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The Texas-Mexican and the Politics of South Texas1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

O. Douglas Weeks
O. Douglas Weeks*
Affiliation:
University of Texas
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Extract

Politics has been referred to by a recent writer as a “great game,” which, it may be added, is played ordinarily, not in a political vacuum between a majority and an opposing minority, but rather by groups organized on an economic, social, religious, or racial basis, which coalesce with each other and fall apart only to make new combinations. This process may readily be seen if one turns the telescope on the national political firmament, but it cannot be understood in the minutias of its ceaseless activity unless the microscope be applied to relatively small localities. The state of Texas, because of its wide extent and consequent variations of social and political phenomena, presents an admirable laboratory for this microscopic method of attack. It is proposed here to apply this method to a particular political section of Texas which has recently attracted some attention.

The section referred to is that extreme southern portion of the state lying, in general, south of the Nueces River and east of Laredo, embracing thirteen counties and aggregating in area some 18,000 square miles. There are a number of reasons why it merits attention. The first and foremost is that the major element of its population is Mexican in race, but to a large extent American born. Many of these Mexican-Americans are descendants of the first settlers. It was rather the Anglo-American who was the newcomer. Obviously, therefore, the usual process of racial adjustment has been somewhat reversed. The American found the Mexican, and it was the Mexican to whom he to some extent adjusted himself.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , August 1930 , pp. 606 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1930

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Footnotes

1

This study is based almost entirely upon a personal investigation conducted by the writer in the region described during the past two years. The thirteen Texas counties considered were visited and a number of them studied intensively. Numerous interviews with informed persons of all classes and careful personal observations were the chief sources of information. Subsequent footnotes indicate other sources. Interviews and persons interviewed are not cited except in one or two instances, because they were too numerous and because in some instances it is inadvisable to cite names.

References

2 See Bearings Before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Bouse of Representatives, Bearing No. 70.1.5, February 81-April S, 1988.

3 Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, Statistics of Texas, Table I, pp. 494-5.

4 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Arts. 5-9. Senate Executive Document 5g, SO Cong., 1 Sess. (Washington, 1848).

5 Map of the State of Texas, by J. H. Young, published by Cowperthwait ana Co., Philadelphia, 1853.

6 Seventh Census of the United States: 1850, Statistics of Texas, Table I, pp. 494-5.

7 Statistics of Population of the United States at the Tenth Census (1880), Table II, pp. 78-81.

8 V. 8. Census Beport, 1910, III, pp. 804, et seq.

9 This account of Colonel Powers is based upon an interview with a competent student of the history of the locality.

10 10Wells's mother's family were Northerners who had settled in Matamoras soon after its founding in 1823, where they retained their American citizenship, moving into Texas after the Texas Revolution. His father's family were Southerners. Wells himself was educated at the University of Virginia, and his sympathies and prejudices were Southern. He had lived through the Eeconstruction period and was a Democrat of the old school.

11 The facts regarding Wells were collected from interviews with a number of persons who knew him or were personally associated with him.

12 Testimony of James B. Wells, Glasscock v. Parr, Supplement to the Senate Journal, Regular Session of the S6th Legislature (Texas), 1919, Austin, 1919, pp. 846-851.

13 Ibid.

14 V. S. Census Report, 1910, III, pp. 804 et seq.; Texas Almanac (Dallas, 1929), pp. 50-53.

15 Texas Almanac, pp. 50-53.

16 The land is also held largely by persons of Mexican origin. In Zapata county, ninety-eight per cent is so held; in Starr county, eighty-nine per cent; and in Duval county, eighty per cent.

17 The few towns in the backward counties are distinctively Mexican. Zapata, the county seat of Zapata county, was founded in 1770, and English is scarcely understood there. All of Zapata county's officers are of Mexican extraction.

18 Supplement to the Senate Journal, Regular Session of the SGth Legislature, (Texas) 1919.

19 The results of this investigation by the Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Expenditures are contained in Mouse of Representatives, 70th Cong., %nd Sess., Report No. 2821, pp. 1-333. The hearings held in MoAllen, Texas, November 26-28, 1928, were attended by the writer.

20 “The League of United Latin-American Citizens; A Texas-Mexican Civic Organization,” Southwestern Political and Social Science Quarterly, pp. 257-278 (Dec, 1929).

21 Supplement to Senate Journal, Regular Session of the 36th Legislature (Texas), 1919, pp. 297-301.

22 Ibid., pp. 25-1008; House of Representatives, 70th Cong., 2nd. Sess., Report No. S8S1, pp. 295-299.

23 Extensive information relative to these practices may be found in Supplement to Senate Journal, Regular Session of the 36th Legislature (Texas), 1919.