force. It is my contention that the processes affecting the land and labOr showed important continuities with the interests underlying the Mexican American War. A consideration of all three developments reveals an intricate interplay between class and race factors in the Southwest.

This chapter deals with the first two of these three topics, the war and the land. The next chapter outlines the development of the colonial labor system.-

7

R A

C E A

N D

C LA

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

EV EN

TS U P TO

1848

T he Spanish settlem

ents in the area that is now the Southw

est date from

the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The earliest settlem ents

w ere in the are.a now

know n as N

ew M

exico, w here Santa Fe w

as founded in 1609. O

ver the next 200 years there w ere additional settlem

ents, and by the early nineteenth century there w

ere three m ain areas of concentration: the

N ew

M exico territory, southern and s0utheastern Texas, and the C

alifornia coast. W

ith the independence of M exico in 1821, .these areas becam

e part of the new

M exican republic. These territories w

ere thinly populated and rela- tively isolated from

each other and from the m

ajor centers of M exican popula-

tion. The bulk of the population w as m

estizo, a m ixture of M

exican Indian, European, and A

frican stocks, and the predom inant econom

ic activities w ere

m ining, ranching, and agriculture. V

ast areas of the Southw est w

ere still controlled by various N

ative A m

erican groups, such as the A paches, Pueblos,

N avajos and C

om anches.

It w as during the first half of the nin·

century that regular contacts w

ere m ade betw

een m erchants and trade. 1 of the U

nited States and the people of northern M

exico. R

egular trade bet 1een St. Louis and northern N ew

M

exico w as initiated w

ith the blazing of the Santa Fe Trail in 1822, leading to a lively trade in furs, silver, and other goods. O

ne result w as the w

eakening of the econom

ic ties betw een northern N

ew M

exico and the rest of M exico, as

the area cam e m

ore into the orbit of the M issouri m

erchants (Lam ar, 1970, p.

48). B y the 1840s there w

as a sizable num ber of A

m erican businessm

en in the cities of Taos and Santa Fe, w

hose econom ic

w ere paralleled by

their efforts to increase their political influence. In addition to trading, A nglos

in N ew

M exico engaged in land speculation.

In C alifornia, Y

ankee m aritim

e traders had established a presence going back to the late eighteenth century, built around their interests iii sea-otter furs and w

haling. D uring the 1820s an im

portant trade developed around the exchange of C

alifornia cattle products (the hide-and-tallow trade) for m

anu- factured goods from

N ew

England (B illington, 1974, p. 474). In 1830 an

overland route· w as established from

Santa Fe to C alifornia w

hich becam e

know n as the O

ld Spanish Trail. In addition to the exchange of C alifornia

prim ary products for A

m erican processed g()9ds, the trail served as a conduit

for com m

odities brought to the C alifornia coast from

A sia. In a recent paper,

A lm

aguer has em phasized the m

anner in w hich these developm

ents linked C

alifornia to the U nited States and the broader w

orld-econom y (A

lm aguer,

1977). The penetration of Texas by settlers from the U

nited States w as m

ore thorough than in the other areas of northern M

exico. H ere the Spanish and

later the M exican governm

ents had m ade vigorous attem

pts to populate the

C onquest and D

ispossession

area through a series of land grants, som e of w

hich had gone to A nglo

colonizers. T he m

ost fam ous of these w

as the A ustin C

olony, but there w ere

others. W hile the M

exican governm ent realized to som

e extent the dangers· of settling the area w

ith non-M exicans, there w

as danger in allow

- ing this territory to rem

ain very thinly populated. In any case, by the 1830s only the area around and south of San A

ntonio could be said to be distinctly M

exican in character (M einig, 1969, pp. 35ff.).

The m ain econom

ic activities in the Texas area w ere· subsistence ag-

riculture and cattle raising, although, starting in the 1820s, cotton becam e

increasingly im portant. Eastern T

exas in particular had very close econom ic

ties w ith L

ouisiana and looked m uch m

ore to the U nited States than to M

exico as far as trade w

as concerned. It w

as in T exas, of course, that the first m

ajor political developm ent

took place that foreshadow ed the incorporation of northern M

exico into the U

nited States. There w as a history of unrest and tension betw

een the A nglo

settlers in Texas and the M exican governm

ent, as exem plified in the short-

lived Fredonia R evolt in 1826. There w

as also a long-standing effort by the U

nited States to purchase the T exas area from

M exico. A

s presidents, l;>oth John Q

uincy A dam

s and A ndrew

Jackson m ade offers to the M

exican gov- ernm

ent for the acquisition of T exas, and these overtures m

ade M exico suspi-

cious of A m

erican intentions tow ard the area.

M exican anxieties had also been aggravated by the continued influx of

A nglo settlers (m

any of them "illegal aliens"), w

hich resulted by 1830 in a ratio of som

e 25,000 A nglos to 4,000 Spanish-speaking M

exicans in that area (M

eier and R ivera, 1972, p. 58). A

s a result, there had been sporadic attem pts

by M exico to curb A

nglo-A m

erican influence in Texas. In 1830, for exam ple,

the M exican govenunent passed a· C

olonization Law w

hich prohibited the im

portation of m ore slaves into T

exas and also attem pted to cut off further

A nglo settlem

ent. Texas at this tim e w

as part of the state of C oahuila-Texas.

The law w

as ineffective and w as repealed in 1833, but it indicates the concern

of M exican officials over the situation.

· Specific econom

ic interests w ere clearly involved in the conflict. O

n the one hand, m

any of the A nglo settlers w

ere interested in cotton cultivation and ·desired the free im

portation o f slaves to w

ork in the cotton fields. M exico had

abolished slavery, and its policy tow ard the m

ovem ent of slaves into Texas

· w as am

bivalent but obviously negative. In addition, A nglos w

ith com m

ercial interests w

anted to engage in free trade w ith the U

nited States, and resented M

exican efforts to enforce the national custom s law

s (M eier and R

ivera, 1972, p. 59).

The decisive revolt for an independent Texas cam e about during a

period of considerable internal conflict w ithin M

exico. Federalists and C en-

tralists w ere contesting for national pow

er, w ith the C

entralists, led by Santa

• R

A C

E A N

D C

LA SS IN

T H

E SO

U T

H W

B SI'

A nna, gaining the upper hand. R

esistance to the C entralist regim

e broke out in several provinces, and it w

as in this context that the conflict in T exas w

as converted into a revolt am

ong the A nglo settlers against any form

of M exican

authority over the area. W ith the success of the revolt, the R

epublic of T exas

w as established in 1836. D

uring the course of the arm ed conflict the official

position of the U nited States w

as neutrality, but considerable support for the separatist cause flow

ed into T exas unofficially.

T he new

authorities in T exas prom

ptly sought to be annexed to the _U

nited States, but annexation w as rejected by the U

nited States because of com

plications over the issue of slavery. T exas w

ould have com e in as slave

territory, and the entire issue thus becam e em

broiled in the A m

erican sec- tional conflict as w

ell as in the com petition betw

een the tw o m

ajor parties, the D

em ocrats and the W

higs. T exas thus rem

ained a republic until 1845, during w

hich tim e the A

nglo population greatly increased through im m

igration. T

he subject o f the annexation of T

exas cam e up again in 1844, and

w hen annexation w

as rejected by the C ongress the issue becam

e im portant in

the presidential cam paign of.1844. In this cam

paign the D em

ocratic candi- .

date, Jam es K

. Polk, ran on a strongly annexationist platform and defeated the

m ore am

bivalent W hig nom

inee, H enry C

lay. W ith the results of the election

know n, "the outgoing president, T

yler, m anaged to get a joint resolution

through C ongress providing for the addition of T

exas to the union. T his act

led M exico, w

hich had never form ally recognized the independence of T

exas, to break off diplom

atic relations w ith the U

nited States. In this charged atm

osphere it becam e increasingly clear that Polk had broader territorial am

bi- tions. Shortly after the annexation of T

exas, an A m

erican em issary, Slidell,

w as sent to M

exico to settle the T exas m

atter, but also to attem pt to purchase

the areas of N ew

M exico and C

alifornia. W ith the failure of the Slidell

M ission, the stage w

as set for the outbreak of hostilities. Polk had ordered A

m erican troops into T

exas, and these had advanced to the R io G

rande although the southern area betw

een the N ueces R

iver and the R io G

rande had alw

ays been a contested area betw een T

exas and M exico, in w

hich there w ere

no T exas settlem

ents. In A pril 1846 the U

nited States blockaded the m outh o

f the R

io w

hich historian G lenn Price points out constituted

act of w

ar even if the river had been the agreed-upon international boundary (Price, 1967, p. 153). In that sam

e m onth an arm

ed clash betw een M

exico and A

m erican troops along the river provided the incident w

hich quickly led the U

nited States to declare ·w ar against M

exico. Polk's w ar m

essage to C ongress

w as based o

n the claim

that M exican troops had invaded the territory of the

U nited States and attacked A

m erican forces. 1:Jut Price argues that Polk had

concluded that his territorial aim s could ilot be achieved peacefully, and that

ConqU !!st and D

ispossession

. he had thus engaged in a series of actions designed to provoke an incident that could be used to stir up popular support for w

ar. ·

T he M

exican A m

erican W ar w

hich resulted from these events lasted

from 1846 to 1848, and the T

reaty of G uadalupe H

idalgo, signed in the latter year, added a vast territory to the U

nited States. M exico lost one-third of its

territory and the U nited States gained an area that w

as to becom e the states of

C alifornia, N

ew M

exico, A rizona, N

evada, U tah, and part of C

olorado, as w

ell as all of T exas. T

he form er citizens of M

exico w ho rem

ained in this area becam

e A m

erican citizens and constituted the original C hicanos. In light of

the preceding discussion, their incorporation into the U nited States m

ust be seen as the product or' an im

perial w ar.

