Mexican American Colonization during the Nineteenth Century
A History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

This study examines various cases of return migration from the United States to Mexico throughout the nineteenth century.

José Angel Hernández (Author)

9781107666245, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 April 2012

284 pages, 4 b/w illus. 5 maps
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

'The narrative is both dramatic and engaging. I strongly recommend this book.' John McKiernan-Gonzalez, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

This study is a reinterpretation of nineteenth-century Mexican American history, examining Mexico's struggle to secure its northern border with repatriates from the United States, following a war that resulted in the loss of half Mexico's territory. Responding to past interpretations, Jose Angel Hernández suggests that these resettlement schemes centred on developments within the frontier region, the modernisation of the country with loyal Mexican American settlers, and blocking the tide of migrations to the United States to prevent the depopulation of its fractured northern border. Through an examination of Mexico's immigration and colonisation policies as they developed in the nineteenth century, this book focuses primarily on the population of Mexican citizens who were 'lost' after the end of the Mexican American War of 1846–8 until the end of the century.

Part I: Migration to Mexico in an Age of Global Immigrations: 1. From conquest to colonization: the making of Mexican colonization policy after independence
2. Postwar expulsions and early repatriation policy
Part II: 3. Postwar repatriation and settling the frontiers of New Mexico
4. Repatriations along the new international boundary: the cases of Texas and California
Part III: 5. The 1871 riot of La Mesilla, New Mexico
6. Colonizing La Ascensión, Chihuahua: the prehistory of revolt
7. Anatomy of 1892 revolt of La Ascensión, or the public lynching of Rafael Ancheta
Conclusion: 8. Repatriating modernity?

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], History of the Americas [HBJK], History [HB]