The Struggles of Mexicans in Mexican-American History Essay

The Struggles of Mexicans in Mexican-American History Mexico’s problems originally began upon the arrival of the Spanish in 1492, as illustrated in Major Problems in Mexican American History by Zaragosa Vargas as well as in the video documentary, Chicano!. The sequence of events which date back to the precolonial Spanish days and take place in Mexico’s history eventually provoke the national movement that called for social justice and equality, especially after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Then came the question of group and individual identity. Those of Mexican heritage were broken up into the groups Chicanos, which were the ‘Americanized’ Mexicans or the Mexicans born in the United States, and the actual†¦show more content†¦In northern Mexico the Indian population fell from 2,500,000 to less than 320,000†¦as mining activity in northern Mexico created routes of infection that killed from 30 to 40 percent of the Indian population even prior to Spanish contact(Vargas 30). The f ood production of region also went down and the already established societies soon became disarticulated. These societies were generally made to produce for and in the interest of the Spaniards after armed conquest. The Spaniards had no regards in the long-term evolvement of Mexico’s region. Missions were established throughout the Mexican region to encourage the implementation of culture and religion on the indigenous people of Mexico. The Indians in the areas of conquest resisted and revolted, even after the independence of Mexico from Spain. The establishments of settlements throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries induced Mestizaje, the outcome of racial interbreeding. Mestizaje was the product of racial interbreeding with Indian, black, and mixed-blood women(Vargas 62). Due to the diverse mixture of races and color in the region, one’s social and legal status depended on one’s skin color, which is a problem in Mexican history that can also be seen in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The lighter and therefore wealthier Mexicans easily accommodated withShow MoreRelatedMexican Americans And The Question Of Race887 Words   |  4 PagesTopic: Mexican Americans and the question of race Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of the struggle for identification faced by Mexican-Americans as well as provide a brief historical analysis of these struggles. 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