T he interests that underlay the conquest o

f the Southw est have been a

subject of considerable debate am ong historians, and a num

ber of m otivations.

have been put forth w hich need to be review

ed and assessed. O ne interpreta-

tion that has enjoyed considerable popw arity is that Southern slaveow

ners w

ere instrum ental in instigating the conflict. A

ccording to this argum ent, they

stood to gain in that the Southw est w

ould provide room for expansion of

cotton agriculture. A lso, the addition of m

ore slave states w ould aid the

Southern planters in their conflict w ith N

orthern industrialists for control of the governm

ent (see R hodes, 1907, p. 79). T

hat political considerations led m

any in the South to push for the annexation o f T

exas is adm itted even by

those w ho play dow

n the Southern conspiracy thesis (for exam

ple, see

B oucher, 1921, p. 22). T

he econom ic argum

ent also m akes sense, in that

cotton agriculture, as it w as practiced at the tim

e, tended to exhaust the land rapidly, and there w

as a continuous m ove w

estw ard from

the old cotton states in search of m

ore land suitable for plantations. T he fact that m

ost Southern planters w

ere D em

ocrats and that the national adm inistration w

as D em

ocratic also seem

s to add w eight to this thesis.

H ow

ever, the lim itations of the argum

ent need to be carefully noted. In. the first place, there seem

s to be a consensus am ong historians that Polk did

not act as a sectional president, in spite of his Southern origins. R ather, his

thinking seem s to have run prim

arily along national lines. In addition, it w as

already clear at the tim e of the M

exican A m

erican W ar that m

ost of the Southw

est w as not suitable for cotton agriculture. Southerners, clearly, had

little to gain from seeing m

ore free territory enter the U nion, and it w

as this consideration that led them

to oppose the trend tow ard the annexation of all of

M exico that developed once the M

exican A m

erican W ar w

as under w ay

(Fuller, 1969). T hus, w

hile it seem s clear that Southerners w

ere active in pushing the dem

and for T exas, their interests do not explain the acquisition by

the U nited States of the rest of the Southw

est as w ell.

A second explanation for the expansion o

f the U nited States into the

R A

C E A

N D

C LA

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

Southw est has been couched in tenns of M

anifest D estiny. T

his explanation is the m

ost w idely held am

ong historians, including M exican A

m erican histo-

rians. A ccording to this explanation, A

nglo-A m

ericans w ere possessed of a

vision of history in w hich they w

ere divinely chosen to populate the N orth

A m

erican continent and to bring the blessings o f dem

ocracy and progress to this area. T

heir expansion into the Southw est w

as sim ply an expression of this

conviction. ·

W hile it is true that there w

as strong popular support for expansionism

in the U nited States, especially in the W

est and in som e portions of the

N ortheast, various considerations severely lim

it the usefulness of M anifest

D estiny as a fundam

ental m otive for expansion into the Southw

est. It m ay be

m ore accurate to say that the fervor behind the idea of M

anifest D estiny w

as the product of a cam

paign of ide0logical m anipulation. Such a hypothesis is

reinforced by the tim ing of the phenom

enon:

T he date at w

hich the doctrine em erged as a force to be reckoned w

ith in p<>litics is im

portant to ascertain .... It can be ascertained only approx- unately, for m

any facets w ere present in this com

plex phenom enon and

som e of them

cam e into prom

inence sooner than others. Som e editorial

proclaim ing the full doctrine w

ere heard already during the cam -

pm gn of 1844. T

hey w ere voices crying in_ the w

ilderness. T he date

w hen the full chorus proclaim

ed the doctrine cam e after the election, as

late even as the closing m onths of the T

yler adm inistration. It cam

e after the annexation o

f T exas had em

erged as a good prospect in politics. [M

erk, 1963, p. 41] ·

T he suddenness w

ith w hich the doctrine em

erged and spread inevitably arouses suspicions, as does the fact that the annexation of T

exas w as a con-

tested political issue and that one of the m ajor parties, the D

em ocratic party;

w as strongly identified w

ith the issue. A s M

erk points out, ''In party affilia- tion, journals of M

anifest D estiny view

s w ere D

em ocratic. O

rgans of the Polk adm

inistration w ere strongly represented am

ong them " (M

erk, 1963, p. 35). From

M erk's account, there w

as a large-scale selling effort by m any new

s- papers for the doctrine.

. second m

ajor ?bjectioil to M anifest D

estiny as a fundam ental expla-

nation is that the doctrine w as too vague and diffuse to serve as an adequate

explanation of the expansion. It does not explain w hy certain areas w

ere taken over and others w

ere not. A s M

erle p<>ints out, ''In som e m

inds it m eant

expansion over the region to the Pacific; in others, over the N orth A

m erican ·

continent; in others, over the hem isphere" (M

erk, 1963, p. 24). H istorian

N orm

an G raebner puts it this w

ay:

M anifest destiny persists as a popular term

in A m

erican historical litera- ture to explain the expansion of the U

nited States to continent-w ide

C onquest and D

ispossession

dim ensions in the 1840's. L

ike m ost broad generalizations, it does not

bear close scrutiny. . . . T he concept of m

anifest destiny, as a dem o-

cratic expression, represented an expanding, not a confining or lim iting,

force. A s an ideal, it w

as not easily defined in tenns of precise territorial lim

its .... Som e suggested that A

m erican law

s be extended to include the dow

ntrodden peons of South A m

erica. . . . In their enthusiasm to

extend the ''area of freedom ,'' niany even looked beyond the continen-

tal lim its to C

uba, the Sandw ich Islands, the far-flung regions of the

. Pacific, and even to the O ld W

orld itself. T his w

as a m agnificent vision

for a dem ocratic purpose, but it hardly explains the sw

eep o f the U

nited States across the continent. [G

raebner, 1955, pp. 217-18]

A s others have pointed out, the concept of M

anifest D estiny fit in very w

ell w

ith the. A ll-of-M

exico m ovem

ent, but all of M exico w

as not taken. A

nother objection to this type of explanation can be raised in term s of a

general theory of history. M aterialist theories in particular argue (and I w

ould agree) that political m

ovem ents are m

otivated fundam entally by interests

rather than disem bodied ideas. Ideas and concepts w

hich "catch o n

" enter into political debate largely as expressions.or justifications o

f specific inter- ests, rather than as free-floating concepts and doctrines. In the case at hand, elites in the fonn o

f politicians and journalists played a m ajor part in

popularizing the doctrine, and the role of interests does not appear to be too difficult to identify.

In sum m

ary, then, M anifest D

estiny w as essentially a m

anipulated ap- peal and an attem

pt to secure broad popular support for an expansionist policy of particular benefit to certain political and econom

ic interests. T he specific

nature of those interests w ill becom

e clearer as w e exam

ine other expla- nations.

Som e w

riters have argued that the incorporation of the Southw est into

the U nited States should be understood in tenns of econom

ic and com m

ercial interests of various types. T

o assess this argum ent w

e have to look at the three m

ajor areas of the Southw est: T

exas, C alifornia, and N

ew M

exico (w hich at

that tim e included w

hat is now A

rizona). In the case of T exas (described

above) there w as clearly a desire on the part of cotton-grow

ing interests in expanding into that area. C

alifornia, how ever, appears to be the key to under-

standing com m

ercial interests in expansion. T he interest in C

alifornia w as

particularly keen am ong the m

erchant and m anufacturing interests of the

A m

erican· N ortheast, generally represented in the W

hig party. A ccording· to

R obert C

leland,

A second reason for the belief that the annexation of C

alifornia w as not

a slavery m easure is the fact that the m

ovem ent found its strongest

popular favor in the north. M ost of the contem

porary new spaper and

m agazine articles w

hich advocated the acquisition of this portion of

R A

C E A

N D

C LA

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

M exican territory first appeared in N

ew Y

ork or.N ew

E ngland. [C

le- land, 1914-15, p. 250]

C leland also notes an 1846 article in the A

m erican R

eview ("T

ext B ook

?f the W hig Party'') detailing the rich resources of C

alifornia and urging its m

unediate annexation, provided it could be done peacefully. H e goes on to

state: Y et the interest w

ith w hich the com

m ercial states of the north regarded

the of C

alifornia w as unquestionably greater than that of any

other of the country, w

ith the possible exception of the extrem e

w est. For 1t w

as natural that those w ho had im

portant trade relations not m

erely w ith· C

alifornia, but w ith India, C

hina, and the Sandw ich Is-

lands, beside extensive w hale fisheries, should of all others desire m

ost eagerly a harbor and territory on the Pacific. [C

leland, 1914-51, p. 251]

