Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2022
Had massive migration of mexican labor to the southwest not taken place in the twentieth century, it is probable, as Ruth Tuck observed in Not with the Fist: Mexican-Americans in a Southwest City (N.Y., 1946; 29-30), that “side-eddies” of native Spanish-speaking would have been gradually swept into the mainstream of American life, as they almost were in California by 1900. Or perhaps these Spanish-speakers would have remained a picturesque folk in such isolated areas as northern New Mexico and South Texas. But massive migration from Mexico did occur at the opening of this century, adding a new chapter to Southwestern settlement and development, a chapter that differs from the old romanticized Southwest as much as a Chicano barrio or migrant camp differs from a restored Spanish mission or a New Mexico adobe. And yet this chapter—now so important to the ethnic study movement—has been almost totally neglected by Latin Americanists both in the United States and Mexico.
This article, originally submitted by the author to the Latin American Research Review, exclusively, and accepted for publication in this issue (after certain revisions and updating by the author at the request of the Editor of LARR) was, through a misunderstanding on the part of the journal, Historia Mexicana, published in unrevised form in the issue of that journal for Oct.-Dec. 1972.
It is not the policy of the Latin American Research Review to publish articles which have appeared elsewhere in print. However, the Editor has decided to publish this article because of LARR's prior right to it, and because by its publication in LARR, in English, it will not only reach all of LARR's subscribers and other readers but will presumably also be read by persons who may not see the Spanish-language version or who do not read Spanish. (Ed.)
The Spanish-speaking population in the territory ceded by Mexico in 1848 was approximately 80,000. Nearly three-fourths of this number were concentrated in northern New Mexico.