Questions Texas Borderlands

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Texas A&M University, San Antonio *

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1302

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History

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Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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Homework Texas Borderlands Instructions: Read the lecture slides and then watch the linked documentary. Be sure to answer the questions as you complete the assignment. Texas Borderlands Slides : 1. In general terms, describe/discuss how ethnic Mexicans in the borderlands generally experienced American "western expansion" and annexation to the US across the latter decades of the 1800s and early 1900s. They experienced American western expansion by ethnic Mexicans being offered citizenship, including equal rights and protections under the law. Most entered US citizenship as land owners, some had great ranches and were held at high political office. 2. Draw upon the three prompts below to explain how did ethnic Mexicans went from being a mostly land owning and politically empowered people to mostly the opposite (non-landowning and disenfranchised) by the early 1900s? a. Land Loss- by what mechanisms was land lost? The Texas constitution constitution complicated property protection by requiring proof that the individual had supported the revolution and not left during the war. Newly imposed property taxes, wealthy land brokers would convince the tejanos to sell out. b. Political disempowerment- by what mechanisms was political empowerment lost?The Texas constitution complicated Tejano citizenship rights. Even the hero of the Texas Revolution and prominent political figure Juan Seguin was harassed and threatened to death. After he served as senator he fled for his life to Mexico in 1842. c. Migration- how did migration influence the general nature of ethnic Mexicans in Texas? Texas had attracted migrants mostly from the deep south since the war. Even though people of Mexican descent had lived in Texas since the 1700’s, most Americans treated them as foreigners. Most Hispanics were classified as white under the law but were treated on some of the same levels as African Americans. 3. How did many Anglo newcomers imagine the proper “place” of ethnic Mexicans in Texas? (What should their “place” be?) And, how did they endeavor to enforce this "place." The Mexican government moved to enact policies to move more settlers into the area to ensure control over the region. 4. In what regards did the following men and their followers struggle for freedom? Be sure to consider motivations (what prompted resistance?) and ambitions (what did they seek to achieve?) a. Juan Cortina:He fell into conflict with corrupt lawyers and judges in Brownsville who threatened to take his family’s land- claims and the claims of other ethnic Mexicans in the borderlands. b. Catarino Garza:He helped found mutual aid societies for the improvement of hispanic circumstances. When he was a journalist he became a vocal critic of the Portfolio Diaz. dictatorship in Mexico and the abuses by the texas rangers on the border.When

the Garza rebellion surged suppression became brutal and indiscriminate. The US Army was instructed to shoot them on sight, and burn their ranches down. c. 4. Discuss the term, "bandit" and the selectively with which it was applied in the Texas borderlands (consider to whom it was and was not applied, and the ironies). Bandits are men who were considered freedom fighters. Cortina and Garza fought for justice in their unjust system. They wanted to do right by everyone, not just a specific group of people. 5. Texas Rangers- Were they freedom fighters? Defend your response (consider how an ethnic Mexican living in the borderlands at this time might regard the Rangers). No, the Tejas rangers came into existence for the purpose of vying with Native tribes, especially the Comanche. They punished tribes that had sided with Mexico and hunted runaway slaves who looked to Mexico for freedom. 6. The Texas Rangers forged a distinct character in the context of originating in frontier circumstances, including lack of accountability, and the settler colonial processes of destroy to replace (ethnic an indigenous population and secure settlements). How did shifts in US behavior abroad tend to impact the Rangers, in general? The rangers became disbanded by the federal government and replaced by the Texas State police. The rangers had disbanded due to the fighting for the Confederacy or punishing Texans who declined to support the Confederacy. 7. Identify and discuss the role of American corporations in propelling Mexican migration northward as both labor migrants and wartime refugees (consider the role of US corporations in propelling labor migrations out of Mexico and in the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution): a. Labor Migrants: conditions inTexas caused some of the most ethnic Mexicans to migrate to Mexico. Tejanos became landless and downwardly mobile as American citizens. Without land many became wage workers and tenant farmers. b. Wartime Refugees:The intensity of the Mexican elite in the U.S., downward mobility, and loss of sovereignty caused a refugee crisis on the border. 8. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)- Who were they? Industrial workers were a labor organization that aimed to organize workers in industrial unions. rather than the specialized trade unions of the American Federation of Labor. 9. Labor migrations (from Mexico and elsewhere) generated transnational communities and experiences. They also generated a more transnational working-class struggle. Accordingly, how did the brewing spirit of revolution in Mexico impact the US labor movement during the early? The collapse of Mexican authority opened the South American economic growth and settlement. Mexican independence also led to the downfall of the California mission system. Many Mexicans were fleeing the war in Mexico and went to the U.S. to find refugee. 10. The socialists made great contributions to the working-class struggle by stressing that which unites a diversity of laborers and by promoting solidarity upon this basis. In this context, the Texas Socialist Party united Anglo, black and Hispanic small farmers, tenant farmers, and seasonal agricultural labor in opposition to agricultural realities which impacted all. Describe agricultural realities in Texas by 1900 even as most Texans continued to work in agriculture:

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