T he thesis that ports on tlie Pacific w

ere the m ost im

portant factor in explaining the conquest of the Southw

est has been extensively developed by N

orm an G

raebner. A ccording to him

,

T he essential fact [is] that the expansion of the U

nited States w as a

precise m ovem

ent that w as ever lim

ited to specific m

anum e obJecU

ves. It w as the Pacific O

cean that determ ined the ter-

ritorial goals of all A m

erican presidents from John Q

uincy' A dam

s to Polk. From

the beginning, travelers, traders, and officials w ho con-

cerned them selves w

ith the coastal regions had their eyes trained on ports.

goal of A n:terican policy w

as to control the great harbors of Franc1sc:o, San D

iego, and Juan de Fuca Strait. W ith their acquisi-

U on, expansion on the coastline ceased. [G

raebner, 1955, pp. v-vi]

T w

o. o f these three ·Pacific ports w

ere in the C alifornia territory. T

he other w

as in the O regon territory, w

hich the U nited States acquired at about

the sam e tim

e after a contest w ith G

reat B ritain. San D

iego at that tim e w

as the center of the hide trade. San Francisco w

as also involved in that trade and

w as seen as a m

ajor future trade link w ith A

sia. In his m essage to

in D

ecem ber 1847, Polk declared that the C

alifornia ports "w ould afford shelter

for our navy, for our num erous w

hale ships, and other m erchant vessels em

- ployed in the Pacific ocean, [and] w

ould in a short period becom e the m

arts of an extensive and profitable com

m erce w

ith C hina, and other countries of

the E ast" (quoted in G

raebner, 1955, p. 225). A

m erican interest in N

ew M

exico can also be interpreted in econom ic

term s. For one thing, the N

ew M

exico area served· as an overland route betw

een C alifornia on the one hand and T

exas and the A m

erican M idw

est on the other. Significant trade routes crossed this territory and had been in exis- tence for som

e tim e. Santa Fe served as the overland link betw

een C alifornia

and St. L ouis in a trade route that follow

ed the O ld Spanish T

rail. O ver this

C onquest and D

ispossession

• route passed m

anufactured goods, silver, livestock, and com m

odities from

A sia (B

illington, 1974, p. 477). H ow

ard L am

ar, in speaking of the N ew

M

exico conquest, puts the m atter this w

ay:

It w as not an expression of land hunger or slavery extension; and it w

as only partly prom

pted by that vaguer expansionist sentim ent called M

an- ifest D

estiny. R ather, A

m erican conquest m

eant regularizing and secur- ing rich .trade and safe transportation routes for a previously erratic, uncertain enterprise. It w

as, in short, a conquest of m erchants w

ho w

orried little about extending the glories of free governm ent to their

captive custom ers. [L

am ar, 1970, p. 63)

T he evidence thus seem

s clearly to support the argum ent that the

A m

erican intrusion into the Southw est w

as m otivated by several im

portant econom

ic considerations, perhaps m ost im

portantly in C alifornia. O

ne objec- tion that has been raised to this thesis has to do w

ith the role of the W higs in

the national debate w ith regard to A

m erican expansionism

during that period. W

hile both W higs and D

em ocrats represented com

m ercial interests,

the W

higs w ere preem

inently the party o f N

ortheastern m erchants and m

anufac- turers, and they w

ere for the ·m ost part vociferous critics of Polk and the

conduct o f the M

exican A m

erican W ar. From

this fact som e critics have

argued against the kind of em pha8is G

raebner and C leland have given to

C alifornia and its ports as a m

otivation for the w ar. A

ccording to these critics, if that thesis w

as correct the W higs should have been enthusiastic supporters

of the w ar, since they represented econom

ic interests that stood to benefit from

it' (see Z w

elling, 1970). T

here are several answ ers to this criticism

. W higs w

ere not opposed to the acquisition of C

alifornia, but they apparently felt that it could be done w

ithout necessarily resorting to w ar (M

erk, 1963, p. 39). W higs w

ere also critical o

f the w ar for other reasons. T

hey w ere not enthusiastic about the

acquisition of T exas because of the slavery question and their fears of creating

splits w ithin their party and w

ithin the nation (ibid., p. 153). It should also be kept in m

ind that the w ar provided an issue w

hich the W higs w

ere trying to tu

m to partisan advantage (G

raebner, 1955, pp. 171-72, 188). A t any rate, as

G raebner has pointed out, W

hig congressm en continued to vote financial

support for the w ar w

hile trying to m ake political hay by criticizing Polk's

conduct of it. T hat this

a sound political strategy w as indicated by their

political gains in the elections of 1848. A

nother interpretation of the M exican A

m erican W

ar that is som etim

es found in the historical literature has to do w

ith the pioneer m ovem

ent. A ccord-

ing to this view , the A

nglo pioneers w ho had m

oved into the. northern prov- inces of M

exico constituted an im portant force behind the A

m erican annexa-

tion of this area, acting as a kind of latter-day T rojan H

orse. In assessing this

• R

A C

E A N

D C

LA SS IN

T H

E SO

U T

H W

E ST

argum ent, it seem

s fair to say that A nglo settlers played an im

portant role in T

exas, but w ere not a m

ajor force elsew here. T

hese settlers had of course been the prim

e m overs behind the splittil)g of T

exas from M

exico and the establishm

ent of the T exas R

epublic, and this paved the w ay for the incorpora-

tion of T exas into the U

nited States. H ow

ever, there w as only a sprinkling of

settlers in C alifornia and the N

ew M

exico area, and they did not play a central role in the M

exican A m

erican W ar.

Y et another factor that entered into the A

m erican m

ove into the South- w

est w as.the role played by foreign countries, especially E

ngland. E ngland,

seeing the U nited States as a potentially form

idable com petitor econom

ically and politically, w

as doing w hat it could to lim

it A m

erican influence on the N

orth A m

erican continent and to increase its ow n. W

hile contesting the O

regon territory w ith the U

nited States, E ngland w

as attem pting to prevent

the annexation of T exas and w

as supporting the M exican governm

ent in its efforts to hold on to the rest of its northern provinces. E

ngland apparently considered that an independent T

exas w ould constitute a receptive m

arket for B

ritish goods, as w ell as an ally in lim

iting A m

erican grow th and pow

er. A t

the sam e tim

e, E ngland w

as interested in exercising as m uch control as

pos.sible over the Pacific coa8t and its ports, although it w as in no position to

think of taking over C alifornia. T

he m aneuvers and am

bitions of B ritain w

ere w

ell know n in W

ashington, and w ere undoubtedly a source of ·anxiety to

national policym akers. In attem

pting to assess the role this factor played, how

ever, it m ay be best to quote a historian's opinion:

T he degree to w

hich Polk's m oves to acquire C

alifornia w ere influenced

by concern over B ritish designs can be--and have been---easily exag-

gerated, for he w as w

ise enough to realize that thevjingoistic am bitions

of a few E

nglish em pire-builders did not constitute official policy. H

e w

as also aw are, how

ever, that those am bitions provided him

an effec- tive tool to m

anipulate A m

erican opinion tow ard favoring peaceful an-

nexation, and Polk used that tool w ell. [B

illington, 1974, p. 485]

A nother dim

ension to A m

erican expansion into the Southw est is curi-

ously m issing or seriously underem

phasized by historians. In the various interpretations that have been w

ritten there is rarely a discussion of the dynam

ics and level of developm ent of the A

m erican econom

y as a w hole

during this period. It m ay be that a closer exam

ination of this dim ension w

ill further clarify the m

otivations behind the M exican A

m erican W

ar. T

he A m

erican econom y during the first half of the nineteenth century

w as m

arked by a distinct regional pattern. 'T he South, w

hich had been a diversified agricultural area, w

as becom ing m

ore and m ore specialized as a

cotton-grow ing region. T

he W est w

as prim arily a grow

er of foodstuffs. T he

N ortheast, an area of incipient m

anufacturing, also provided im portant ser-

C onquest and D

ispossession

vices in shipping and trade. A ccording to the classic account by

C .

N orth (N

orth, 1966), prior to the 1830s it w as not clear that

U ruted States

w ould be able to develop into a m

ajor industrial country. T he m

ternal w

as not highly developed, and the export sector w as less

urban areas w ere relatively sm

all, and the W est w

as relatively isolated from

the N ortheast by natural geographic barriers. Starting around 1830, how

ever, there w

as a m ajor expansion in the value of the goods the U

nited States w as

able to export. T he earnings derived from

exports then becam e the key factor

in the econom ic developm

ent of the country, and particularly in m anufactur-

ing and regional integration. O f the various com

ponents that w ent into the

export trade, cotton w as by far the leading elem

ent. .

T he effects of this grow

th in exporting w ere m

any and m terrelated.

