Impact of Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo Social Ordering on Mexican-American Culture in California, Term Paper Example

Since California has been ruled by the Spanish, the Mexicans, and the English, the culture of Mexican Americans in the state has evolved at various times. A considerable portion of the native population of California was converted to Christianity and a new social order based on factors such as race and gender when Catholic missionaries and Spanish colonialism arrived. A new governmental and economic framework was established during the Mexican period, further molding Mexican American culture. Mexican and Californian aristocracy, working-class Mexican Americans, and native Californians contributed to this framework. Also, during this time, Mexican Americans forged their own cultural identity, blending Mexican and indigenous culture with mainstream American life elements. Mexican Americans developed an artistic sense of tenacity and resistance due to their experiences during the Mexican-American War and the Mexican Cession; they refused to assimilate into white, Anglo society. Land loss, prejudice, and social exclusion were among the difficulties they faced. The Mexican American culture of California offers a unique perspective on ordering social contacts and accompanying ideologies throughout its Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo periods. This cultural tradition is rooted in such historically significant events. The ordering of social interactions and the ideological explanations during the Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo periods in California impacted various aspects of Mexican American culture, including but not limited to race, class, gender, sexuality, urbanization, segregation, and Americanization. This cultural tradition was crucial in establishing the United States of America.

The colonial era and the founding of Catholic missions in California resulted in a new social hierarchy in the state that distinguished people not only by their economic status but also by their race and religion. In his article The Political and Economic Transformation of Mexican California, Rodriguez analyzes how the Spanish missions affected the indigenous peoples of California. Rodriguez examines the missions’ effect on California’s indigenous communities in this essay. The Spanish used the tasks to consolidate their control over the indigenous population and convert many of the people they encountered to Christianity.[1] The indigenous people’s supposed barbarism and the Spanish faith in the civilizing mission of the Catholic Church helped solidify the established order. In the eyes of the Spanish, the natives were savages who needed to be civilized. Similarly, Acosta argues in her paper Mexican American Women and the Construction of Gender, Class, and Race that the Spanish colonizers also employed gender as a control tool, with women being the primary targets of Spanish patriarchal oppression. The fact that women were the significant targets of persecution during Spain’s colonial era lends credence to this view. Carey McWilliams explains how the Spanish colonists and Catholic missionaries used religion to subdue and stratify the native populations they encountered during their conquests. North from Mexico.[2] As a result of this tyranny and the local people’s economic exploitation, a new social structure was reinforced, one based on racial and economic distinctions.

California’s social, economic, and cultural landscape was profoundly impacted by Mexican rule (1822-1846) and the succeeding American colonial rule (1946-present). Population, agricultural, and economic growth all increased when Mexico ruled California.[3] Because of this, more communities with a majority Mexican population sprang up, and the Mexican diaspora’s language, customs, and identity developed in response. Ramón A. Gutiérrez’s Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846, delves into the long-standing implications of de razón for Mexican culture and society.[4] After the Mexican-American War, however, the United States legitimately acquired California, and Mexican-Americans began to face widespread discrimination in the form of racial segregation, economic marginalization, and physical assault. This happened when California was admitted to the Union. Mexican Americans were pushed to create their cultural enclaves, or barrios, as a direct result of these practices. Mexican Americans found a haven in these communities, where they could maintain and carry on their native language and traditions while pushing back against the influence of white, middle-class America. Historian Matt Garcia states that Mexican Americans perceived Americanization as a process of cultural loss, political marginalization, and economic exploitation. It’s simply one possible manifestation of the phenomenon.[5] The Mexican American community in California has been thriving because its members have refused to adopt white American values and instead clung to their own culture and identity.

California’s class, gender, and sexuality-based social systems were profoundly influenced by the state’s Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo periods of history. The Spanish colonizers brought a patriarchal social system with them, which placed men on a higher social rung than women and children. This was true throughout all social strata, from the household to the classroom. The continued presence of a patriarchal structure during the Mexican period and its subsequent challenge during the American colonial period significantly contributed to the transformation of social order and gender roles. In this time frame, these things happened. When asked about Chicanas, Sanchez states Chicanas, Mexican American women, have always been active participants in the struggle for their rights. As a result of women’s and other marginalized groups’ invisibility and marginalization, such as the LGBTQ+ community, resistance organizations such as the Chicana feminist movement arose to challenge and upend patriarchal and heteronormative social norms. Josè David Saldvar writes about the marginalization of Mexican Americans in his book, where he explains how this group’s assimilation into mainstream American culture led to the loss of traditional Mexican values and the creation of segregated communities.[6] However, Saldvar zeroes in on how the Americanization of Mexican Americans led to the loss of traditional Mexican customs and values. The Mexican American population, along with other minority groups, suffered economic exploitation, poverty, and unemployment as a direct outcome of class dynamics, which also altered the ordering of social ties.[7] This also holds for other marginalized communities. As a defense mechanism against the oppressive effects of Americanization and classism, Mexican Americans banded together to construct barrios.

