/ world today news/ At the end of December 2023, the US Senate blocked the military aid packages for Ukraine and Israel, putting first the internal problem – border security. Most of our experts explain this with fatigue from Ukraine and disappointment with Kiev’s actions. And so it is.
But how serious is the situation of the Rio Grande, the great river dividing the United States of America and the United Mexican States, really for Americans? Or is it more a matter of political confrontation between Republicans and Democrats?
The entire population of the United States can be divided into seven major ethno-racial groups: White English-speaking, White Hispanic or Latino, African-American, Asian, American and Alaska Native – Indian and Aleut, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander , as well as mixed, that is, those that refer to two or more groups.
White English-speakers have always been the largest group in terms of numbers and have actually acted as the nation-building community of the United States.
We are used to thinking of African Americans as the second most important community. However, modern history has made adjustments to the usual palette of the ethnic composition of the United States. In the 21st century, the Latin American group, or, as they are more often called in North America, “Hispanics”, confidently took second place there.
The main reason for this rapid growth is migration from Latin America, which provides an influx of immigrants. This movement from the south opened a new era in the history of the settlement of the North American continent at the end of the twentieth century.
If we analyze the national composition of all immigrants living in the United States, Mexico is the undisputed leader among donor countries. That’s about 11 million people, or a quarter of all foreign-born.
The number of Spanish-speaking Americans is also supplemented by Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Thus, the share of Hispanics in the US population is constantly increasing due to the high migration rate.
However, immigration is not the only factor leading to the rapid growth of the Latino community in the United States. Hispanics have the highest birth rate.
If these trends continue, by mid-century Latinos will become the largest group among American youth. And by the end of the century – among the entire population of the USA.
At first glance, the situation looks very similar to that observed in Great Britain, the Netherlands or France: “outsiders” arrive and displace the local population. However, the ethnocultural metamorphosis in the US is fundamentally different from that in Europe.
The fact is that Spanish-speaking citizens are not completely “strangers” there. At least no more “foreign” than English-speaking whites, and in some ways less so. It can be said with absolute certainty that in vast areas of the United States Spanish speech began to sound earlier than English.
In the 16th century, when British colonists had not yet landed in America, Spanish settlers were already actively exploring the lands of the new continent. Thus, the city of San Augustine in Florida was founded by them in 1565 – 55 years before the arrival of the “founding fathers” of the future United States of America.
Long before English colonization, the cities of Pensacola in Florida (1696), San Antonio in Texas (1718), San Francisco (1776) and Los Angeles (1780) in California appeared.
According to the Treaty of Paris of 1763, the Mississippi River became the boundary between the possessions of Spain and Great Britain. All lands west of it, as well as south of the 31st parallel (and that is no less than approximately two-thirds of the territory of the present United States!), were recognized as belonging to the Spanish crown. Over the next hundred years, however, this line underwent significant changes.
In 1819, General Jackson, the future president of the United States, invaded Florida and captured several Spanish forts under the pretext that the Spanish were harboring rebellious natives. As a result, the Spanish had to cede Florida to American authorities.
At the same time, the United States assured Spain that it would not claim the territory of Texas and the lands south of the 42nd parallel west of the source of the Arkansas River. But as has happened more than once in history and as is happening now, the American guarantees turned out to be nothing and a banal fraud.
After some time, the Spanish colonies gained independence, and a new state, Mexico, arose on the territory of Madrid’s possessions in North and Central America. At first the United States recognized the continuity of the treaties with the Spanish crown to which Mexico was now a party.
However, the conquest of Texas by the English-speaking American slave-owning colonists gradually began. When Mexico decided to close the border and also forced the Texas colonists to free 5,000 black slaves, the Mexican-American War broke out.
The result of this clash was the loss to Mexico, according to the treaty of February 2, 1848, of its territories – the current American states: Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, parts of Colorado and Wyoming with a total. an area of more than 1.5 million square km.
All these events, which led to the loss of the northern lands of Mexico, remained a black spot in the historical memory of Mexicans, and the most prominent participants in the wars with the Americans became heroes in the Mexican national pantheon.
The same memory serves as a catalyst for reviving plans for the revival of “Great Aztlan” from time to time. “Greater Aztlán” is an idea formulated half a century ago that combines two bases for modern Mexican claims to the southwestern United States.
According to this concept, the people of Mexico have the right to own lands west of the Mississippi, first, as descendants of the Spanish, who legally registered this territory as their property through international treaties, and second, as descendants of the Aztecs, who inhabited these spaces from time immemorial. times.
Symbols of the great Aztec-Mexican power regularly appear in the form of graffiti in neighborhoods of American cities populated by immigrants from Mexico.
Although the majority of them do not want to secede from the US right now. Why secede if Latinos in the United States could feel “in their own land”?
Currently, “Latin Americans” have achieved such a status that with the influx of new immigrants, there is not the Americanization of the newcomers, but the actual Latinization of entire municipalities and states.
Despite all attempts to maintain the monopoly of the English language, the importance of which Huntington wrote in his book “Who Are We?”, Spanish has been actively used in the United States for a long time.
Texas, Nevada, and New Mexico are bilingual states: official regulations, administrative websites, and most signs and names use both English and Spanish. In California, Florida, and Arizona, only English is the official language, but it’s actually not uncommon there for official content to be dubbed into Spanish.
The year 2023 in the United States was marked by a landmark event – the white English-speaking community, which formed the ethnic backbone of the country, lost an important demographic advantage for the first time in its history. The share of children born into families who consider themselves to be of the white race and speak mainly English has, after a long decline, reached the symbolic “bottom” of 50%.
Americans once conquered Texas through illegal migration across the border. And now Latinos are doing the same. No later than 2050, in a number of US states, such as Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and even Florida and Nevada, Latinos will become the ethnic majority and have the opportunity to dictate terms.
In light of this prediction, the scenario of the United States breaking up and the Spanish-speaking Southwest separating from it does not seem so improbable.
Translation: SM
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