W ith grow

th in the dem and for cotton, m

ore land in the to

that crop, and the search for land suitable for cotton cultivation w as m

ten- sified. H

ow ever; a great deal of the cotton earnings flow

ed to the N ortheast,

since that region provided the services to fm ance, transport,

m arket the

South's cotton. Som e of these resources w

ent into the establishm ent of a

textile industry in the N ortheast, and this in tum

led to the developm ent of an

industry that produced m achinery, first for the textile industry and then m

ore generally.

W ith the grow

th of urban industrial centers, the dem and for

W estern-grow

n foods increased, and this stim ulated the econom

y of the W est.

and accelerated the developm ent of transportation links betw

een the N ortheast

and the W est. A

s N orth notes, "it w

as industrialization in the N ortheast and

. the opening up of the W est and Far W

est w hich w

a8 prim arily responsible for

the grow th ofthe 1840's and I850's" (N

orth, 1966, p. 71?· . .

· .

From this perspective, som

e of the interests and m otivations review

ed above take on added significance. T

he boom in the dem

and for cotton and the key role this played in the econom

y. of the entire help

the strong interest in T

exas. T he interest of the

ru.lm g

m

area w

as also stim ulated by the econom

ic and population gam s bem

g m ade m

the N

ortheast and W est, since this tended to undercut their relative pow

er at the national level. T

he boom ing econom

y of that period also heightened the interest of N

ortheastern com m

ercial elites in C alifornia, w

ith its ports and its potential role in future trade w

ith A sia. T

he N ew

w

ith its natural resources and its trade routes, also took on added s1gm

ficance. A t the

sam e tim

e, the fact that the U nited States w

as m ore and m

ore becom ing an

econom ic com

petitor helps explain E ngland's concern w

ith lim iting

territoriat grow th, and m

ade the U nited States even m

ore eager to establish the base for its future role as a m

ajor w orld pow

er. .

T he other side of the coin is that the econom

ic and technological grow th

of the period m ade it possible for the U

nited States to act on its am bitions. A

s Frederick M

erk puts it, ·

R A

C E

A N

D C

L A

SS IN T

H E

S O

U T

H W

E S

T

•

T he steam

engine had com e into its ow

n in river, ocean, and land travel. From

distant territories to the center of governm ent travel tim

e by w ater

had been sensationally reduced. O n land railroads had proved them

- selves practical. B

ut even m ore rem

arkable than the actual achieve- m

ents of these ageqcies in contracting space w as the stim

ulus given to the expansion of thought. In the m

id-1840's projects to build transconti- nental railroads to the Pacific by northern, central, and southern routes w

ere on the lips of all. [M erk, 1963, pp. 51-52)

In sum m

ary, then, a variety of interests can be seen to have played a role in the A

m erican penetration into the Southw

est, som e of m

ajor im por-

tance and som e distinctly secondary. B

ut at the heart of the phenom enon w

ere a num

ber of econom ic interests closely tied to the dynam

ic expansion of A

m erican capitalism

from the 1830s on. T

hese interests included those of Southern agricultural capitalists, based on the plantation system

, but m ore

im portantly those of the N

orthern industrialists and m en of com

m erce w

ho w

ere on the ascendance nationally.

TH E

L A

N D

W ith the term

ination of the M exican A

m erican W

ar, a process of trans- ferring Southw

estern land from M

exican A m

erican to A nglo hands w

as set in m

otion-in spite of provisions in the T reaty of G

uadalupe H idalgo guarantee-

ing the new citizens the security of their property. T

he pace of dispossession varied from

area to area because of a variety of factors, but the general trend w

as everyw here consistent. Still, it w

ould be an oversim plification to deal

w ith this topic in· strictly ethnic or racial term

s. C lass factors strongly influ-

enced the process, as I em phasize in the follow

ing account. G iven the uneven

pace of land transfer, it is necessary to look at developm ents by geographic

area.

C alifornia

In 1851 the U .S. C

ongress passed a L and Law

that established a com -

m ission to review

the validity of claim s to the land in C

alifornia based on grants m

ade during the Spanish and M exican periods. A

ttention has usually focused on the resulting adversary process, and the conflict over the land has been perceived as pitting the native Spanish-speaking C

alifornios, as the land-grant claim

ants, against A nglo settlers w

ho w ere often squatters on the

land. W hile this w

as an im portant part of w

hat w as going on, several com

- plicating factors need to be added to the picture.

O n the C

alifornio side, account needs to be taken of the fact that land- ow

nership in C alifornia had been highly unequal. M

uch of the desirable C

alifornia land w as held in the form

of land grants that had been m ade by the

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 19

Spanish and M exican governm

ents. A m

ong the C alifornios w

as a sm all class

of large landow ners and a m

uch larger group of people w ho lived on a m

ore m

odest scale. A m

ong these w ere agricultural laborers, sm

all farm ers, ser-

vants, artisans, and sm all m

erchants. L aborers w

ere the m ajority and w

ere very poor. T

hus all C alifornios did not have the sam

e im m

ediate stake in the question of w

ho should control the land. A ccording to L

eonard Pitt, reports in 1849 show

ed that 200 C alifornia fam

ilies ow ned 14 m

illion acres (Pitt, 1970, p. 86). There are com

plications as w ell on the A

nglo side. In the first place, not all of the land grants had been m

ade to C alifornios. T

here w as a group of

A nglos w

ho had been recipients of grants prior to the M exican A

m erican W

ar. A

m ong them

w ere such w

ell-know n figures as A

bel Stearns and John C .

Frem ont. M

any of the A nglo landholders of this period w

ere in the central valley of C

alifornia, but several of the m ost im

portant w ere in southern

C alifornia (R

obinson, 1948, pp. 63-64). M any of these m

en blended into C

alifornio culture and had interm arried w

ith C alifornios.

A nother com

plicating factor arises from the fact of land transference

through m echanism

s that had little to do w ith the L

and C om

m ission. A

ccord- ing to Paul G

ates, ''before 1851, 42 percent of the claim s w

ere in the hands of non-M

exicans and in the years thereafter an increasing num ber w

ere lost to the

hard-driving, better-financed A

m ericans w

ho began to develop their

grants" (G ates, 1975, p. 159). R

ichard M orefield com

m ents on this situation

as follow s:

T he process [of land transfer] had begun as soon as the first foreigner

had set foot in C alifornia .... A

breakdow n of the figures gives an idea

of how m

uch of the land had already passed from [C

alifornio] control. O

f the 813 cases presented to the C om

m ission, 521 w

ere confirm ed by

the tim e the C

om m

ission adjourned in 1856; this num ber w

as raised to 604 by successful appeals to the courts. O

f these 604 cases only 330 w

ere confirm ed to C

alifornians of M exican descent. [M

orefield, 1971, p. 26]

T his transfer w

as not being m ade to sm

all A nglo settlers, as G

ates m

akes clear:

W hen sales w

ere m ade, it w

as to new m

en w ith financial backing w

ho w

ere able to develop som e portions of their purchases, even to lay out

tow ns and cities on them

. T hus, the early non-M

exican ow ners of great

ranchos such as T hom

as 0 . L

arkin, John B idw

ell, W illiam

A . D

ana, N

icholas D en, W

. E . P. H

artness, and A bel Steam

s w ere joined by a

group of new m

illionaires w hose w

ealth had been or w as being m

ade in banking, shipping, the cattle trade, m

ining, and railroads. T his new

group becam

e ow ners of num

erous ranchos or parts of ranchos running into hundreds of thousands of acres. [G

ates, 1975, p. 159]

R A

C E A

N D

C L

A SS IN

T H

E SO

U T

H W

E ST

•

T hus w

hile it w as true that C

alifornios w ere being displaced from

the land, m

any C alifom

ios ow ned no land from

w hich to be displaced. W

hile it w

as true that A nglos w

ere taking over the land, som e had been there earlier,

and the new m

asters of the land w ere increasingly likely to be m

en of m eans

rather than the average A nglo new

com er.

T he process of displacing the C

alifornios from the land w

as m ore rapid

in northern than in southern C alifornia. T

he reason for this is that the G old

R ush in

C alifornia attracted large num

bers of A nglos into that area

during and after 1848. W ith the influx of A

nglos, land values in northern C

alifornia skyrocketed (G ates, 1962, p. 100). Pitt and others have discussed

various factors that facilitated the transfer of land. O ne w

as that the require- m

ents for proof of ow nership under A

m erican law

w ere different and m

ore stringent than under M

exican law . The L

and Law of 1851 put the burden of

proof squarely on the shoulders of. the land-grant claim ants. In addition,

unfam iliarity w

ith A m

erican law and the E

nglish language put m any of the

claim ants at the m

ercy of A nglo layw

ers, m any of w

hom had designs on the

land (Pitt, 1970, pp. 91, 97; C leland, 1951, p. 39). G

ates notes that "a fairly com

m on practice w

as for law yers prosecuting claim

s to charge a contingent fee of one quarter of the land if successful" (G

ates, 1958, p. 235). T he

shortage of capital often forced the claim ants to pay their law

yers entirely in land. T

he high legal fees and other costs led m any landow

ners to borrow

m oney at high interest rates, so that even if they w

on their case they frequently had to sell their land to m

eet their debts (Pitt, 1970, p. 1001; C leland, 1951,

p. 40; R

obinson, 1948, p.

