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Chapter One 1. The U.S. Congress, after purchasing southern Arizona from Mexico, enacted the Gadsen Treaty in 1854. The citizenship articles of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo were adopted in the Gadsen Treaty (see Menchaca 2001: 226–228). 2. Full title of decree: Decreto: expedido con el objeto de facilitar recursos para la traslación de las familias mexicanas que se hallen en el territorio cedido á los Estados-Unidos del Norte. 3. For a review of the citizenship rights Mexicans exercised after Mexican independence , see Guillermo de la Peña 1993: 243–261; Hutchinson 1969: 166–171, 239–244, 255–259. 4. See Boyd v. Nebraska (1891:135) for a comprehensive history of the political rights state and territorial legislatures held in determining citizenship legislation. In 1787, Congress gave the state and territorial legislatures the right to establish citizenship eligibility requirements as long as there were five thousand residents (137, 159, 166, 169). Congress, however, retained the right to amend or rescind those requirements in territories (168,170). This political right was not removed until the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. 5. Aguirre Beltrán used afromestizo as a general term to include all people of African descent. For a historical discussion of terms used to characterize Spaniards and Mexicans of African descent, see Aguirre Beltrán, 1991a: 153–179, 218–219; Residents of Texas 1782–1836: 3. 6. It was not until 1930 that the U.S. Census Bureau tried to enumerate the total number of people of Mexican origin under one category. That year all people of Mexican origin were categorized by their ancestry, including the foreign-born. Their race was also noted, and nearly all were counted as nonwhite (see President’s Research Committee 1935). This enumeration model, however, was used only in the decennial census of 1930 and used to recalculate the previous decennial census. 7. See de León 1987 for an extended discussion of the racial comments U.S. newspapers made of Mexicans during the nineteenth century. 8. Sam Smith Appellant v. Maria de Jesusa Smith Appelle, 1845–1846. State of Texas Archives, doc. no. M-119. Appeal from the District Court Bexar County Fall Notes Term 1846 to the Supreme Court. This archive contains the court transcripts and depositions for the trials of 1845 and 1846. 9. See Menchaca (2008) for a detailed discussion of international and Mexican law pertaining to the marriage laws adopted by the U.S. government. 10. The Extradition Treaty was concluded on December 11, 1861, but was not ratified until June 20, 1862. 11. After Mexican independence the Mexican Congress passed a series of property laws privatizing tribal properties in 1824. Tribal land was to be distributed among members. Tribal councils, which constituted the highest authority within the tribal government, no longer held corporate control of the land. However, in 1829 the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that tribes could retain authority over the tribal lands if the tribe voted in favor of such action. This allowed tribal councils to continue administering the land for all tribal members. The court, however, did reduce the authority of the tribal councils by ruling that members who wanted to privatize their holdings could do so (see Hall and Weber 1984:20; Menchaca 2001: 188–191). Under the Reform Laws this practice ended. 12. See the newspaper La Bandera for an overview of the assistance Governor Vidaurri rendered the Confederacy along the Texas border (La Bandera, September 25, 1863: 1). 13. The full text of the Fourteenth Amendment was received by the Department of State on June 16, 1866, and thus the U.S. Statutes at Large report this as the date of passage. 14. Translated title of convention. In Spanish it read “Convención entre los Estados-Unidos Mexicanos y los Estados-Unidos de America, para determinar la Ciudadanía de las personas que emigran del uno al otro pais.” Chapter Two 1. “Index to Naturalization Records Found in Texas State, District, and County Courts, CA. 1846–1939” hereafter is abbreviated as TNR, followed by the relevant microfilm roll. When the National Archives, Southwest Region, Fort Worth microfilmed the records there were ten rolls. The Lorenzo de Zavala Library and Archives, however, divided the rolls into seventeen. The numbers cited in the text are based on the legend provided by the National Archives. 2. During the Civil War, in addition to the naturalization certificates issued in Starr County, one other Mexican applied for citizenship in...