History of Mexican Americans in Texas

Part of a series on

Chicanos and Mexican Americans

Terms

|  Identity

* Chola/o
* La Raza
* Pachuca
* Pachuco
* Pinta/o
* Xicanx

Concepts

* Anti-Mexican sentiment

History

|  Early-American Period

* Josefa Segovia
* Las Gorras Blancas
* Mexican–American War
* Mutualista
* San Elizario Salt War
* Sonoratown
* Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Pre-Chicano Movement

* 1917 Bath riots
* Bisbee Deportation
* Bloody Christmas
* Bracero program
* California agricultural strikes
* Cantaloupe strike of 1928
* Citrus Strike of 1936
* La Matanza
* Mexican Repatriation
* Operation Wetback
* Plan de San Diego
* Porvenir Massacre
* Sleepy Lagoon trial
* Zoot Suit Riots

Chicano Movement

* Aztlán
* Black-brown unity
* Brown Berets
* Católicos por La Raza
* Tulare labor camps rent strike
* Delano grape strike
* Centro Cultural
* Chicanismo
* Chicano Moratorium
* Colegio César Chávez
* CFMN
* Conferencia de Mujeres
* CRP
* East L.A. walkouts
* Hijas de Cuauhtémoc
* Huelga schools
* Land grant struggle
* Las Adelitas de Aztlán
* Los Siete de la Raza
* Los Seis de Boulder
* MANA
* MAYO
* MEChA
* Occupation of Catalina Island
* PCUN
* Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
* Plan de Santa Bárbara
* Quinto Sol
* Raza Unida Party
* United Farm Workers

Post-Chicano Period

* 1985–1987 cannery strike
* 1992 Drywall Strike
* 2019 El Paso shooting
* Abolish ICE
* Arizona SB 1070
* Castro 2020
* Chicano Art Exhibit
* DACA
* Great American Boycott
* IRCA
* Farah strike
* Justice for Janitors
* Murder of Selena
* Proposition 187
* South Central Farm

Culture

|  Language

* Abrazos, no balazos
* Caló
* Chicano English
* Chicano names
* Órale

Food

* New Mexican cuisine
* Tex-Mex cuisine
* Mexican-American cuisine

Music

* Chicano rap
* Chicano rock
* Chicano soul
* Tejano music

Symbols

* Cal-Style VW
* Homies
* Lowrider
* Lowrider bicycle
* Mexican-American folklore
* Pancho Claus
* Zoot suit

Literature

|  Literature

* Chicana literature
* Chicano literature
* Chicano poetry

Autobiographical

* Always Running
* Living Up the Street
* Who Would Have Thought It?

Novels

* Bless Me, Ultima
* Caballero
* Desert Blood
* From This Wicked Patch of Dust
* Mexican WhiteBoy
* The Dirty Girls Social Club
* The House on Mango Street
* The Rain God
* The Revolt of the Cockroach People
* So Far from God
* Under the Feet of Jesus
* ...y no se lo tragó la tierra

Poetry and Short Stories

* Emplumada
* I Am Joaquin
* Moment of Silence
* Pensamiento Serpentino
* The Moths

Chicano studies

|  Fields

* Chicana feminism
* Chicanafuturism

Organizations

* MAS Programs, Tucson
* NACCS
* UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

Texts

* Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
* Brown, Not White
* The Church in the Barrio
* This Bridge Called My Back

Theory

* Barrioization
* Coyolxauhqui imperative
* Gringo justice
* Nahui Ollin
* Nepantla
* New tribalism
* Rasquachismo
* Spiritual activism
* Vergüenza
* Youth control complex

Visual art

|  Visual Art

* Chicana art
* Chicano art
* Chicano cinema
* Paño
* Tortilla art

Art Collectives

* Asco
* Culture Clash
* East Los Streetscapers
* Los Four
* Mujeres Muralistas
* Teatro Campesino
* Royal Chicano Air Force

Art organizations

* Centro de Arte Público
* Galería de la Raza
* Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
* Precita Eyes
* Self Help Graphics & Art

Locations

* Balmy Alley
* Chicano Park
* Estrada Courts
* Great Wall of Los Angeles

Law

|  Supreme Court cases

* Botiller v. Dominguez
* Hernandez v. Texas
* San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez
* Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co.
* U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce
* Plyler v. Doe
* Medellín v. Texas
* Flores-Figueroa v. U.S.
* Leal Garcia v. Texas
* Mendez v. Westminster
* Bernal v. Fainter
* Perez v. Brownell
* DHS v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.

