ng the 1940s, the role and character of Spain in world history was made so vague that students were given too little information to form an adequate understanding of Spanish culture (Powell, 1971, pp. 119-38).
With the conquest of Mexican territories during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s, the United States suddenly absorbed a large number of Mexicans who did not voluntarily choose to join the Anglo culture. Even as these former Mexican citizens remained in the territory which had been inhabited by their ancestors, they were slowly overwhelmed by the western European settlers who moved west from the eastern states. The Anglo culture adopted by these European immigrants, or their ancestors, became the dominant culture in the formerly Spanish west as a result of numbers of new settlers and the political structures they brought with them. Within this clash of Latin and Anglo cultures was a third conflict: that of Native American culture with both European cultures. Many of the Mexican residents in the conquered territory did not wish to be identified as belonging to the same group as those who possessed stronger Indian ancestry. The problem with this was that, eventually, Anglos made little or no distinction between the two groups. Like it or not, those who thought of themselves as Spanish were thought of no differently by Anglos (Servin, 1966, p. 325; McWilliams, 1990, 189-93).
As a large minority which spoke a different language within a nation which strove for unity under an English-speaking culture, the Mexican-Americans found themselves and their culture under siege. They were part of an already settled community which had been conquered during a war. Their dark skin made them a target for an already racist society which had enslaved Africans. The fact that they had already settled on the land made them an obstacle to North American capitalist interests, which sought to utilize the new territory for industry and...