The Call to Remember the Alamo: Texas in the Aftermath of the Mexican-American War
The Alamo happened in February 23rd, 1836. 175 Americans and 2 Mexicans barricade themselves within the Alamo.
General Santa Ana is captured and made to sign the Treaty of Velasco, which made Texas independent . But Mexico did not acknowledge their independence.
Later, the Mexican-American war starts in 1846 and ends on February 2, 1848. They cede Texas as well as: California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo specifies the protection of property for those who already live in these territories. Also, that they are meant to be given all the same freedoms as whites in America.
In the States of New Mexico and Arizona, they are given the same rights and protected property, but eventually that too goes away as more Americans are drawn to those states for the dry, arid climates.
The territories that were granted land grants during the Spanish and Mexican periods are going to have some difficulties in staying in the hands of the heirs. In Spanish and Mexican times, you didn’t have fences to establish property lines, you would instead define property lines through landmarks, but Americans used fences. So when they got to these areas and saw there were no fences, they saw this as free land. Hundreds of acres, but no fences. So when someone settled on their land, they wouldn’t be able to prove to these Americans that it was their land.
There is going to be some conflicts that arise, not just culturally but also territory conflicts. Under American law, even with the treaty, the US changes it’s approach to these territories and put the burden of proof on the land owners. So they needed documentation stating that they were the land owners. But this was never a question before, and the land owners would need to hire expensive lawyers to petition the courts to show the burden of proof.
But all legal documents were held in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, so you would need to travel or send someone else to go, so you may need to save up money to travel and by then, you have more squatters on your land. It became burdensome for land owners to prove they were the owners of their land, and slowly America chipped away at these land grants.
In California there are 553 land grants that are confirmed, which means there were others that were not confirmed. In places like New Mexico and Texas, it took 20-30, sometimes even 100 years to prove that they were rightful owners. One average it took 14 years for Mexicans to prove land ownership. The US also tries to get ahead of these confirmations of land ownership and they do this by establishing preemption laws. This allows Anglo squatters to claim “public land” which is land that is not yet confirmed by the ports. They allowed for squatters to “improve” the land, work it, farm it, and protect it. Squatters are protected under the law.
After the land grant was confirmed, the owners then needed to pay the squatters for any improvements they did on the land. BY that time, many Mexicans were land rich, and cash poor. Before American conquest, these families were the upper class in Mexico, and now they are the lowest class of citizens afterward.
The US takes advantage of their positionality in contrast to Mexico, the power structures, etc. It behooves the US to allow for this to happen. Mexicans now residing in the US have a new legal, political, and social system. A new economic structure which all undermines their position, to segregate communities, and to cast war, socially and culturally, against Mexicans.
The relationship between Mexico and the US is further weakened as slaves in the state of Texas, after hearing that the US has taken over these territories and Mexico has lost these territories, and want to flee to northern Mexico.
Slave owners flip out at this, they say that Mexico is stealing their property and should pay a fine, that they are harboring slaves and letting them take shelter in their country. It is estimated that by 1855, some 4,000 fugitive slaves ran away into Mexico. Texas officials say that they have lost $8.2 million in revenue. They think Mexico should pay for this. Mexico ignores this, they also do not have the money to pay, and they would be going against their own constitution if they allowed slave owners to go into their territories and “reclaim their property”. This is another element of tensions between Americans and Mexicans.
Americans will terrorize Mexicans, in the way they have terrorizes African Americans, through the practice of lynchings. America had become entrenched in a lynching culture. What this means is that they would go to a public park, lynch (hang) a Black man, and families would come and have picnics around this, even send their families post cards of these lynchings. It was a family event. And they would often burn the body after the hanging.
This happened to Mexicans as well. They did this to terrorize communities to keep “law and order” of the Mexican communities. This is a verdict without a trial. It just took one person to make an accusation and that was enough to cause a lynching.
Between 1848 and 1928, approximately 600 Mexicans were lynched. Antonio Rodriguez was lynched in 1910 in Rock Springs, Texas, for allegedly killing a white woman. This typically happened to men because women and children are viewed as innocent and would be harder to justify the killing of the Mexicans. it was also easier to accuse them of harassing white women. There was a fear that Black and Chicano men were sexually deviant/hypersexual and that they were more likely to rape white women. Also a way to emasculate the men. There’s an element of “danger”, Black and Brown mean are dangerous and they needed to control them.
Texas Rangers
During the 1820s, the Texas Rangers are founded. They were established under Steven Austin to protect his colony of Anglos from Mexican or Native American attacks. They were known as the law and order of Texas. They were armed VOLUNTEERS. They often led the lynchings against Mexicans in the state of Texas (also African Americans). This militia was very racist in that they never arrested, attacked, or lynched whites. It was also a man of color.
Even under the harsh and racist conditions, under the terrorizing, the Mexicans continue to resist.
Social Bandits
Juan “Cheno” Cortina
Mother owned a large land grant in Brownsville, Texas. He grew up in an elite family. And he realized early on after the Mexican-American war that Mexicans were being treated unfairly and with an unjust amount of violence.
In July of 1859, Cortina is at a bar and witnesses Bob Spears pistol whip a Mexican who is drunk. Cortina knew the drunk man and he intervened on his behalf. The attacker responds “What is it to you, you damn Mexican.” So Cortina pulls his gun out and kills the man, then flees into Mexico. There, he recruits an army of 60 men in Mexico who go into Texas to reclaim their lands.
He appeals to the American government and he writes to them, “My part is taken; the voice of revelation whispers to me that to me is entrusted the work of breaking the chains of your slavery, and that the Lord will enable me, with powerful arm, to fight against our enemies.” He is saying that Mexicans are the victims.
Sam Houston, the governor of Texas at this time, sends an army to find and catch Cortina and his men, but they don’t find him.
Gregorio Cortez
He has land in Texas, and has horses.
On June 12th, 1901, Sheriff Morris goes to Cortez’ home and finds him with his brother. The Sheriff is investigating a horse theft and somehow caught wind that Gregorio stole this horse. Because these two only speak Spanish, they bring an interpreter with them. The interpreter asks, on the Sheriff’s behalf, “Have you purchased or acquired a horse lately?” Gregorio says no, he bought a female horse. But the interpreter tells them “He said he ain’t gonna tell you nothing” So the sheriff goes to arrest Gregorio, and Gregorio and his brother go to defend themselves. The sheriff shoots and kills his brother. Cortez then shoots and kills the sheriff.
The interpreter runs for his life, Gregorio flees. For ten days, the Texas rangers, the US army, and local police go on a man hunt in search of Gregorio. Traveling 500 miles for 10 days. He is eventually given up by someone in the community who knew where he was hiding. He is taken prisoner and is sentenced to 50 years. All the while, Cortez maintains that he only acted in self-defense after his brother was killed.
He is serving his sentence, and gets lucky in 1913 when he is pardoned. The evidence was clear that Cortez had acted in self-defense. Now we have documentation, but we also have corridos. A song that tells a historical event. Through the corrido of Gregorio, we know his story.