War At Home and Abroad

the following article consist of excerpts from a forthcoming chicano research center (crc) publication regarding Mexican americans from new Mexico and the bataan death March. the excerpts shed light on the history of Hispanos’ or nuevomexicanos’ war at home in the u s. and why they went to war overseas during WWii (1941-1945).

in the period 1848 to 1900, the U.S Government’s and Anglo/Euro American’s political and economic control of the southwest created a deep social division between the new Mexican Americans and the Anglo/Euro American migrant populations that flocked to the Southwest. In the process Mexican Americans experienced subordination and racially motivated violence. t he social division was punctuated by Mexican American revolt and rebellion and a violent response and suppression by law enforcement and vigilantes.

and Hispanos either killed or wounded and 15 to 20 ringleaders executed for treason. Treason against a government they did not recognize as legitimate, and this episode left a heritage of ill-will between Hispanos and Anglo/Euro Americans.

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y pro-estadounidenses— fueron asesinados. La represión militar de esta revuelta nativista resultó en aproximadamente 200 indígenas e hispanos muertos o heridos, y entre 15 y 20 cabecillas ejecutados por traición… traición a un gobierno que no reconocieron como legítimo. Este episodio dejó un legado de enemistad y desconfianza entre hispanos y angloamericanos.

En las décadas de 1870 y 1880, en el condado de Lincoln, los pastores de ovejas Nuevomexicanos tenían que defenderse de los ganaderos angloamericanos, lo que se transformó en una violenta guerra de pastizales. nuevo México se inundó de forajidos y criminales angloamericanos que buscaban refugio en el aislamiento geográfico de Nuevo México, lo que se sumó a la violencia racial. Muchos se unieron a la guerra de pastizales del Condado Lincoln contra los pastores Nuevomexicanos Entre ellos había tejanos con un ardiente odio hacia los mexicanos.

.A fines de la década de 1880, los hispanos participaron en una resistencia armada organizada. Los White Caps o Gorras Blancas se formaron y afirmaron

In the 1870’s and 1880’s, in Lincoln County, Nuevomexicano sheepherders had to defend themselves against Anglo/Euro American cattlemen resulting in a raging range war. new Mexico became inundated with Anglo/Euro American desperados and criminals seeking refuge in new Mexico’s geographical isolation adding to racial violence. Many joined the Lincoln County range war against Nuevomexicano sheepherders. Among them were texans with a burning hatred of Mexicans.

In the late 1880’s Hispanos engaged in organized armed resistance. the White Caps or Las Gorras Blancas formed and claimed to have 1,500 members. A Spanish land grant, the Las Vegas Grant , containing 500,000 acres was held in-common by the inhabitants of the town Las Vegas in northern new Mexico. Anglo/Euro American homesteaders, squatters and ranchers began acquiring and taking-over Nuevomexicano communal land. t hey began putting-up fences “enclosing as many as 10,000 acres” and blocking access to timber, water, and grazing lands. Anglo/Euro American immigrants viewed Nuevomexicano communal land as unoccupied and unclaimed and part of the public domain available for appropriation.

In 1889 Hispanos took-up arms. Night riders wearing long black coats, slickers and white masks retaliated. They targeted railroad companies and land

In New Mexico, the Spanish-speaking or Hispano population was the majority population for a much longer period, and it has been argued that the delay in the statehood of new Mexico until 1912 was secondary to the larger population distribution of Hispanos. Anglo/ Euro American aggression was tempered and the relations between Anglo/Euro American migrants and Hispanos more amiable because of the larger Hispano population and their capacity to fight back against mistreatment. resistance to Anglo/Euro American control began in 1846. A failed Nuevomexicano and i ndian plot to oust Americans supported by Colonel Diego Archuleta and Father Antonio Jose Martinez, both prominent leaders in the Nuevomexicano community, was suppressed. However, a year later the U.S. Territorial Governor, Charles Bent, was assassinated in taos. i n the ensuing violence many homes were sacked and 15 to 20 prominent landowners, either wealthy pro-American Hispanos (called Ricos) or Anglo/Euro Americans, were killed. The military suppression of the nativist revolt resulted in approximately 200 Indians continued on next page continúa a la vuelta