106). In addition, land claim ants in northern

C alifornia w

ere faced w ith a particularly strong surge of squatters on their

land. T hese settlers form

ed associations to exert political pressure on behalf of their interests. N

ot infrequently, they exercised intim idation and coercion on

the grant claim ants (Pitt, 1970, pp. 95ff.).

In the north of C alifornia ... the basis of landow

nership had changed drastically by 1856. T

hrough arm ed struggle, legislation, litigation,

financial m anipulation, outright purchase, and innum

erable other tac- tics, Y

ankees had obtained a good deal of interest in the land. T he

transfer of property destroyed the irenic vision provided by the T reaty of

G uadalupe H

idalgo, w hich guaranteed the C

alifornios the "free enjoy- m

ent of their liberty and property"-an obligation that did not w orry

m any Y

ankees. [Ibid., p. 103)

T he process operated at a slow

er pace in southern C alifornia, largely

because the northern area w as m

ore dynam ic econom

ically in the first tw o

decades follow ing the M

exican A m

erican W ar. In the south there w

ere few

new com

ers to speed the transfer of land. O ther factors, how

ever, intervened. The G

old R ush and population increase in the north stim

ulated the cattle

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 21

industry of the south, w hich boom

ed in the early 1850s. B ut the boom

w as

short-lived. B y 1856 the cattle industry had peaked and started to decline

(C leland, 1951, p. 110). O

verexpansion and poor investm ent practices had

underm ined the stability of the cattle ranches, and a severe drought in the

1860s brought about the dow nfall of m

any C alifornio rancheros (ibid., pp.

130ff.). B

efore the catastrophe, practically all land parcels w orth m

ore than $10,000 had still been in the hands of old fam

ilies; by 1870, these fam

ilies held barely one-quarter. A m

ean and brassy sky thus did in the south of C

alifornia w hat law

yers and squatters had accom plished in the

north-the forced breakup of baronial holdings, their transfer to new

ow ners, and the rise of a w

ay of life other than ranching. [Pitt, 1970, p. 248]

T he finishing touches w

ere added by the events associated w ith the

com ing of the railroads of southern C

alifornia in the late 1870s and early 1880s. W

ith the railroads cam e a m

onum ental land boom

that largely com -

pleted the erosion of the C alifornia-held lands. T

he im m

igration of large num

bers of A nglos reduced the· C

alifornios in the southern part of the state to a sm

all m inority, as it had earlier in the north. C

om bined w

ith the other factors cited above, the econom

ic expansion of the 1880s reduced the C alifor-

nios' holdings to a sm all fraction of their form

er possessions. T

he situation of the C alifornios in San D

iego C ounty has been described

by G arcia (1975a) and H

ughes (1975). H ughes stresses the role of legal fees

and associated court costs in eroding the financial position of San D iego

landow ners. Land taxes also played an im

portant role here, as in other parts of southern C

alifornia.

Since state law s exem

pted m uch of the northern m

ining industry, the brunt of the property tax fell on the large property ow

ners of southern C

alifornia w ho w

ere prim arily C

alifornios. M ost of the state's popula-

tion resided in the N orth and w

orked in the m ines or in related occupa-

tions. T heir representatives dom

inated state governm ent and attem

pted to use taxation to break up the large land holdings.

1975, p. 18)

In the Santa B arbara area, im

portant changes in landow nership took

place during the 1860s, according to a study by C am

arillo (1975a, 1975b). T

he dow nturn in the fortunes of

pastoral econom y seem

s to have played an im

portant role here as w ell. A

com parison of censuses taken in 1860 and 1870

show s a dram

atic decline in the num ber of Spanish-surnam

e rancheros and farm

ers in the Santa B arbara area dunng that period (C

am arillo, 1975a, p. 6).

In sum m

ary, a num ber of f actoiiliJ1ad gone into the process that resulted

in dispossession from the land ofthe·C

A fifornio elite and som

e sm all farm

ers. .

'-.

2 2

.

R A

C E

A N

D C

L A

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

•

A m

ong these w ere:

Im position of a different legal system

w ith different standards of proof

of ow nership

Placing the burden of proof on the land-grant cfaim ant to dem

onstrate that the claim

w as ·Iegitim

ate Legal chicanery by A

nglo law yers dealing w

ith culturally different clients

M anipulations of the tax system

on land H

igh legal fees and court costs, com bined w

ith a shortage of capital and the necessity to borrow

m oney at high interest rates (see C

leland, 1951, p. 114; Pitt, 1970, p. 100)

C oercion and intim

idation (e.g., on the part of squatters) A

nti-C alifornio biases by elected and appointed governm

ent officials N

atural calam ities, such as drought

O verextension of the cattle industry follow

ing the boom of the 1850s

A ll this is not to say that legitim

ate transfers of land through proper sales at fair prices did not take place. N

evertheless, a distinct discrim inatory aspect

w as present, not only in the attitudes of individuals but in the effects of the

institutional m echanism

s that w ere set up to deal w

ith the problem . W

hile ''institutional racism

'' is a relatively recent concept, it should be applied to the situation in C

alifornia w ith respect to the land in the nineteenth century.

A t the sam

e tim e, the conflict betw

een the interests of the C alifornio

landow ners and the A

nglo new com

ers should not obscure the fact that racial divisions w

ere only part of the story. A s m

entioned earlier, A nglos found

them selves on both sides of the conflicts over land, as m

any land-grant claim -

ants w ere A

nglos. In addition, there appears to have been a considerable am

ount of

intra-A nglo

class conflict

over the

land. Paul

G ates

has docum

ented the process from

1860 to 1900 through

w hich

agricultural capitalists accum

ulated large holdings at the expense of sm all settlers.

Statistics of the num ber of new

farm s being created in C

alifornia be- tw

een 1860 and 1900-55,826-offer little support for the notion that the great ranchos w

ere being subdivided into m any sm

all farm s. D

uring this period 147,000 hom

estead and preem ption applications w

ere filed. These m

ight have led to sm all farm

s but did not for, as is seen later, m any

w ere filed by m

en acting as dum m

ies for large engrossers .... Prom -

inent C alifornians seem

ed determ ined to bring about the greatest pos-

sible concentration of land in large ow nerships and bent their energies

to shape state and federal legislation to contribute to that end w hile

paying lip service to the sm all-fam

ily-farm concept. From

the election of John C

. Frem ont as its first senator in 1850 ... the state w

as repre- sented in W

ashington by m en closely identified w

ith the great land- ow

ners and railroad tycoons ....

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 23

M uch unhappiness

w as expressed at the

speed w

ith w

hich the

500,000 acres w ere grabbed up by capitalists w

ho w ere accused of

m aking their entries on lands being im

proved by settlers w ho w

ere w

aiting for the enactm ent of a free hom

estead m easure .... M

eetings of squatters w

ere held at w hich ''raging excitem

ent'' w as expressed at the

land speculators w ho had entered land on w

hich settlers had com m

enced their hom

estead. [G ates, 1975, pp. 160-61, 163)

O r as Pitt puts it:

N o set pattern em

erges in these land transform ations, but the eroded

claim s of the original claim

ants w ashed aw

ay steadily and flow ed into

the hands of the new com

ers-financiers, railroad developers, tow n

prom oters,

cooperative colonizers, and

irrigation com panies.

[Pitt, 1970, p. 275]

In the long run, then, the m ain beneficiaries of the displacem

ent of C

alifornios from the land w

ere those w ho had the financial resources and the

political clout to reconcentrate the land in their ow n hands. T

he benefits w ere

disproportionately appropriated

by the

sam e

class of A

nglo capitalists,

speculators, and financiers w hose interests had m

ost strongly m otivated the

M exican A

m erican W

ar.

N ew

M exico

D uring the nineteenth century the bulk of the C

hicano population of the Southw

est w as concentrated in N

ew M

exico. H ere, as in C

alifornia, settle- m

ent of the land had taken place through Spanish and M exican grants. In the

southern part of the state, the com m

on pattern w as haciendas established by

grantees w ho becam

e patrons and brought in se(tlers to do the w ork. T

he haciendas w

ere largely self-sufficient and w ere usually organized around a

system of debt peonage. T

he haciendas grew their ow

n food and w ere also

engaged in pastoral activities. Sheep w ere the m

ain export. T rade w

as carried on largely w

ith M exico, until the Santa Fe T

rail w as opened and A

m erican

econom ic penetration of the area began.

T he northern part of the state w

as characterized by ''com m

unal'' vil- lages w

hich w ere organized on the basis of grants that had been given to the

com m

unity as a w hole. H

ere hom esteads and farm

ing lands w ere ow

ned privately, w

hereas grazing and other land w as ow

ned in com m

on and grazing and w

ater rights w ere assigned by com

m unity councils (Z

eleny, 1944, p. 68). E

conom ic life revolved around subsistence agriculture and sheep raising.

T here w

as little m anufacturing in the area. N

orthern N ew

M exico w

as m ore

densely settled by H ispanos than the southern area.