Federal Court cases

* Madrigal v. Quilligan

Population

|  Population by City

* Arizona (Tucson)
* California (Los Angeles)
* Illinois (Chicago)
* Michigan (Detroit)
* Nebraska (Omaha)
* Texas
* Dallas–Fort Worth
* Houston

Multiethnic

* Blaxicans
* Californios
* Nuevomexicanos
* Tejanos
* Indigenous Mexican Americans
* Punjabi Mexican Americans

Lists

* Chicano films
* Chicano poets
* Chicano rappers
* Mexican Americans
* Writers
* Bibliography

* United States portal
* Category
* Index

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on

Ethnicity in Texas

* African Americans
* Chinese
* Czechs
* Germans
* Hispanics and Latinos
* History of Mexican Americans
* Japanese
* Jews
* Native Americans
* Romani
* Wends

* * *

* v
* t
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Map of Belton

Indigenous peoples lived in the area now known as Texas long before Spanish explorers arrived in the area. However, once Spaniards arrived and claimed the area for Spain, a process known as mestizaje occurred, in which Spaniards and Native Americans had mestizo children who had both Spanish and indigenous blood. Texas was ruled by Spain as part of its New Spain territory from 1520, when Spaniards first arrived in Mexico in 1520, until Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836, which led to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848). In 1830, the Mexican population fell to 20 percent and in 1840 down to 10 percent. When Spanish rule in Texas ended, Mexicans in Texas numbered 5,000. In 1850 over 14,000 Texas residents had Mexican origin.[1][2]

In 1911 an extremely bloody decade-long civil war broke out in Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to Texas, raising the Hispanic population from 72,000 in 1900 to 250,000 in 1920. Most job opportunities for them involved working on a ranch or a farm starting from South Texas and moving north and northeast. Mexican immigrants, frequently working in harsh conditions for little pay, were instrumental in the late 19th-century construction of the railroad network that linked Texas to the rest of the United States.[3] The number reached 700,000 in 1930, 1,400,000 in 1960, and 4 million in 1990.[3]

In the 2020 Census, 33.3% of Texans identified as "Mexican, Mexican Am., or Chicano".[4][5]

## Media

[edit]

La Prensa was a daily Spanish language newspaper published in San Antonio. It was started in 1913 by Ignacio E. Lozano and covered the Mexican Revolution and other stories from Mexico. It was closed in 1963.[6] El Bejarano (San Antonio) was a Spanish language newspaper published in San Antonio. It was started in 1855 and became a platform for Mexican and Mexican American activism.

## Notable persons

[edit]

* Plácido Benavides
* José Antonio Burciaga
* José María Jesús Carbajal
* Patricia de la Garza De León
* Martín De León
* Luis Jiménez
* Rafael Manchola
* Octavio Medellín
* George I. Sánchez
* Edgar Valdez Villarreal
* Judith Zaffirini
* Selena
* Gloria Anzaldúa

## Geography

[edit]

See also: History of the Mexican-Americans in Houston

See also: History of Mexican Americans in Dallas–Fort Worth

Hispanics of Mexican descent dominate southern, south-central, and western Texas and form a significant portion of the residents in the cities of Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Mexican Americans in Texas have made cultural contributions that have influenced the state's personality and continue to have an impact on larger American culture, such as Tejano music and the blending of culinary traditions.[7] The Hispanic population contributes to Texas having a younger population than the American average, because Hispanic births have outnumbered non-Hispanic white births since the early 1990s. In 2007, for the first time since the early nineteenth century, Hispanics accounted for more than half of all births (50.2%), while non-Hispanic whites accounted for just (34%).

## Lynching of Mexican-Americans in Texas

[edit]

From 1848 to 1928 there were hundreds of lynchings of Mexican-Americans across the American West.[8] Many of these lynchings occurred in Texas against people of Mexican descent. One such case was the case of Paulino Serda of Edinburg, a city in south Texas. Paulino Serda was killed by Texas Rangers on his ranch in 1915 during questioning.[9] In September of that same year, Texas Rangers encountered Jesus Bazan and Antonio Longoria riding their horses near their ranch in Edinburg, Texas.[10] Even though they had committed no crimes, the Texas Rangers shot and killed the two men on the assumption that were Mexican bandit sympathizers; they left their bodies where they were shot to be found by locals two days later.[11] Many more Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans living in the Texas-Mexico border were killed during this period, now designated as La Matanza.[12]

## Education

[edit]

Post Mexican-American War the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which extended the racial category of white to Mexican Americans,[13] as well as the Texas Constitution which guaranteed equal rights to Mexican-Americans such as the right to free public education.[14] Despite having access to education, and being considered white in the eyes of the law, public schools in Texas were segregated Mexican students from white students until 1965,[7] and often times Mexican-Americans living in Texas didn’t receive the same treatment compared to their white neighbors. This differential treatment towards Mexican-American student included (but was not limited to) the banning of speaking Spanish on school grounds, in which violators could legally be punished through beatings.[7] Similar legal battles were sparked by the California case Mendez v. Westminster in 1947, where Mexican-American families battled to end educational segregation and guarantee equal opportunity for their children in Texas.[15] Some Mexican American organizations who played a major role in the fight against racism in public schools are the American G.I Forum, LULAC, and MALDEF.[16] Mexican-American groups led the push for bilingual education in Texas in the 1970s, claiming that keeping the Spanish language was important for preserving cultural legacy as well as improving academic performance for Hispanic students.[3]

