How did the Mexican-Americans Adapt to Incorporation into the United States - Essay Example

How did the Mexican-Americans Adapt to Incorporation into the United s of the Student Subject Name of the Concerned Professor October 15, 2009 How did the Mexican Americans Adapt to Incorporation into the United States The military campaigns rife between the US and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 eventually culminated into the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The outcome of this war was that Mexico handed over almost 55 percent of its territory to the United States in exchange for $ 15 million (Daily Herald, 2008). Hence, the Mexican War inevitably led to the incorporation of a large number of Mexicans into the American Socio-Economic and Political framework. The throbbing challenge before these Mexican Americans was to somehow blend into their newfound American home, as seamlessly as possible. Since those days, the Americans of Mexican origin seem to have succeeded immensely in their efforts towards assimilating into the American society. The contemporary data reveals that almost 100 percent of the third generation Mexican Americans have English as their first and often only language (Daily Herald, 2008). In both California and Texas, one in four residents is of Mexican origin (Daily Herald, 2008). In fact, Mexican Americans have not only adapted well to the American society and culture, but have also left a deep and everlasting impact on multiple aspects of American society. In this context, it is interesting to trace the efforts and attempts of early Mexican Americans to come to terms with the American way of life, which was to be their destiny and future in the changed geo-political dynamics in the post war scenario. It goes without saying that adaptation and incorporation is always a two way process. The attempts of early Mexican Americans to adapt to incorporation into the United States, needs to be analyzed in the light of the environment that awaited them in their new country. As far as the American strategic interests vested in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo were concerned, they were more about the appropriation of new territories, then about the assimilation of a different civilization. In fact, President James Polk blatantly acknowledged this in his diary by writing that, "I declared my purpose to be to acquire for the United States, California, New Mexico, and perhaps some other of the northern provinces of Mexico (Knight Ridder/ Tribune News Service, 1998)." This treaty not only increased the size of America by one third, but also resulted in the accrual of nearly all of the present Southwest, Nevada and significant sections of Utah and Wyoming (Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 1998). So petrified were the Mexicans post the invasion that they willingly surrendered a large part of Arizona merely after five years for a mere $ 10 million (Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 1998). Thus, the US certainly achieved its strategic interests in terms of acquisition of land mass and territories. However, the Anglo attitude towards the willingly or unwillingly incorporated Mexicans in the aftermath of this treaty was not as warm and benign. This US sense of destiny as a nation was devoid of any compensatory or salubrious plans for the Mexicans residing in the acquired territories. Like the already existing 300 treaties with the Native Americans, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had its share of betrayal and disrespect (Knight Ridder/ Tribune News Service, 1998). The incorporation of the Mexican territories in the United States was not only a unique situation in the American history, but also an unprecedented episode in the world history. Here was one complete civilization that with the stroke of a pen and the firing of a couple of cannonballs was pushed into a new civilization and culture (Christensen, 1998). The irony of the situation in a 21st century context is that it was not the Mexicans who had crossed the border, but it was the border that had crossed the Mexicans (Zuniqa, 2006). In such an unstable and insecure scenario, the incorporated Mexicans had the only ray of hope emanating from the commitments made in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. As per this treaty, the United States promised the Mexicans residing in the incorporated territories all the rights and privileges due to an American citizen. In addition, the American government also promised them all the civil and human rights and a valid ownership of the pre-1848 land holdings retained by them (Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 1998). These promises were indeed rosy, but only on the paper. In the ensuing decades, the Anglo individuals and institutions systematically divested the Mexican Americans not only of their rights as a US citizen, but also of their claims over the land traditionally owned by their families. All the commitments of the treaty were blatantly flouted. Though the Mexican Americans inhabited the Southwest, much before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, in the times to come; they saw their race confined to an unwarranted and enforced subaltern status in their new country. If future can be interpreted from the past, the past can certainly be reconstructed by the contemporary trends. The sidelining and dilution of the Mexican culture and contributions is something that has trickled its way through the maze of 19th century skirmishes into the existing American life. The hostile environment that the early Mexican Americans had to contend with in those days largely can be delineated by