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The shape of the United States as we know it, literally and figuratively, results from the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848.
The treaty involved Mexico’s surrender of more than half of its territory, including the current states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
The treaty also recognized the winding banks of the Rio Grande as the Texas-Mexico border.
And it created a whole new generation of Mexican Americans.
El Segundo de Febrero, as it translates in Spanish, is being marked in San Antonio next week with a weeklong community conference at Our Lady of the Lake University.
Coordinator for the International Folk Culture Center at OLLU, Amber Ortega, was excited to learn about the university’s connection to commemorating El Segundo de Febrero almost 50 years ago.
“It actually started at OLLU, the conversation about observing that date, February 2, as that birth, as that new identity for those of us who kind of had to re-identify because of the redrawing of the border lines,” she said. “That arose in 1977 at Our Lady of the Lake University. It was brought up by some of the students there.”
Ortega said OLLU’s connection to Segundo de Febrero commemorations go deep.
“It marks the connection between Our Lady of the Lake University and social justice efforts and just all the work that they've done in education and service on the West Side and throughout the community across Texas, but also because for us, we want to acknowledge it that it's not just the birth of the Mexican American or the Chicano.“
Ortega said the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo silenced voices and erased identities when it redrew the nation’s boundaries.
“Women lost their voices,” she said. “A lot of Native communities lost their identity completely, because, according to the government, now they were Mexican. And you had to choose.”
The famous saying is “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” When the border was solidified at the Rio Grande, the Mexican citizens on the newly-drawn U.S. side were given the choice to become Americans or move back to Mexico.
Special Collections and Archives librarian at OLLU, Liana Morales, said the archives at the university show that El Segundo de Febrero has been commemorated at conferences in San Antonio and other communities that were formerly Mexican territory, including Tucson, Arizona, Colorado, and California.
“Looking at these materials has been really eye-opening, because a lot of the initiatives and the themes are the same that we will want to share in this time period,” said Morales. “So, it was inspiring to look at some of the writing, the conference programs, and some of the declarations that are in there. We have proclamations from the City of San Antonio commemorating the event at the time.”
The Segundo de Febrero Conference will also involve the restoration of a mural at Cassiano Homes that commemorates the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It is one of a series of murals at the West Side apartment community that depicts important events in Mexican American history.
“(It) includes two people rising out of the earth,” said Morales, “and it's shaped like Texas and they're also encountering Uncle Sam, who's coming in and pointing in a direction for them to go.”
The 5-day Segundo de Febrero event at Our Lady of the Lake University also includes a blessing of the seeds ceremony. The ceremony doubles as a way to mark the start of the agriculture season and a more symbolic commemoration of the resiliency of Mexican Americans.
Amber Ortiz says a 2017 blessing of the seeds at Christ the King Church was caught on film by local filmmaker Laura Varela. The conference will feature a screening of the short documentary.
“(Varela) did a whole documentary on them and how they've been creating the blessing of the seed ceremony that they hold there annually, which is a very symbolic ceremony that brings together Native voices and Mexican traditions to observe this day in a very ritualistic ceremonial way,” said Ortiz.
The Segundo de Febrero Community Conference, Feb. 2-6, will feature a blessing of the seeds ceremony, discussions with community leaders, and an exhibition of Segundo papers.
See a complete schedule of events here.