T he pace of A

nglo econom ic penetration in N

ew M

exico w as m

ore like that of southern than northern C

alifornia, and the tem po of land transfer w

as

R A

C E A

N D

C LA

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

•

correspondingly slow , although steady. In the m

id-nineteenth century the econom

ic penetration took the fonn of m ovem

ent into agriculture and expan- sion of the com

m ercial sector.

Initially, the A nglo conquest of N

ew M

exico resulted in a lim ited ex-

pansion of the area occupied by the Spanish-speaking N ew

M exicans, or

H ispanos. The reason for this is that the A

m erican m

ilitary presence served to decim

ate the nom adic Indians w

ho had previously resisted encroachm ents on

their territory (M einig, 1971, p. 32). The H

ispano expansion, how ever, w

as halted in the 1870s as A

nglo cattlem en and f anners increasingly m

oved into the area. A

s M einig puts it:

T he H

ispano hold upon m uch of their new

ly acquired country w as

necessarily thin, discontinuous, and at tim es no m

ore than seasonal. T he

vanguard of their herders w as often repelled and confined to the poorer

lands, the outennost of their settlem ents w

ere often soon enclaved w

ithin A nglo cattle country. The actual stabilization of the patterns of

the tw o peoples w

as a long and com plicated process w

hich resulted neither in sim

ple areal boundaries nor sim ple contrasts in

(increasingly, H ispano shepherds tended A

nglo-ow ned flocks), but 1t

w as a process w

hich relentlessly strengthened the dom inance of the one

over the other. [Ibid., pp. 34-35)

A s in southern C

alifornia, the com ing of the transcontinental railroads

had a significant im pact in N

ew M

exico. N ew

M exico w

as fully connected w

ith the transcontinental system in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and w

ith the transportation system

cam e an econom

ic boom and an influx of A

nglos. ''T

he notion of m igration to N

ew M

exico w as boosted by prom

oters of developm

ent of the W est and by financial interests in the E

ast w hich stood to

profit by such m igration" (Z

eleny, 1944, p. 143). The 1880s saw

a rapid increase in the num

ber of A nglo-ow

ned cattle com panies (W

estphall, 1965, p. 56). W

ith the econom ic boom

and the m ovem

ent of A nglos into the state, the

pressure on the land increased. From that point on, the process of land transfer

accelerated. A ccording to Z

eleny, the process w ent faster in the southern part

of the state, w here the hacienda pattern had been dom

inant. Presum ably, the

denser H ispano population in the north and the pattern of com

m unal holdings

acted to retard the transfer to som e extent (Z

eleny, 1944, pp. 186-87). C

lark K now

lton has provided a detailed list of the m echanism

s by w hich

the transfer of land took place in the N ew

M exico area. In general, the

processes w ere m

uch like those in C alifornia. O

nly tw o or three aspects of the

transfer process w arrant a m

ore extended discussion, and one of them has to

do w ith the im

pact of land taxes. K now

lton notes that under the M exican

system the land had been free of taxation-taxes w

ere levied on the products of the land rather than on the land itself. ''In an area w

here the incom e from

agriculture fluctuates irregularly according to clim

atic conditions, a fixed land

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 25

tax in bad years places heavy burdens upon farm ers and ranchers. A

sm all

Spanish-A m

erican subsistence farm er living in the villages w

as singularly unprepared to adjust to a fixed land-tax system

. C ultivating his land to feed

his fam ily, he seldom

ever possessed enough actual cash to pay taxes requir- ing m

oney paym ents" (K

now lton, 1967, p. 7). A

ccording to N ew

M exico

law , anyone can pay delinquent taxes on land and receive a title to that land.

''Probably no other A nglo-A

m erican m

easure has had a harsher im pact upon

Spanish-A m

erican property than the fixed land tax" (ibid.). K now

lton argues that the county land tax w

as also subject to extensive fraud and m anipulation,

to the detrim ent of the H

ispano population. M cW

illiam s notes the sam

e phenom

enon:

In m any cases, the Spanish-A

m ericans could not pay land taxes of

$1.50 an acre, or m ore, levied against grazing lands. A

nglo-A m

ericans w

ould then buy up the lands at tax sales and prom ptly have the land tax

reduced to thirty or forty cents an acre. [M cW

illiarns, 1968, p. 77]

In m any cases it appears that the new

ow ners of the land engaged in an

unw arranted enlargem

ent of the grant boundaries.

A num

ber of grants have had their boundaries stretched and areas m ar-

velously expanded. B ut this has been done m

ostly by Y ankee and E

n- glish purchasers and not by the original M

exican ow ners. W

here bound- aries w

ere m ade by natural landm

arks, such as a ''w hite rock,'' a ''red

hill," or a "lone tree," another rock, hill or tree of like description could alw

ays be found a league or tw o farther off, and claim

ed to be the original landm

ark described in the grant docum ents. [W

ilbur F. Stone, associate justice of the C

ourt of Private L and C

laim s, cited in W

est- phall, 1973, p. 36]

In N ew

M exico, also, the role of the governm

ent and its use of land becam

e an im portant factor-increasingly so tow

ard the end of the century. W

ithout com pensation, the N

ational Forest Service has taken m illions of acres

from the northern villages for the creation of national forests. H

ispanos m ust

now pay grazing fees on land that once belonged to the villages (K

now lton,

1967, p. 10). -

T he creation of forest reserves by the Federal G

overnm ent has likew

ise w

ithdraw n large portions of the public dom

ain from free grazing lands

of the Spanish-A m

ericans. T he Santa Fe N

ational Forest w as created in

1892, and the C ibola and C

arson N ational Forests w

ere established in 1906 ... they com

bined w ith other factors in confining the Spanish-

A m

ericans to a sm aller and sm

aller land base. G rants m

ade by the governm

ent to railroads during the period of their construction also w

ithdrew substantial portions of the public dom

ain from the free use of

the old residents. [Z eleny, 1944, p. 171]

R A

C E A

N D

C L

A SS IN

T H

E SO

U T

H W

E ST

•

M alcolm

E bright has described the process in relation to the San Joa-

quin del R io de C

ham a grant in northern N

ew M

exico, originally m ade in

1808 to a group of M exican fam

ilies:

T here w

as never any serious question regarding the validity of the grant nor of the nature of-the grant as one m

ade to a com m

unity. T he only real

question w hich the U

.S. officials w ho w

ere responsible for its adjudica- tion asked w

as, how big w

as it. In 1861 w hen approxim

ately 400 of the grantees and their heirs petitioned for confirm

ation of the grant, its size w

as estim ated at 184,320 acres. B

ut w hen surveyed in 1878 it turned

out to contain 472,736 acres. It appears that the rejection of 471,314 acres of the grant, m

ost of w hich eventually w

ound up in the Santa Fe N

ational Forest, w as based on the sim

ple fact that the grant w as too big

and w ould unreasonably deplete the U

.S. public dom ain.

[E bright,

1976, p. 3)

O f course, even if a different determ

ination had been m ade by the court,

there w as no guarantee that the land w

ould rem ain under the control of the

villagers, given the various processes that w ere acting to concentrate the land

in the hands of large com panies and land speculators.

It w as not until 1891 that a C

ourt of Private L and C

laim s w

as estab- lished for N

ew M

exico. Prior to that tim e, conflicts over claim

s w ere handled

by the state surveyor general, subject to congressional confirm ation. T

he C

ourt of Private L and C

laim s w

as em pow

ered to deal w ith all Spanish and

M exican land claim

s in the areas of N ew

M exico, C

olorado, and A rizona.

B ecause of the biases of the rules and procedures the court w

as to follow ,

sim ilar to those of the C

alifornia L and C

om m

ission, the results w ere highly

disadvantageous to the H ispanos.

T he court [of Private L

and C laim

s] w as set up w

ith five judges selected from

other parts of the U nited States, a U

nited States A ttorney, and

other court officials. T he m

em bers of the court w

ere A nglo-A

m erican

legal officials w ith little know

ledge of Spanish and M exican law

and no know

ledge of Spanish-A m

erican land-ow ning custom

s. C ourt decisions

w ere

based upon

a rigid

interpretation of A

nglo legal

precepts. [K

now lton, 1967, p. 6]

In the years from 1891 until 1904, w

hen the C ourt w

as disbanded, decisions w

ere m ade settling the currently urgent land claim

s. In this tim

e about tw o-thirds of the claim

s exam ined w

ere rejected; the court confirm

ed the

grants to

2,051,526 acres, and rejected claim

s to 33;439,493 acres .... T

he stipulation that no grant be confirm ed unless

there w as strict legal authority in the granting pow

ers w as the basis for

the rejection of m any claim

s .... T he decisive action taken by the court

in its years of activity actually relegated the Spanish-A m

ericans to a position of greater disadvantage than they had occupied prior to its

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 27

establishm ent. ... T

he conflicts over land w ere turned over to a sup-

posedly im personal third party, the C

ourt, w hich technically fulfilled

the A nglo-A

m erican conception of "justice" but at the sam

e tim e pro-

ceeded to fix the Spanish-A m

erican in a position of subordination. [Z

eleny, 1944, pp. 166-67) ·

T he result w

as that eventually A nglos cam

e to ow n four-fifths of the

form er grant areas (B

rayer, 1974, p. 19; M eier and R

ivera, 1972, p. 107). T

he loss of the com m

unity lands, from an original 2 m

illion acres to 300,000 by 1930, w

as a m ajor blow

to the econom ic viability of the villages (H

arper, C

ordova, and O berg, 1943, p. 62).

