Mexicans and Mexican Americans

MEXICAN AND AMERICAN MEXICAN

Mexican and American Mexican

Introduction

Mexican American forms one of the most oldest and largest of ethnic communities living in USA . The overwhelming majority of Mexican Americans live in four southern US states , although many of them are spread also in upper northern parts . Spanish Mexicans were among the first people to explore and inhabit USA , even before arrival of western settlers . Later , as USA expanded its territories after the Mexican war of 1846 , Texas was annexed from Mexico and thousands of Mexicans automatically found themselves

as part of United States , forced to assimilate themselves with a distinct culture . The assimilation of Mexicans has been a very slow and comparatively unaccomplished process and ethnic Mexicans have always formed a distinguished niche for them continuing in their traditional docile and peaceful outlook that stands at sharp contrast with materialist and high paced American lifestyle This analyzes the social , political and economic factor that have guided the relation between Americans and Mexican Americans

History of Mexican American Relation

Spanish explorers had conquered Mexico by 16th century and they used Mexican territories as base to continue their exploration of USA . As the Spanish empire crumbled , Mexico struggled to get its independence , which it achieved in 1826 . However , Mexican independence was not a sanguine affair by all accounts and there were numerous issues of internal discord , the chief one them being the problem of Texas . Mexico had allowed American settlers to inhabit the barren and desolate landscapes of its northern states , bing with USA that included , Texas and California in particular . However , the number of American settlers increased dramatically in these areas , and it reached to the proportion that Americans began to dominate the political and economic life of these areas . The dominance of Americans started episodes of conflict between the two people as Americans would not accept the hierarchical state centric and rather outdated political and social model of Mexican people and this caused frequent incidents of friction among them and Mexican authorities . The American settlers of northern Mexican b areas definitely perceived that their future lay with a far more prosperous , secure and economically sound USA than a comparatively regressive and stagnant Mexico . Meanwhile US senators also perceived the economic and strategic importance of these northern bing states

The troubles in these areas rapidly snowballed into a major problem when Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836 , a decision that Mexico did not recognize . As the mutual affinity of both Texas and US was to each other , USA formally annexed Texas and as result Mexico entered in a two years war with USA . The results of war were disastrous for Mexico and it lost more than one third of its territories to USA at the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . However , the effects of the war were not limited to mere annexation of territories but also of Mexican people living in this huge geographical area who overnight became subjects of USA . The relations among Americans /Yankees and Mexicans were...