latino veterans • veteranos latinos

War At Home and Abroad from the previous page grabbers cutting fences and destroying property. That year 300 armed men destroyed 9,000 railroad ties belonging to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway lines, and “...the following year nine miles of barbed wire fence was destroyed in a single night.” “Local bands of Las Gorras Blancas rode sporadically, at least until 1926, as extranjeros continued to usurp chunks of common land.” t here is evidence that Hispanos and other Mexican Americans saw going to war as a means-to-prove-themselves and to gain access to the social and economic opportunity structure Anglo/Euro Americans had benefited from since prevailing in the Mexican American War. Proving themselves to gain war veteran benefits and fulfilling a societal expectation of patriotism and military service could be called a form of “militarized citizenship.” Further, it could be argued that for Hispanos full enjoyment of the social and economic benefits of citizenship had been denied or derailed, and they saw military service as a pathway to gaining them. Even though full citizenship and its benefits had technically been granted nearly one hundred years earlier through provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.. contar con 1500 miembros. Los habitantes del municipio Las Vegas, en el norte de Nuevo México, tenían en común una cesión de tierras por España, la Concesión Las Vegas, que comprendía 500.000 acres. Los colonos, ocupantes ilegales y ganaderos angloamericanos comenzaron a adquirir y apoderarse de tierras nuevomexicanas comunales. Comenzaron a levantar cercas “que encierran hasta 10,000 acres” y bloquearon el acceso a la madera, el agua y las tierras de pastoreo. Los inmigrantes angloamericanos veían las tierras comunales como desocupadas, no reclamadas, por lo que eran parte del dominio público disponible para apropiación.

As the history above demonstrates, Hispanos were always willing to defend themselves against encroachments on their ancestral lands and basic human rights. Within a few decades of the Las Gorras Rebellion, they would commit to defending lands beyond the borders of their ancestral homeland. i n 1941 they would enlist or would be drafted into defending the united states against its enemies in WW ii and into protecting united states colonial territories in the Philippines. Ironically, both Hispanos and Filipinos had a parallel history of spanish conquest and colonization and then incorporation into the political orbit of united states through war.

En 1889 los hispanos se levantaron en armas. Con capuchas blancas, vistiendo impermeables o largos abrigos negros, comenzaron a tomar represalias. Atacaron los ferrocarriles y a los acaparadores de tierras, cortándoles sus cercas y destruyendo sus propiedades. Ese año 300 hombres armados destruyeron 9 000 durmientes de ferrovía pertenecientes al ferrocarril Atchison, Topeka, y Santa Fe Railway, “…al año siguiente se destruyeron nueve millas de alambrado de púas en una sola noche”. “bandas locales de Gorras Blancas cabalgaban esporádicamente, al menos hasta el año 1926, porque los extranjeros continuaban usurpando acres de tierra comunal”.

Como demuestra la historia anterior, los hispanos siempre estuvieron dispuestos a defenderse de las usurpaciones de sus tierras ancestrales y sus derechos humanos básicos. A las pocas décadas de la Rebelión de las Gorras, se comprometerían a defender tierras más allá de las fronteras de su patria ancestral. En 1941 se alistarían o fueron reclutados para defender a los Estados unidos contra sus enemigos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, como asimismo para proteger territorios coloniales de los Estados Unidos en Filipinas. Irónicamente, tanto los hispanos como los filipinos tuvieron una historia paralela de conquista y colonización española —y luego incorporación a la órbita política de los Estados unidos a través de la guerra

Existe evidencia de que los hispanos y otros mexicoamericanos vieron ir a la guerra como medio para demostrar su valor y obtener acceso a la estructura de oportunidades sociales y económicas —de la que se habían beneficiado los angloamericanos desde que prevalecieron en la Guerra México-Estadounidense. Demostrar su valía para obtener beneficios de veteranos de guerra y cumplir con las expectativas sociales de patriotismo y servicio militar podría llamársele una forma de “ciudadanía militarizada”. Además, se

BIBLIogRAPH y

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podría argumentar que a los hispanos se les había negado u obstruido el pleno disfrute de los beneficios sociales y económicos de la ciudadanía, y vieron el servicio militar como un camino para obtenerlos. …A pesar que, técnicamente, la ciudadanía plena y sus beneficios les habían sido otorgadas casi cien años antes a través de disposiciones del Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo en 1848.

Snippets from the novel ‘FEAR NOT EVIL’