Western Places, American Myths: How We Think About The West

6 | Mex-America From Margin to Mainstream

At my last Cinco de Mayo party I served chile verde, carne asada, and margaritas while listening to a Los Lobos CD, thus revealing myself as a Hispanicized Westerner. Hispanization is the process by which a person or place absorbs characteristics of Hispanic culture. Mexican American holidays, Mexican food and music, and the Spanish language have been increasingly integrated into Western society, and participation in these activities helps distinguish the West from other regions (Map 6.1). Following the U.S. annexation of Mexico in 1848, there was little to suggest that Anglos would one day be celebrating Mexican holidays and eating Mexican food. Thousands of Anglo Americans migrated to the West and immediately set about assimilating the Mexican population; 150 years later, however, many aspects of Mexican society and culture remain. In the West, Mexican culture never “faded away” as predicted, and since the 1960s many aspects of Mexican and Hispanic1 culture have become mainstream. This chapter addresses Anglo-Hispanic interaction in three historical epochs: (1) preconquest northern Mexico until 1848; (2) Anglo annexation and assimilation until 1960; and (3) 1960s to present. I chronicle how the initial Anglo disdain for Hispanic culture and society has given way to the assimilation of many Hispanic cultural traits. In many respects Hispanic culture now defines what is Western. Hispanic Settlement before 1848 The first Europeans to settle what is now the United States were from Spain, not England. In 1598, Juan de Oñate explored and eventually settled the upper 166 6 | Mex-America From Margin to Mainstream terrence w. haverluk Rio Grande Valley of Nuevo Mexico. This first entrada, or entry for the purpose of settlement, was followed by three others—Tejas in 1691, Sonora in 1700, and California in 1769 (Map 6.2). The entradas were part of the Spanish strategy to provide a buffer from French and Russian expansion into Spanishclaimed territory.2 Daily life in the four frontier regions had much in common, such as subsistence agriculture, irrigation, adobe construction, bailes (dances), ranchos, Catholicism, and the consumption of chile, maize, and beans. Material culture , however, varied greatly according to local geography. Nuevo Mexico Nuevo Mexicanos, called Hispanos, established several small villages near urbanized Pueblo Indian settlements. Like other Spanish frontier settlers, Hispanos grew wheat, beans, maize, and chiles in the cool, mountain climate of northern Nuevo Mexico. Unlike the rest of Spain’s northern frontier, which mex-america | 167 Map 6.1. Cinco de Mayo festivals, 1999. After Carlson, Journal of American Culture 21, no. 2 (summer 1998), and local chambers of commerce. concentrated on cattle, Hispanos concentrated on sheep, which flourished on the nutritious grama grass covering mesa uplands. Eighteenth-century trade data reveal that Hispanos annually raised one-half million sheep for wool and mutton. Hispanos and Indians used the wool to make elaborate woven patterns and coloration techniques that came to be known as the Rio Grande style. Hispanos traded textiles to Chihuahua for horses, ironware, and hoes.3 New Mexico also differed from other frontier regions in its widespread use of chiles, which soon became an important symbol of Hispano identification .4 Whereas Tejanos used chiles in their bowls of chile and Californios mixed it with beans and other food, only in Nuevo Mexico did Hispanos use chiles in main dishes such as chile rellenos and chile verde. The vertical string of chiles, the ristra, was used as a form of currency—a first-grade ristra was five feet long, tightly strung, with a minimum of rotten pods, and was equal to $1 in 1930. Every village grew chiles, and several chile types, known as land races, evolved in isolated New Mexican microclimates. These included the velarde, chimayo, and dixon. Because of its value, chile was one of the few crops Hispanos grew in excess of their personal needs.5 Proximity to, and intermarriage with, Pueblo Indians led to several distinct material cultural characteristics such as the pueblo ladder, turquoise jewelry, outdoor ovens called hornos, and New Mexico–style weaving patterns. Tejas Unlike the mountain-dwelling Hispanos, Tejanos lived on a flat coastal plain directly in the path of expansionist French and Americans. Tejanos settled three principal regions—Nacogdoches, Bexar-Goliad, and the Rio Grande Valley .6 The presidio (fort) was the most important organizing structure among Tejanos because they were constantly harassed by Comanches, the French, and eventually Americans. Tejanos grew the standard crops—beans, chile, potatoes, and...