Kudos to The Economist for its short piece entitled “Old Mexico lives on” in which it points out that Mexicans and their descendents are gradually reoccupying the territory that the USA gained from Mexico in the nineteenth century. The evidence is provided by the map (below) showing “Mexican-origin population” by county for the USA. The definition is by ethnicity (origin), not citizenship.
Mexican-origin population living in USA. Source: Economist, 1 Feb 2014. Click to enlarge.
In February 1848, Mexico was forced to cede more than half its territory to the USA. The area handed over included most of present-day Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, plus parts of several other states. (Texas had declared its independence from Mexico in 1836).
Note the close correlation between areas that were part of Mexico prior to 1848 and those that now have the highest numbers of residents of Mexican-origin. As The Economist points out, “communities have proved more durable than borders”. Mexican migrants have been preferentially attracted to areas that were originally Hispanic, and where some residents can “trace their roots to long before the map was redrawn”. As The Economist concludes, “They didn’t jump the border—it jumped them.”
Related posts:
- Mexican migrants and remittances: an introduction (dozens of links to other posts)
- Mapping remittance flows to Mexico, a practical exercise
- The Transnational Metropolitan Areas of Mexico-USA
- A round-up of news items about the Mexican diaspora in the USA [June 2012]
- Where do most Hispanics in the USA live?
- Cross-border tribe (Tohono O’odham) faces a tough future
One Response to “Mexicans gradually reoccupying their former territory in the USA”
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It is really interesting. The only problem is to talk about Mexicans as one “ethnicity”. It would be the same problem as defining Americans as one ethnicity. It should say “origin”, since Mexicans could be indigenous, mestizos, white and even afrodescendants.