T he em

phasis in the litigation decisions w as clearly on ascertaining if

there w as legal authority in the original granting process. A

lthough this m

ay seem a proper norm

of justice, it m ust be em

phasized it w as a norm

of A

nglo justice being applied to

the traditional legal process o

f another sovereign state (either Spain or M

exico) w hich functioned in a

different cultural and legal fram ew

ork. M oreover, it applied current

norm s to a previous circum

stance, w hich to the M

exican A m

ericans could reasonably be considered, an ex post facto application. It can certainly be argued that the determ

ination of legitim acy in the granting

process w as an im

portant aspect of the legal question, but the overriding im

portance placed on this single norm , relative to the reasonableness of

the acceptance of the original grantors and the appropriate com m

unities. or individuals of the

legality of the grants by their traditional ex-

pressions of legality (occupation and use) and the long tim e lag betw

een the grants and their validity determ

ination seem s a clear bias against the

M exican A

m ericans.

[Jim Johnson,

1975, m

em o prepared for this

study]

A num

ber of the grants in N ew

M exico had been m

ade under term s in

w hich the m

em bers of the local com

m unity w

ere to use the land under the condition of usufruct. "It is the nature of usufruct that it is a perpetual right attached to the land, a right effective not only against the ow

ner of the land, but also against all others. U

sufruct can be ow ned in com

m on, but the ow

ners do not possess the land; they possess the right to use it" (R

ock, 1976, p. 54). T

he right is intended to be perpetual, as long as the grantees live up to their obligations to m

aintain the land. T his right w

as supposed to be protected by the T

reaty of G uadalupe H

idalgo, but the courts of N ew

M exico have refused

to depart from a rigid adherence to A

nglo legal norm s in deciding land grant

cases, and these norm s do not include the right of usufruct (ibid., pp. 56-61).

A t the sam

e tim e, there is evidence that violence and intim

idation played a considerable role in the econom

ic changes that w ere taking place.

''H and in hand w

ith the vast expropriation of lands w ent a w

ave of violence and terrorism

w hich caused m

any H ispanos to leave the San L

uis V alley.

• R

A C

E A N

D C

LA SS IN

T H

E SO

U T

H W

E S •

Fam ily histories in the San Juan B

asin relate incidents of covert shootings and public lynchings over land and political control" (Sw

adesh, 1974, p. 80; see also G

anaw ay, 1944, p. 102).

A s in the case of C

alifornia, dispossession 'from the land w

as largely effected through the "norm

al w orkings" of the institutions w

hich w ere set up

by A nglo society. The process illustrates the w

ay in w hich institutional dis-

crim ination can operate in an apparently color-blind m

anner.

T he situation of the Spanish-A

m ericans w

as m ade even m

ore difficult by the establishm

ent of only tw o federal land offices in N

ew M

exico during m

uch of the territorial period .... T he very existence of these

offices, let alone their functions, w as unknow

n to the Spanish-A m

erican village population. O

n the other hand, the A m

ericans, w ho lived in the

larger urban centers of the T erritory, possessed far better m

eans of traveling and of com

m unicating w

ith each other and w ith the land

offices. A s political alliances w

ere established, often w ith the personnel

of the land office, they w ere able to note w

hich land grants w ere reg-

istered and w hich w

ere not and thus to take appropriate action to register m

any unregistered grants in their ow n nam

es. [K now

lton, 1967, p. 6]

The overall result w as a steady decline in the econom

ic and political fortunes of the H

ispanos, w ith the land playing a key role.

T he struggle betw

een the Spanish-A m

ericans and A nglo-A

m ericans tak-

ing place in N ew

M exico during this period w

as one in w hich the defeat

of the Spanish-A m

ericans w as pre-ordained because of certain critical

advantages w hich the A

nglo-A m

ericans possessed. In the struggle eco- nom

ic and political factors w ere inter-related in such a m

anner as to produce a shift in pow

er from the hands of the num

erically preponderant Spanish-A

m erican group to those of the invading A

nglos. (Z

eleny, 1944, p. 159]

The accom m

odation w hich w

as effected in the econom ic sphere through

land displacem ent and com

petition resulted essentially in a relationship of superordination and subordination betw

een the tw o com

peting ethnic groups. [Ibid., p. 196]

The loss of lands by the H ispanos is only one aspect of the situation,

how ever. If anything, the class dim

ension to the econom ic penetration and

transfer of land in N ew

M exico w

as even m ore apparent than in other parts of

the Southw est. Zeleny notes that

N ew

M exico did not at first attract m

any of the regular settler class, but rather w

as a field for exploitation by A m

erican com m

ercial enterprise and A

m erican and E

uropean capital. [Ibid., p. 159]

T he activities of the Santa Fe R

ing and its various com ponent rings in

the nineteenth century exem plify this class dim

ension. T he ring consisted of a

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 29

group of A nglo m

erchants, law yers, bankers, politicians, and ranchers w

ho dom

inated the territory during the last tw o decades of the century. W

ith headquarters in Santa Fe, they exercised great influence in the territorial and national capitals. W

hile engaged in every facet of com m

ercial and political life, the biggest im

pact of the ring w as probably in m

anipulating the land and concentrating it in their hands through a variety of sharp practices (L

arson, 1968, pp. 137ff.; see also L

am ar, 1970, chap. 6).

Frances Sw adesh has provided us w

ith a description of the m anner in

w hich T

hom as C

atron, one of the leaders of the ring, gained control of the large T

ierra A m

arilla grant. A ccording to this account, his m

ethods included the m

anufacture of evidence, collecting large legal fees in the form of land,

and defrauding the original grant claim ants (Sw

adesh, 1974, pp. 84-85). B y

the 1880s, he w as one of the largest landow

ners in the U nited States, w

ith the T

ierra A m

arilla grant alone totaling som e 600,000 acres. In the process of

developing this area, H ispano com

m unities w

ere disrupted and m uch of the

land w as "clean cut" by lum

ber com panies (ibid., pp. 88-89). B

rayer's extended account of the activities of the B

ritish capitalist and speculator, W

illiam B

lackm ore, in gaining control over several grants in the northern

N ew

M exico-southern C

olorado area also highlights the class dim ension in

the transfer of land titles. O

ne of the m ore interesting aspects of this process stands out clearly in

the Santa Fe R ing, w

hich w as able to exercise pow

er effectively because of the alliance it forged w

ith the w ealthy H

ispano elite, the ricos (M c W

illiam s,

1948, p. 122; K now

lton, 1967, p. 5; L arson, 1968, p. 144). In effect, there

w as an interethnic class alliance, w

hich, how ever, w

as dom inated by the

A nglos. A

ctually, such an alliance had long been in existence. B rayer has

described the m anner in w

hich C ornelio V

igil and C eran St. V

rain, prom inent

residents of T aos, com

bined to petition G overnor A

rm ijo for a substantial

grant of land in 1843. T he grant w

as m ade in that sam

e year. W ithin tw

o m

onths, the tw o recipients of the grant had deeded a one-sixth interest to

A rm

ijo, to D onanciano V

igil (A rm

ijo 's territorial secretary), and to C harles

B ent and E

ugene L eitensdorfer, im

portant m erchants and traders (B

rayer, 1974, pp. 127-29).

In another exam ple, G

uadalupe M iranda and C

harles B eaubien w

ere placed in possession of a large grant of northern N

ew M

exico land in 1841 by G

overnor A rm

ijo. T he curate of T

aos, Father M artinez, protested that m

uch of the land belonged to the people of T

aos and had long been used as com m

on grazing land, but to no avail (K

eleher, 1964, pp. 13-15). T

he role of the ricos in the post-M exican A

m erican W

ar period w as to

provide their A nglo partners w

ith political support through their influence w

ith the H ispano population. In return, they hoped to be safeguarded to som

e extent in retaining control of their lands (Z

eleny, 1944, p. 160). In the long

30 • R

A C

E A N

D C

L A

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

run, how ever, the bargain turned out badly for m

any of the ricos. R odm

an Paul has given us an assessm

ent of the effects of the alliance on the H ispano

elite: W hether H

ispanos really w ere the big gainers fr6in the operations of

either the R ing or the ... early business houses m

ay be doubted. O

ne suspects that their A

nglo associates w ere too resourceful for that. A

nd in any event, w

hile som e of the H

ispano upper class w ere prospering,

m any of their cousins ... w

ere losing ow nership of the land that had

been the traditional basis of their pow er. So at best only a portion of

even the favored class w ere better off at the end of the century than they

had been in 1848. [Paul, 1971, p. 39]

A nother aspect of the class dim

ension as it affected the land (already seen in C

alifornia) w as class conflict w

ithin the A nglo population. K

eleher provides a vivid account of the form

ation on the M axw

ell land grant of groups of A

nglo settlers determ ined to w

age a struggle against the prom oters and

capitalists w ho had gained control of the grant. In the end, their efforts w

ere largely unsuccessful (K

eleher, 1964, pp. 84-107). W estphal! has docum

ented the fraudulent m

anipulation of the land by land and cattle com panies, along

the sam e lines as the practices described by G

ates for C alifornia (W

estphal!, 1965, pp. 64, 81, IO

O ff.).

