Tejas was wanted by US slavery interests several decades earlier, it had rich flat land suitable for cotton and other crops on which they worked their slaves. The virreyes of Nuevo España and then successive early and fantastically stupid governments of México following the Independencia invited in 'colonists' to help consolidate and develop the region, which had been until around 1800 governed and populated through the mission system only, indians and priests outnumbered by far the mexicano traders and settlers due to various self-serving policies of the peninsulares. There was always opposition to the idea of trusting the anglos, but at the time the criollos who voiced it had little or no power. So contracts were signed, and words of honour pledged, and the anglos came, and then according to their custom the anglos broke their words of honour, slaughtered the inhabitants, and took the land.
There are many details but that is the essence of the story ... a few of the details - these agreements signed 'guaranteed' that the anglos would respect the mission system, obey the laws, pay their taxes, and stay to the north of the Río Nueces [during the Virreinato only to the Guadalupe, if memory serves] .... what they did was - quickly undermine and then destroy the mission system [catholics they called 'Romists' and 'Papists' at this time, and considered them prey], disobey any laws that stood in the way of their greed, refuse to offer up their thieves and murderers to the justice system, refuse to pay any taxes at all, and as soon as they had accumulated sufficient numbers they invaded well south of the Nueces, to the Río Bravo del Norte, which they call to this day the 'Río Grande'.
There is much more, the savagery of the immediate abrogations of Article XVII of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the ensuing coverup, for instance, etc etc .... it goes on and on
Now these actions are not unique in the history of our species, not at all, but the reason they shock La Raza and all other neighbouring observers so hard is that they follow directly on that so-fine rhetoric of 'Liberty' and 'Justice' that inspires Padre Hidalgo to issue his Grito de Dolores which begins the long process of independence [which culminates in the formation of Los Estados Unidos de México, you can see the connection eh], and inspires many to this day, even among your countrymen where in places the Mark Twains are thick on the ground and at times get to exercise some minor influence on national policy [Lincoln and Juárez are good friends and allies, they face troubles in common, from common enemies, and help each other all they are able to under the circumstances] .... mexicanos number in this time of losing half their country only four millions, and now twenty-five times that many, twenty-six to twenty-eight times perhaps when one counts those resident in the occupied lands, for this reason it is a canny political move for the younger Bush to say these words 'Juntos Podemos', and to do what he is able to put substance behind them, because 'together we can', for sure.
Gotta go ... to, among other things, help arrange a celebration two weeks from tomorrow for the 191st anniversary of the Grito de Dolores, el Día de la Independencia ... our equivalent of your fourth of July [no, Cinco de Mayo is a chicano thing, promoted by beer companies mainly -g-] ..... which reminds me, i have a story about the fourth of July in Seattle one time, centres on approaches to forestry, i should type it in in response to Raymond ..... later ... cheers
[edit] - great urls, btw - in the footnotes they mention Jervis, who was i believe one of the founders of what became the Ordnance Survey division of the War Office ... an inlet is named after him here, i have worked on its sides, helping to produce, guess what - softwood lumber -g-
[edit 2] - too many Poinsetts/Iturbides, and not enough Mark Twains/Gómez Faríases, it's a problem all over, with a basis far deeper than national boundaries, it's just that we are forced to deal with the problem at that level at times |
