The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande as the U.S.-Mexico border and created the first Mexican Americans in the United States.
Ethnic Mexicans and Mexican Americans have long struggled with identity and belonging in the United States. Despite the rights of citizenship, many of these individuals never felt like true U.S. citizens.
The book Homeland: Ethnic Mexican Belonging Since 1900 incorporates poetry with history to explore how ethnic Mexicans have adapted their perceptions of citizenship in the U.S.
Intellectual and cultural historian Aaron E. Sánchez detailed the different ways ethnic Mexicans viewed, embraced, or rejected their new identities from the Mexican Revolution to the Chicano movement and beyond.
Sánchez, an assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University, explained the sense of discrimination felt by Americanized Mexicans — often disparagingly called pochos and pochas by ethnic Mexicans who felt more connected to their homeland.
“Folks born in the United States (are) starting to mix English and Spanish. They’re starting to smoke American cigarettes instead of corn husk cigarettes,” he explained. “(Some) were saying, ‘This is this is dangerous because these adaptations could mean an end to what we need.’”
Homeland references several historical poems, songs, and literary excerpts that reflect the evolution of belonging, such as El Sol de Tejas and Las Aventuras de Don Chipote.
Sánchez said ideas of belonging among ethnic Mexicans often circulated through arts and culture.
“It was ubiquitous in these communities, in the stories that they're telling about themselves in this time period,” he said.