In sum m

ary, it is possible to see in N ew

M exico, even m

ore clearly than in C

alifornia, the interrelated nature of ethnic and class factors in the dispos- session of the land and its reconcentration in the hands of an A

nglo-dom inated

econom ic and political elite.

Texas T exas differs from

the other areas of the Southw est in that here there

w as a pattern of extensive A

nglo settlem ent of the land. A

substantial am ount

of land had been granted to A nglos through the M

exican governm ent's em

- presario grants, particularly in southeastern T

exas. Perhaps in part because of this, little has been w

ritten about the dis- placem

ent of M exicans and C

hicanos from the land in this region. Y

et this process appears to have started quite early. D

uring the w ar that resulted in the

' independent R

epublic of T exas in

1836, Spanish-speaking residents w ere

apparently driven out of certain areas, notably in B exar C

ounty, w here San

A ntonio is located (M

einig, 1969, p. 46). Joseph N

ance adds that T exas

A nglo raiders ''forced the abandonm

ent of m any of the M

exican ranches betw

een the N euces and the R

io G rande" in the late 1830s (N

ance, 1963, p. 547). M

einig notes that "east of V ictoria nearly all of the few

H ispanos w

ho had not fled in 1836 w

ere harassed and driven out in 1845 or shortly thereaf- ter" (M

einig, 1969, p. 55). T

he process continued after the term ination of the M

exican A m

erican • C

onquest and D ispossession

• 31

W ar.

Speaking of south central T exas, M

einig states that "by 1860 the

A nglos had gotten control, by fair m

eans or foul, of nearly every ranch w orth

having north of the N euces" (M

einig, 1969, p. 54). A s in other areas, force

and fraud w ere not the only m

echanism s used to facilitate the transfer of land.

The T exas historian Fehrenbach describes the situation in this w

ay, w ith an

unconscious touch of irony:

T here is som

e truth that m any M

exican landow ners, especially the sm

all ones, w

ere robbed in south T exas by force, intim

idation, or chicanery. B

ut w hat is usually ignored is the fact that the hacendado class, as a

class, w as stripped of property perfectly legally, according to the high-

est traditions of U .S. law

. [Fehrenbach, 1968, p. 510]

T he E

spiritu Santo grant in the R io G

rande V alley provides one exam

ple of a C

hicano-held grant that w as validated by the courts but in w

hich the land w

as lost because of the prohibitive costs of the litigation (A cuna, 1972, pp.

43-44). "T he im

position of A m

erican law infuriated m

ost M exican landow

n- ers. T

hey had to defend their ancient titles in court, and they lost either w ay,

either to their ow n law

yers or to the claim ants" (Fehrenbach, 1968, p. 511).

A cuna notes that an

1860 census show ed that 263

T exans ow

ned over $100,000 in real property, and that only tw

o of these w ere C

hicanos (A cuna,

1972, p. 44). Paul T

aylor has provided us w ith a m

ore intensive look at the situation in the southern G

ulf C oast county of N

euces. H e states that by 1835 all of the

county had been granted in large tracts to M exicans, w

ho used the area for cattle. B

y 1859 all but one of the grants had passed to A nglo hands (T

aylor, 1971, p. 179). The process of transfer started in 1840, through sales. T

aylor addresses him

self to w hether the sales could be considered fair and free:

W hen the M

exicans first sold to A m

ericans they w ere under stress to

sell. T hey w

ere not sim ply individual holders of property selling of their

free w ill; they w

ere selling because they w ere M

exicans w ho, in a tim

e of chaos, could no longer occupy their land, and w

ho saw the im

m inent

A m

erican m ilitary and political dom

ination .... It w as under the pres-

sure of these conditions that the grants passed to A m

ericans, w ho as

bargainers took advantage of them in varying degrees. (Ibid., pp. 182-

83]

T aylor's insights into the psychological pressure on the M

exican land- holders undoubtedly apply to other areas of the Southw

est as w ell.

A s in other parts of the Southw

est, land transfer in T exas w

as strongly affected by the econom

y. T he boom

in cattle that follow ed the A

m erican C

ivil W

ar Jed to greater pressure on the land, as did the econom ic developm

ent stim

ulated by the com ing of the railroads. A

ccording to M eier and R

ivera, ''as a result of the cattle boom

after the C ivil W

ar ... the loss of land by

3 2

.

R A

C E A

N D

C LA

SS IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

•

tejanos to A nglos w

as accelerated. In m any cases these lands w

ere acquired by forced sales for nonpaym

ent of taxes, w ith A

nglo speculators often obtain- ing tejano lands at only a few

cents per acre" (M eier and R

ivera, 1972, pp. 93-94).

A gain, the class factor in this process needs to be em

phasized. In spite of the fact that there w

as strong antispeculator sentim ent in T

exas, speculating in land w

as a m ajor econom

ic factor even before the establishm ent of the

R epublic of T

exas. Several im portant land speculation ventures began in the

early 1830s, inducting those of the notorious G alveston B

ay and T exas L

and C

om pany. Such fam

ous nam es as G

eneral (later T exas President) Sam

H ous-

ton and Jim B

ow ie w

ere closely linked w ith these activities (H

ogan, 1946, pp. 83-85). A

ccording to Fehrenbach, "the land m aps of virtually every central

T exas county show

that the best lands, w ith their precious w

ater rights, passed into private ow

nership betw een ten and thirty years before these counties w

ere settled by w

hites" (Fehrenbach, 1968, p. 283). A lw

yn B arr, in his study of

late nineteenth-century T exas, m

akes references to w est T

exas county-based land rings, and quotes T

exas land com m

issioner C harles R

ogan to the effect that

w hile the law

s w ere enacted ostensibly for the benefit of the actual

settler, he has derived but little benefit from them

. T he chief bene-

ficiaries have been land agents, speculators and bonus hunters, and finally the ranch m

en. [B arr, 1971, p. 84]

A ccording to B

arr, R ogan 's ''statem

ent m ay w

ell stand as a sum m

ary of T

exas land policy for the last tw o decades of the nineteenth century'' (Ibid.,

p. 84).

L A

N D

T R

A N

SFE R

IN T

H E

SO U

T H

W E

ST

Perhaps the key point that em erges from

this review of the land situation

in the nineteenth century is that the subordinate status of C hicanos in the

Southw est put them

in a particularly vulnerable econom ic position. A

nglo capitalists and land speculators w

ere best able to take advantage of this vul- nerability to dispossess C

hicanos of the land they had previously controlled. C

ertain factors, such as class status, population density, or geographic isola- tion, had an effect on the pace of dispossession, but eventually it affected all or nearly all C

hicanos. W

hile it is true that A nglo settlers w

ere also adversely affected by the increasing concentration of land in the hands of large A

nglo landow ners, there

w as an im

portant difference in degree. A s B

rayer has pointed out for N ew

M

exico, A nglo settlers w

ere better able to defend their claim s to the land than

C hicanos (B

rayer, 1949, pp. 119-20n.). In

addition, as K eleher notes, in

C onquest and D

ispossession

• 33

m ost cases the A

nglo settlers did not have the sam e long-standing claim

to the land that m

ost C hicanos had (K

eleher, 1964, p. 23). A

nglo control of the political process appears to have been a key factor in all this (political control is explored further in chapter 6). Z

eleny describes the situation in N

ew M

exico:

T he land situation, and the control exercised by the A

nglo-A m

erican officials in land decisions, w

ere im portant factors in producing this shift

in pow er. In the political field the Spanish-A

m ericans, w

hose num erical

superiority had given them an advantage in territorial politics, rapidly

becam e the victim

s of corrupt A m

erican practices and m achine politics.

Politics in the territory w ere soon in the hands of a political com

- bination ... w

hich succeeded in controlling appointm ents m

ade through both the territorial and federal governm

ents in N ew

M exico. [Z

eleny, 1944, pp. 159-60]

T he link betw

een loss of political control and loss of the land has also been recognized by other w

riters. Sw

adesh points out that ''officials ap- pointed by the federal governm

ent helped deprive the land grant heirs of their rights'' (Sw

adesh, 1974, p. 69), and Fehrenbach, w riting of T

exas, states that ''the law

added injury to insult; because it failed to protect the M exicans and

actually w as the chief instrum

ent of their dispossession'' (Fehrenbach, 1968, p. 510).

D ispossession from

the land, in tum , depleted the econom

ic base of C

hicanos and put them in an even less favorable position to exercise influence

over the political process. In addition, it had other far-ranging consequences, including facilitating the em

ergence of a colonial labor system in the South-

w est, based in large part on C

hicano labor.