History of Mexican Americans in Texas

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. 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]

  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. ^ Arnoldo De León, "Mexican Americans" Handbook of Texas (2023) online
  4. ^ "Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin". census.gov. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  5. ^ Bureau, U.S. Census. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2017-06-06.

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