Californios No Longer In the first decades after California’s first constitutional convention in Monterey in 1849, Section 21, Article IX decreed that all laws must be published both in Spanish and English. The following year, on September 9, 1850, California became the 31st state in the union and was admitted as a non-slave state. Californios capitalized on their growing population and the right to vote to achieve representation at all levels of the new state government. However, from 1875 onward, the Californios underwent a political decline. None served as delegates at the second Constitutional Convention in 1879. In their absence, the requirement that the constitution and laws of California be published in both English and Spanish was repealed. In former Californio strongholds such as Santa Barbara, English literacy tests were established as a requirement for voting, a practice that disenfranchised Spanish-speaking Californios, a precedent that continued for decades throughout California. The Aftermath of the U.S. and Mexico Peace Treaty Thirteen years after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the new territories of the U.S. increased the conflict over slavery between the North and South. A bloody civil war would erupt in 1861 that would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery. For Mexico, the humiliating loss of its territories to the U.S. resulted in a reform movement in 1854 that led to the creation of a new government emphasis, that would curb the powers of the army and the Catholic Church. It was known as La Reforma, which was led by the first indigenous president of Mexico, Benito Juarez. But more political and social turbulence would soon face the Mexican Republic: The French occupation of Mexico from 1861-1867, and the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which ended Mexico’s 30-year dictatorship. However, it also led to the mass migration of Mexicans to the U.S. in hopes of escaping the added violence.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Legacy The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo remains an important part of America’s heritage. It is the starting point for the study of Mexican American civil and property rights. We look to the past of these broken promises that resulted in discrimination and inequities: segregation of schools and public and private facilities, barriers to serving on juries, and voter suppression. The fight for equality continues to this day. At Friendship Park in San Ysidro, the boundary markers and the triple fences that separate the two countries are clearly visible, a stark contrast to the intended goodwill of the Mexican Republic in the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with the United States.
(Photo courtesy The San Diego Union-Tribune)
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 1 – The Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo
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