Takaki Chapter 7

In chapter 7, “Foreigners in their Native Land,” Takaki discusses America’s expansion of the United States westward. This chapter begins talking about how the Mexicans had found California first. The developed their own lifestyle here and Spanish was the dominate language spoken in the territory. During this time, there were a few Americans in California. The Mexicans tolerated them however, problems began when “Yankees” were coming in groups to California planning to “transform the territory into their own image” (171). The Mexican-American War was brought on by this along with the Bear Flag rebellion, which took place in Texas (172). American immigration into Texas became prohibited however; American continued to cress the border as illegal aliens. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shows that the U.S. gave Mexico $15 million for the southwest territories. The total amount of land the U.S. gained was one-half of Mexico (176). This treaty allowed Mexicans who were in the “new” U.S. to remain there or move back to Mexico. “If they stayed, they would be guaranteed ‘the enjoyment of all the right of citizens of the United States according to the principles of the Constitution’” (177). However, this statement did not mean much to the Americans because laws were enacted that were aimed at Mexicans (178). Eventually, Mexican landholders were stripped of their land clearly showing that they did not receive rights as a U.S. citizen did. Americans also had greater access to bank credit allowing them to be financially stronger than the Mexicans (182). Mexican workers were forced to do manual and dangerous labor while Anglo workers operated machines. Mexicans were paid less than Americans too. Takaki concludes the chapter by discussing when two minority groups, Japanese and Spanish, came together to form a union.
After reading this chapter on Takaki, I feel sorry for the Mexicans would were settled in the American land before the “Yankees” took over and moved in. It seems to me that there has been a pattern with in our readings with the United States promising something to a minority group and never following through with their promise or idea and that makes me feel badly because it seems that the U.S. was not a good country back then.
In this chapter I would pose two questions. First, did Mexicans who lived in Mexico know what was happening to their people in the U.S.? Second, did those living in Mexico want to come to the U.S. too?