page_title: History of Mexican Americans
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: History of Mexican Americans / The Early-American period / Politics
caption_attribution_description: English: José Manuel Gallegos, delegate from the Territory of New Mexico to the U.S. House of Representatives
context_page_description: The history of Mexican Americans, or American residents of Mexican descent, largely begins after the annexation of Northern Mexico in 1848, when the nearly 80,000 Mexican citizens of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico became U.S. citizens. Large-scale migration increased the U.S.’ Mexican population during the 1910s, as refugees fled the economic devastation and violence of Mexico’s high-casualty revolution and civil war. Until the mid-20th century, most Mexican Americans lived within a few hundred miles of the border, although some resettled along rail lines from the Southwest into the Midwest.
  In the second half of the 20th century, Mexican Americans diffused throughout the U.S., especially into the Midwest and Southeast, though the groups’ largest population centers remain in California and Texas. During this period, Mexican-Americans campaigned for voting rights, educational and employment equity, ethnic equality, and economic and social advancement. At the same time, however, many Mexican-Americans struggled with defining and maintaining their community's identity.
context_section_description: Over time, the social, economic, and legal position of the hispanic Mexicanos diminished, largely through political disenfranchisement and large-scale land loss. These two processes were facilitated through the elimination of political, linguistic, and property rights. In two decades, Anglo Americans seized complete control over the apparatuses of political power across the U.S. Southwest.
  José Manuel Gallegos was sworn into Congress in 1853 as the first nuevomexicano terrritorial representative to Congress. He spoke only Spanish, which was not a problem for his first term. After he successfully ran for reelection in 1856, however, his bilingual opponent Miguel A. Otero, contested the election results. Otero claimed Gallegos' inability to speak English disqualified him. Gallego made an impassioned self-defense in Spanish on the House floor, where he protested the “disappointment" he felt from the "sneers" of his colleagues. Nevertheless, Otero's bid was successful, and he replaced Gallego as the territorial representative of New Mexico.
  California’s first U.S. senator, John C. Frémont, introduced legislation for the federal government to arbitrate land claim settlements. After the removal of Article X from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty citizens were stripped of any formal protection of their land rights. After gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California in 1848, a massive migration flooded the state, sparking the Gold Rush. By 1852, the population of California had grown from 8,000 in 1848 to 260,000. These gold miners were largely landless and asserted ownership over California lands. The California Land Act of 1851, also known as the Gwin Act, after California senator William M. Gwin, created a Presidentially-appointed commission to settle disputed claims between the landholders and Anglo miners.
caption: José Manuel Gallegos, delegate from the Territory of New Mexico to the U.S. House of Representatives.
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