Hispano Nation: The Politics of Nuevomexicano Identity, 1880-1912

• In Event: 421 - Regular Session. Ethnic, Racial, and Other Social Group Formations among Latinos/as in the United States

Abstract

Ethnic sub-nationalism has frequently arisen among groups that have been conquered/annexed by a neighboring country. The construction of peoplehood has led to three major types of ethnic politics: secession/independence, regional autonomy, and subnational constitutionalism (the federal unit awarding rights of inclusion and participation to the conquered group). Academics hold that in the United States no ethnic group has been thought of like the Quebecois, Scots, Flemings, and others who established themselves with corporate self-consciousness and the capacity to establish their distinctive ethno-political rights. This paper points to one colonized ethnic group in American history that both constructed an identity of ethnic subnationalism and used it in order to generate a successful politics of federated ethnicity. It was the Nuevomexicanos (Mexican Americans native to New Mexico) who constructed their own sense of nation based on their identity as “Spanish-Americans” or “Hispanos” starting in the 1870s, some three decades after they were conquered by the United States in the so-called Mexican-American War, 1846-48. Through their public relations campaign that effectively established their birth rights to their native land, Nuevomexicano activists mounted a successful movement to have New Mexico’s 1910 state constitution include special provisions for their “people’s” right to civic, electoral and educational inclusion and participation (subnational constitutionalism), thereby reinforcing their distinctive cultural heritage and their loyalty to the United States.

Author

• Phillip B. Gonzales, University of New Mexico