the existing injustices in the American society. The private and public events that tend to celebrate the American achievements and culture, unexceptionally and repeatedly sidestep the Mexican element in the American glory. A few years back, when the state of California celebrated the Gold Rush with a series of public events and festivals, not a single gathering or dignitary cared to mention that California was actually a Mexican territory before 1848 (Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 1998). Nobody bothered to mention that, "Francisco Lopez, a Mexican herdsman, discovered gold six years before James Wilson Marshall uttered his famous cry of Gold (Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 1998)". Nobody even made a cursory allusion to the fact that the early prospectors in fact resorted to the fundamental mining techniques and methods devised by the Mexicans (Ferry, 2005). Nobody haled that it was the Mexicans who actually developed the mining technology nearly three hundred years before the Americans (Ferry, 2005). It is very rare that the American historians and media allude to the Genocide of the Mexicans at the hands of Anglo and Spanish occupation armies. This gross neglect of the Mexican culture, achievements and turmoil in the contemporary American society does to some extent gives an insight into the hardships that the early Mexican Americans must have to go through. If the contemporary American society is discernibly averse to recognizing the contributions of Mexican Americans to the American culture and ethos, the early Mexican Americans must definitely have had to face a difficult situation as far as the compulsory and arduous task of adapting to the American culture was concerned. The complication of their plight must have been aggravated by the fact that they happened to be the representatives of a great civilization that directly descended from the Aztecs and thus was not deficient in racial pride and verve. Here we had a thriving and pulsating lot of people that had to adapt to an unprecedented exploitation, insult and ignominy. Going by the fact that the Mexicans over the decades have not only adapted to the American society, but command a major stake in it, there must certainly be some quintessential elements in the Mexican culture that contributed to its resilience on the American soil. Realistically speaking, very little effort was made to document the struggle of early Mexican Americans for survival and recognition. Therefore, to construct a plausible explanation of the ways the early Mexican Americans adapted to incorporation into the United States, one has to rely on the bits and pieces salvaged from the contemporary sources and narratives that have their moorings in the Mexican American struggle for survival from 1848 to 1920. Often times, tracing the course of history is not as difficult as it seems. Family values are something that one-generation hands over to the next and which conclusively play a decisive role in adaptation to new culture. A peep into the contemporary Mexican American family values enables one to identify the elements in the early Mexican American societies and groups, which enabled them to successfully adapt to their incorporation into the United States. One major aspect of the Mexican American culture is its family feeling, which even today is more or less the same as it was in 1848. Even today, the Mexicans are predominantly family based people (Perez, 2009). A majority of the young Mexican Americans never perceive themselves as an entity outside the family, a trait that they share with their ancestors (Perez, 2009). This very allegiance of the early Mexican Americans to the family unit endowed them with the requisite hope and positivity that was always at the brink of being snuffed by a culture that was more affluent and powerful then theirs. The ability of the early Mexican Americans to perceive their ordeals and problems as an experience shared by the entire family helped them get over their immediate circumstances. The perception of going through the tough times collectively not only reduced the intensity of pain, but also extended the much needed mental balance and restraint. The pathetic lack of acceptance and approval from the outside was often amply compensated for by the love and warmth within the family. On other peculiar trait of the Mexican American families, that is the unquestionable allegiance of the young people towards parents and the elderly gave then access to a never drying and rich source of wisdom and poise, which enabled the early Mexican Americans to sustain and survive in an environment that was particularly unfamiliar, hostile and unfriendly (Perez, 2009). This lack of rivalry, individualism and hostility within the family units enabled the early Mexican Americans to focus on the more pressing task of adapting to the surrounding problems and challenges. Surrounded by a culture and politics that considered them inferior and dehumanized them, the young Mexicans found solace in the tales of the lost pride and grace narrated by the elder family members. An environment that demeaned their culture and traditions was somehow restrained by the collective pride and honour flowing freely within the families and the communities. Cornered by a society that had not only deprived them of their land and psychological and cultural space, the family was the essential institution that rendered the much sought after space and peace. The essential elements of the Mexican American culture managed to adapt to and survive in America because they were indelibly embedded in the way the Mexican Americans lived. Mexican Americans zealously retained and