Chapter Ten. Conquest, colonization, and borderland identities: The World Of Ethnic Mexicans In The LOWER Rio Grande Valley, 1900–1930

Abstract

This case study is of a border born from United States conquest and colonization that affected ethnic Mexican identity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley from 1900 to 1930. The intent of this study is to examine how the United States/Mexico border affected ethnic Mexican group identity during a specific period. While ethnic Mexicans continued to influence these structures during the 1900s, United States colonization began in earnest by the 1910s with barrioiza-tion, the increasing expansion of public schools as the dominant educational institution for the area, and the restriction of ferries for crossing the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande. Prior to 1927, and particularly before World War I, ethnic Mexican civil rights efforts never depended on the principle of citizenship. By the late 1920s, the Mexico Texano, Mexicano, and Mexico Americano group identities existed within the ethnic Mexican community in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Keywords: barriorization; Borderland Identities; Colonization; Ethnic Mexicans; Mexican nationalism; Rio Grande Valley; Theory; World