THE TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO-REVISITED

 

     On February 2, 1848, a treaty was signed which ended the war between Mexico and the United States. That "agreement" forced the losing country to recognize Texas as a U.S. possession, and ceded California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Colorado, all of New Mexico and a huge chunk of Arizona to the winning country. These vast areas had comprised almost two/fifths of all of Mexico. In return for this staggering loss of land, the victors agreed to fifteen million dollars-a ridiculous sum that immediately triggered an international outcry.
     But long before the war came to an end, many voices had been raised in protest against it. Among the millions of Americans who regarded the U.S. military action against Mexico the callous act of an international bully was a dispirited army officer, Ulysses S. Grant, and a backwoods politician by the name of Abraham Lincoln. Today, many historians also regard the Mexican-American War the most unnecessary and unprovoked war ever waged by the United States, and certainly the most unfairly settled.
     But poetic justice, taking as usual its sweet time, has finally made itself felt.
     Today, more than one hundred and fifty years later, the descendants of those losers of long ago, along with others of Hispanic heritage, have now become the largest single minority group in the United States. In doing so, they have finally replaced blacks to now comprise some 12 ½ % of the total population. In states like those included in the infamous treaty, the percentages are much higher.
     President Bush, whom no one has ever called a fool, recently delivered his weekly radio address in Spanish, and hosted a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House. Bush knows that Hispanics will be the dominant ethnic group in at least 15 additional House districts, and that every state slated for a new seat in Congress has a burgeoning Latino population to thank for it.
     Here in Mexico, these developments have strengthened the ties between the two countries, and deepened the friendship between Bush and Vicente Fox, who is, not-so-incidentally, the most pro-U.S. Mexican president in many decades. All Mexican politicians know, however, that the emerging power and political sophistication of the Mexican-Americans are even now causing changes in the way things are run not only north of the border, but south of the Rio Grande, as well.
     One such Mexican-American first entered the U.S. in 1974, hidden in the trunk of a car. Later, he went into the greenhouse and orchard business in California. Today he employs more than 800 people-nearly all Mexicans. Now he has returned to Zacatecas to enter politics, and says that after what he saw was possible in El Norte, he'll work to make the Mexican government "do better."
     We wish him the best of luck, and to all the others like him who because of their courage and vision finally have hurled the once-hated Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo onto the ash heap of history.