The establishment of a new political and economic order during the Mexican era in California was a watershed moment for Mexican American culture because it included not only the elites of Mexico and California but also people of Mexican descent who had worked their way up from the lower classes and indigenous communities.[8] People of Mexican heritage who had worked their way up from the lower classes and indigenous tribes were also part of this new political and economic order, encompassing Mexico and California’s elites. During this period in California’s history, those of European origin retained their positions of power and privilege, while persons of Mexican descent experienced bigotry and social isolation. Also, during this time, Mexican Americans forged their own cultural identity, blending Mexican and indigenous culture with mainstream American life elements.[9] This occurred in tandem with the Mexican Revolution at the beginning of the 1900s. Because of the Mexican-American War, Mexico was forced to cede half of its landmass to the US. It encompassed the whole of California. In addition to the Mexican Cession that followed, this event also helped solidify that particular culture’s foundations. Gloria Anzalda explains how syncretism and resistance led to the development of Mexican American culture.[10] This book by Anzalda gives a detailed account of how Mexican American culture emerged from the fusion of disparate cultural elements and the fight against Americanization. This period is sometimes cited as the genesis of cultural persistence and resistance among Mexican Americans, who battled to maintain their unique culture despite broad attempts to assimilate them into white American society. There were considerable efforts to incorporate Mexican Americans into white American society at this time, and Mexican Americans fought back.

Many facets of Mexican American culture, including race, class, gender, sexuality, urbanization, segregation, and Americanization, were influenced by the structuring of social interactions and the ideological explanations that prevailed during California’s Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo eras. The establishment of the US was greatly helped by this cultural tradition. The Mexican American artistic community has a lot of debt to California’s Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo periods. The Spanish colonial government and the Catholic missionaries imposed a new social order stratified along racial and economic lines. The Mexican period, with its significant events including the Mexican-American War, the Mexican Cession and formation of a new governmental system, has left an ineradicable cultural presence and defiance amongst Mexicans Americans which can still be seen today. This study of the past shows how a distinct Mexican American culture emerged in California due to the structuring of social bonds and the ideological reasons that accompanied them. Mexican Americans have managed to preserve their distinctive customs and practices despite facing colonization, conflict, and the pressure to assimilate into mainstream American society.

Bibliography

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands: The New Mestiza. 2007.

Camarillo, Albert. Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Santa Barbara and Southern California, 1848-1930. 2005.

Castañeda, Antonia I. “Chapter 2. Sexual Violence in the Politics and Policies of Conquest: Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California.” Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, 2011, 39-55. doi:10.9783/9780812204346.39.

Garcia, Matthew. From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement. Oakland: University of California Press, 2014.

Gutiérrez, Ramón A. When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 1991.

McWilliams, Carey, Matt S. Meier, and Alma M. García. North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States. Santa Monica: Praeger, 2016.

Menchaca, Martha. The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.

Saldívar, José D. Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies. Oakland: University of California Press, 1997.

Sandos, James A. Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

Sánchez, George J., and George J. Sanchez. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. New York: OUP USA, 1995.

[1] James A. Sandos, Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 156.

[2] Carey McWilliams, Matt S. Meier, and Alma M. García, North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States (Santa Monica: Praeger, 2016), 47.

[3] Antonia I. Castañeda, “Chapter 2. Sexual Violence in the Politics and Policies of Conquest: Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California,” Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, 2011, 40, doi:10.9783/9780812204346.39.

[4] Ramón A. Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 1991), 13.

[5] Matthew Garcia, From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement (Oakland: University of California Press, 2014), 38.

[6] José D. Saldívar, Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies (Oakland: University of California Press, 1997), 24.

[7] Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Santa Barbara and Southern California, 1848-1930 (2005), 103.

[8] George J. Sánchez and George J. Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 (New York: OUP USA, 1995), 87.

[9] Martha Menchaca, The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995), 7.

[10] Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands: The New Mestiza (2007), 16.