expressed their culture in their spiritual beliefs, they type of food they preferred to eat, the songs sung in the communities, the folk tales narrated by the community elders, the crafts and artefacts that beautified their homes and vicinity and the events and celebrations that in a way were the hallmark of the Mexican community life in these foreign lands (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). While the Mexican American was being pressed hard from the outside, the fundamentals of the Mexican culture were thriving and pulsating in a rich community and family life within. Surrounded by a new culture and country, the Mexican traditional wisdom was well aware of the importance and relevance of its traditions and ethos in this fight for adaptation and survival. An amorphous quest for adaptation relying on change found an unshakeable anchorage in the age-old customs and traditions. While the Mexican American was trying hard to understand and accept the new values, in her heart was enshrined a strong and potent love for one's collective tradition and heritage. The incongruence ushered in by a new socio-economic system and a repressive politics were largely balanced by the rhythms ensuing from the ancient values, practices and traditions. "Because taste, flavours, colours, smells, and textures constitute a fundamental human experience, however, people find ways to continue valued tradition against all odds (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003)." Even under the bleak circumstances rampant in the post war scenario, the traditional Mexican American homes proudly displayed crochet and immaculate works of embroidery prepared by the women in the family (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). The Mexican Americans vehemently stuck to their ancient crafts and traditions such as pottery, woodcarving and wheat weaving (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). Mexican Americans successfully managed to pass over their crafts traditions to the subsequent generations, from father to son, from mother to daughter despite struggling and trying to adapt in a period rife with turmoil and pain (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). These handicrafts even today largely are imbued with special characteristics that preserve the Mexican American identity in terms of family, village and region (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). Irrespective of the fact that America happened to be the land of science and modernity, the Mexican Americans insisted on taking care of their physical, emotional and psychological ailments and needs by resorting to the ancient Mexican traditions, which were holistic and relied on herbs, spiritual beliefs and a psychic interpretation of human needs to affect a cure (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). The Mexican American community preferably resorted to the services and help of curanderos and curanderas (healers) to correct and heal themselves. Thus, slowly but steadily, the early Mexican Americans were not only retaining their essential beliefs and institutions, but also were painstakingly carving out a space for there way of life in the much broader and relatively catholic American way of life. Music always happened to be an essential ingredient of the Mexican life. The early Mexican Americans retained and practised their traditional musical traditions like Mariachi and Nortena, but also adapted their folk lyrics and tunes to the surrounding American styles and preferences (Nusz & Ricciardi, 2003). Hence, music happened to be an important facet of Mexican American culture that gained acceptance for it in the US in the sense that it was one of the more welcome aspects of the Mexican culture in the predominant American society. Largely, the credit also goes to the American mores and values for the successful adaptation of the Mexican Americans into the American mainstream. America traditionally being a great melting pot that was always open to the immigrants from all across the world, made an ideal nursery for the planting of a race that has been in a way uprooted from its moorings to a new setup and system. As happened with other races like the Europeans, Asians and Africans, the Mexican Americans eventually blended into the American social, political, economic and cultural setup to give way to a flavour that was though American, but primarily Mexican in its origins. The modern Americans are proud of their Mexican legacy and well understand that the Mexican American culture is much more then being merely about salsa and tacos. Mexican Americans have not only added a discrete texture to the American society, but are playing a crucial role in assuring the American prosperity and freedom. Total Words: 2,515 Works Cited Christensen, Carol (1998). The US-Mexican War. New York: Bay Books. "Did you know (Reflejos)." Daily Herald. (Arlington Heights, IL). Paddock Publications. 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19171964.html Ferry, Elizabeth Emma (2005). Not Ours Alone. Columbia: Columbia University Press. Nusz, Nancy & Ricciardi, Gabriella. "Our ways: history and culture of Mexicans in Oregon". Oregon Historical Quarterly. 2003. Retrieved October 16, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com /doc/1G1-111284023.html "150 years of US domination is enough". Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. 1998. Retrieved October 16, 2009 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20186137.html Perez, Amada Irma (2009). My diary from here to there. New York: Children's Book Press. Zuniqa, Victor (2005). New Destinations. New York: Russel Sage Foundation Publications. Read More