The ongoing riots in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement have taken on a decidedly nationalist character, with rioters and supporters invoking Mexico’s past ownership of much of the western United States to claim a heritage and tie to the land that predates American ownership.
“This is our city and this was Mexico! You can’t kick us out of the land that was ours,” shouted one rioter in a viral video.
Such assertions have come not just from rioters, but media personalities and senior Mexican leaders, with some threatening intervention in the demonstrations and even organized mobilization on behalf of their “countrymen.”
The United States acquired a large portion of its current territory in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). What began with the annexation of the Republic of Texas became an all-out war that saw the U.S. acquire California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. The war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and the U.S. later purchased a small amount of border land to build a railroad in the Gadsden Purchase.
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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