White racial attitudes toward Mexicanos in Texas, 1821-1900
De León, Arnoldo
De León, Arnoldo
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1974
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Abstract
This study deals with the feelings of white men toward Mexicans in the state of Texas, 1821-1900. Its purpose is to determine those beliefs, to discover the genesis and roots of those attitudes, to demonstrate in what ways and methods they were expressed, and how they became a sanctioned, functional, and institutionalized part of white society in the final debasement of Mexicanos. The long history of racial interaction on a color frontier with black men and red, predisposed. white men to judge the state's Mexican citizenry to be not unlike other colored minorities that had shaped their racial attitudes before their arrival in the state. For, in comparing themselves with Mexicans, they found vast differences between themselves and nativos and abundant affinities among Negroes, Indians, and Mexicans. The cultural baggage whites brought to Texas furthermore defined the Mexicans' culture as being defective in many aspects. To whites, Mexicans personified a culturally wanton people, individuals bound by tradition, averse to work, given to pleasures at hand, dedicated to frolic and pleasure, and indulging in perpetual siestas. Also, it was the case with the Anglo-Mexican encounter, that one of the most puritanical cultures in the Western Hemisphere established itself among a most "immoral" people. The white mind perceived Mexicans as defective in virtue and morality and behaving morally in ways that did not resemble those of white men. Contrary to the passive and docile image created by nineteenth century citizens, Mexicans seemed "impudent" amidst them. Mexicans actively sought to undermine slavery, inveighed against nativist movements, violently and nonviolently pressed for their democratic rights, asserted themselves in certain areas of the state independent of white domination, yet all the while remained religiously loyal to American principles. But the sense of difference arising from racial attitudes led to the quest for white supremacy. The threat to this supremacy, often reflected in paranoid fantasies, was frequently countered with violent retribution, a form of prejudice that became the extreme method to keep Mexicanos in their place. The way in which white men saw Mexicanos made it easy to justify confiscation of their land, to deny them equality and freedom, to stifle their talents, in the arts, in science, in medicine, in history, in language, and in politics. It was easy because white racial attitudes toward Mexicanos in Texas were predicated upon attitudes that considered "different" peoples in not unsimilar ways.
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Mexicans--Texas
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Dissertation
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viii, 297 leaves, bound
Department
History