### The rise of Mexican American organization and social movement.

[edit]

TAMACC which stands for Texas Association of Mexican Americans Chamber of Commerce is an organization founded in 1975 to promote business, economic, and legislative opportunities for the Hispanic communities in Texas[17].TAMAAC have supported many bills that will help small hispanic business such as the 1991 Workers Compensation Bill and the free trade agreement with Mexico in 1992.

Mexican Americans also formed the Chicano Civil Rights Movement[18] which goal was to help better the lives of Mexican Americans whether it be economic, politically , or socially.

Currently , now there are multiple organizations and associations that help fight educational opportunities and professional development towards Hispanic students such as the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA)[19] and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers(SHPE).[20]

## See also

[edit]

* Texas portal
* Mexico portal

* Hispanic and Latino Americans in Texas
* History of the African-Americans in Texas
* History of education in Texas
* Tejano
* Tex-Mex
* Plan of San Diego, call for insurrection in 1915 that Tejanos rejected

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Mexican Americans." Handbook of Texas. Retrieved on December 11, 2011.
2. ^ John E. Farley. 2010. Majority-Minority Relations. SixthEdition.New Jersey: Prentice Hall
3. ^ a b c Association, Texas State Historical. "Mexican Americans". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
4. ^ "Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin". census.gov. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
5. ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
6. ^ McMillan, Nora E. Ríos. "LA PRENSA." Handbook of Texas. Retrieved on February 13, 2015.
7. ^ a b c Bubenik, Travis (October 5, 2022). "Hispanic students were once segregated at this school. Now it will be a historic site". Npr. Retrieved November 25, 2024.
8. ^ Wills, Matthew (2019-03-26). "The Untold History of Lynching in the American West". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
9. ^ Benavides, Lucia (29 January 2016). "The Texas Rangers Killed Hundreds of Hispanic Americans During the Mexican Revolution". www.kut.org. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
10. ^ "Violent chapter in Texas history known as "La Matanza" or "The Massacre" remembered | History News Network". historynewsnetwork.org. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
11. ^ "Violent chapter in Texas history known as "La Matanza" or "The Massacre" remembered | History News Network". historynewsnetwork.org. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
12. ^ "Refusing to Forget". Refusing to Forget. Retrieved 2019-04-30.
13. ^ James-Gallaway, ArCasia (January 19, 2023). "Under a Black Light: Implications of Mexican American School Segregation Challenges for African Americans in Texas". Teachers College Record. 124 (12): 220–251 – via SageJournals.
14. ^ Allsup, Carl (November 1, 1977). "Education is Our Freedom: The American G. I. Forum and the Mexican American School Segregation in Texas, 1948-1957". International Journal of Chicano Studies. 8 (1–2): 27–50 – via University of California Press.1–2&rft.pages=27-50&rft.date=1977-11-01&rft.aulast=Allsup&rft.aufirst=Carl&rft_id=https://online.ucpress.edu/aztlan/article-abstract/8/1-2/27/199014/Education-is-Our-Freedom-The-American-G-I-Forum?redirectedFrom=fulltext&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:History+of+Mexican+Americans+in+Texas" class="Z3988">
15. ^ "Background - Mendez v. Westminster Re-Enactment | United States Courts". www.uscourts.gov. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
16. ^ Guadalupe, San-Miguel (December 1982). "Mexican American Organizations And The Changing Politics Of School Desegregation In Texas 1945 to 1980". Social Science Quarterly. 63 (4): 701–715 – via EBSCOhost.
17. ^ Association, Texas State Historical. "Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
18. ^ "How the Chicano Movement Championed Mexican‑American Identity and Fought for Change". HISTORY. 2023-07-25. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
19. ^ "Association of Latino Professionals for America".
20. ^ "SPHE".

