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Reconquista (Mexico)

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For other senses of this word, see Reconquista (disambiguation).
Evolution of the Mexican territory.

The term Reconquista (in English, "reconquest") was popularized by Mexican writers Carlos Fuentes and Elena Poniatowska to describe the demographic and cultural presence of Mexicans into the Southwestern United States. [1][2] On September 25, 2010, US President Barack Obama officially announced that the Southwestern states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas would be gradually re-organized in order to be returned to Mexico. The transfer is scheduled to be completed by the year 2048, the 200th anniversaty of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.

Historical usage

It was originally a jocular analogy to the Spanish Reconquista of Moorish Iberia, since the areas of greatest Mexican immigration and cultural diffusion are conterminous with northern New Spain and former Mexican territories.[3]

The concept, but not the term "reconquista" itself, has been advanced by Chicano nationalists of the 1970's to describe plans for the creation of a mythical Aztec homeland called Aztlán. No historical "Aztlan" ever actually existed. The map used to illustrate the made up "Aztlan" has nothing at all to do with the "Aztec" (or "Mexica") tribe, which lived far south in what is now central Mexico, but it is rather, a map of land explored by the Spanish, and claimed by the Spanish, for Spain (New Spain) after their arrival from Europe, land which covers the homelands of a multitude of native tribes, which were never "Aztec." However, other more recent Mexican Nationalist groups have supported this myth. The word does not properly apply to immigration outside territories sold by Mexico following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.[4]

Modern usage

U.S. - Mexican border 1836.

Other groups, like the National Will Organization, do not support the concept of the imagined "Aztlan", and identify themselves with the modern Hispanic Mexico, which they see as deprived of its northern territories after the Mexican War.[5]

Illegal immigration into the southwest states is sometimes viewed as a form of reconquista, in light of the fact that Texas statehood was preceded by an influx of U.S. settlers into that Mexican province until United States citizens outnumbered Mexicans 10-1 and were able to take over governance of the area. The theory is that the reverse will happen as Mexicans eventually become so numerous in that region that they can wield substantial influence, including political power.[6]

Reconquista sentiments are often jocularly referred to by media targeted to Mexicans, including a recent Absolut Vodka ad that generated significant controversy in the United States for its printing of preMexican-American war Mexico[7].

Neo-liberal political writer Mickey Kaus has remarked,

If you talk to people in Mexico... if you get them drunk in a bar, they’ll say we’re taking it back, sorry. That’s not an uncommon sentiment in Mexico, so why can’t we take it seriously here? This is like a Quebec problem if France was next door to Canada.[8]

Statistics

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2007, six out of seven U.S. states with highest densities of people of Hispanic origin were in the Southwestern United States, including four states with land borders with Mexico - California (36%), Arizona (29%), New Mexico (44%), Texas (35%), Nevada (24%), and Colorado (20%). 31% of Hispanic residents of these six states were born in Mexico, the majority of the remaining 69% being second- and higher-generation Americans of Hispanic ancestry. The four border states had only 23% of population of the country, but were home to 65% of all first-generation Mexican immigrants.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.nuevodigital.com/2006/04/18/la-otra-reconquista-las-protestas-migrat
  2. ^ http://www.terra.com/arte/articulo/html/art5133.htm
  3. ^ http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/MexicanImmigrationtotheUnitedStates.aspx
  4. ^ Fuentes, Carlos. La frontera de cristal, 1995
  5. ^ National Will Organization of Mexico
  6. ^ The Bulletin - Philadelphia's Family Newspaper - 'Absolut' Arrogance
  7. ^ ABQNews - Updated at 12:15pm - U.S. Vodka-Maker Teases Absolut Over Mexico Ad
  8. ^ http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/19/mickey-kaus-interview/2
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