6\. Kanellos, Nicolas and Helvetia Martell. 'Hispanic Periodicals in the United States Origins to 1960s: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography'. Arte Publico Press, 1960.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Anders, Evan. Boss Rule in South Texas: The Progressive Era (U of Texas Press, 1982).
* Arreola, Daniel D. Tejano South Texas (U of Texas Press, 2002)
* Barragán Goetz, Philis. Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas (U of Texas Press. 2022), winner of multiple prizes
* Castañeda, Carlos E. Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; reprinted, New York: Arno, 1976).
* De León, Arnoldo. Ethnicity in the Sunbelt: A History of Mexican-Americans in Houston (University of Houston Mexican American Studies Program, 1989).
* De León, Arnoldo. San Angeleños: Mexican Americans in San Angelo, Texas (San Angelo: Fort Concho Museum Press, 1985).
* De León, Arnoldo. They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes Toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821–1900 (U of Texas Press, 1983).
* De León, Arnoldo, and Kenneth L. Stewart. "Tejano Demographic Patterns and Socio-economic Development," Borderlands Journal 7 (Fall 1983)

* García, Mario T. Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880–1920 (Yale UP, 1981).
* García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930–1960 (Yale UP, 1989).
* García, Richard A. Rise of the Mexican American Middle Class, San Antonio, 1919–1941 (Texas A&M UP, 1991)
* McKenzie, Phyllis. The Mexican Texans. (Texas A&M University Press, 2004). ISBN 1585443077, 9781585443079.
* Menchaca, Martha, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality (U of Texas Press, 2022)
* Montejano, David. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 (U of Texas Press, 1987)
* San Miguel, Jr., Guadalupe. "Let All of Them Take Heed" (U of Texas Press, 1987)
* Zamoro, Emilio, et al. eds. Mexican Americans in Texas History, Selected Essays (Texas State Historical Assn., 2000)
* Zamoro, Emilio, ed. The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas (Texas A&M UP, 2000).

### Primary sources

[edit]

* MacDonald, Victoria-Maria, ed.  Latino education in the United States: A narrated history from 1513–2000. (Palgrave, 2004); 50 short excerpts from primary sources, mostly from California and Texas.
* Steven Mintz, ed. (2009). Mexican American Voices: A Documentary Reader. John Wiley. pp. 122–4\. ISBN 9781405182607.

## External links

[edit]

* "Mexican Americans." Handbook of Texas.

* v
* t
* e

Chicano and Mexican American topics

Terms|

* Chicano
* Indigenismo
* Mexican American
* La Raza
* Cholo
* Pachuco
* Pinto
* Blaxican
* Xicanx

Pre-Chicano Movement|

* 1917 Bath riots
* Bisbee Deportation
* Bracero program
* Korean War
* La Matanza
* Mexican Repatriation
* Operation Wetback
* Plan de San Diego
* Porvenir Massacre
* Sleepy Lagoon trial
* Zoot Suit Riots

Chicano Movement|

* Aztlán
* Católicos por La Raza
* Centro de Arte Público
* Chicanismo
* Chicana feminism
* Chicano Blowouts
* Chicano Moratorium
* Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
* PCUN
* Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
* Plan de Santa Bárbara
* Farm workers' rights campaign
* Land grant struggle
* Colegio César Chávez
* Los Siete de la Raza
* Los Seis de Boulder
* Occupation of Catalina Island

Post-Chicano Movement|

* Aztlán
* 1985–1987 Watsonville Cannery strike
* 1992 Drywall Strike
* 2019 El Paso shooting
* Abolish ICE
* Arizona SB 1070
* Castro 2020
* DACA
* Great American Boycott
* IRCA
* Justice for Janitors
* Killing of Adam Toledo
* Murder of Selena
* Party crews
* Proposition 187
* Xicanx

Culture|

* Anti-Mexican sentiment
* Caló
* Chicano art
* Chicano cinema
* Chicano literature
* Chicano names
* Chicano poetry
* Chicano Park
* Chicano rock
* Chicano rap
* Cinco de Mayo
* Estrada Courts murals
* Lowrider
* Mexican-American cuisine
* Mexican-American folklore
* Mexican-American women's fashion
* Mexican muralism
* New Mexican cuisine
* New Mexico music
* Paño
* Regional Mexican
* Skull art
* Teatro Campesino
* Tejano music
* Tex-Mex cuisine
* Tortilla art
* Zoot suit

Chicana/o Theory|

* Barrioization
* Coyolxauhqui imperative
* Gringo justice
* Nepantla
* New tribalism
* Rasquachismo
* Spiritual activism
* Vergüenza
* Youth control complex

Supreme Court cases|

* Botiller v. Dominguez
* Hernandez v. Texas
* San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez
* Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co.
* U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce
* Plyler v. Doe
* Medellín v. Texas
* Flores-Figueroa v. U.S.
* Leal Garcia v. Texas
* Mendez v. Westminster
* Bernal v. Fainter
* DHS v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.

By city and region|

* Arizona
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* Pennsylvania
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* Texas
* Dallas–Fort Worth
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* Utah

Lists|

* Chicano films
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* U.S. communities with Hispanic majority
* Mexican Americans
* Writers
* List of Hispanic and Latino Americans
* Bibliography
* List of Mexican-American communities
* List of Mexican-American political organizations
* List of Chicano and Mexican monuments and memorials in California

* Category:Chicano
* Category:American people of Mexican descent

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Ethnic groups in Texas

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