Posts Tagged ‘U. S.’
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
I have just finished reading El Gringo, by W. W. H. Davis. Davis’ 1853 description of New Mexico is one the earliest full-length accounts to appear in English. It provides a beautiful picture of a newly conquered land, its customs, languages, landscapes and histories. He really captures the protected and unique nature of New Mexico in this paragraph:
“There is no country protected by our flag and subject to our laws so little known to the people of the United States as the territory of New Mexico. Its very position precludes an intimate intercourse with other sections of the Union, and serves to lock up a knowledge of the country within its own limits. The natural features differ widely from the rest of the Union; and the inhabitants, with the manners and customs of their Moorish and Castilian ancestors are both new and strange to our people. For these reasons, reliable information on this hitherto almost unknown region can not fail to be interesting to the public.”
Davis was a veteran of the Mexican War of 1846-48, and returned to New Mexico in 1853 to become United States Attorney for the territory. He traveled with only a few changes of clothes, a two-book law library and a ravenous curiosity, and he thoroughly journaled his entire travels to and throughout New Mexico.
His thousand-mile journey from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe would take 25 days by mule train, traveling in torrential rains and drifting blizzards. Many nights were spend sleeping on the ground under the wagons for shelter, and many meals were skipped due to inclement weather.
El Gringo was written by W. W. H. Davis (1820 – 1910) and first published in 1857. You can order from the Books page; enjoyi!
Tags: Albuquerque, Indian, Mexican, Mexican War, Mexico, New Mexico, Pueblo Indian, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Trail, Spain, Spanish, U. S., United States
Posted in Ethnic/Cultural events, History, Mexico, New Mexico, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
I just put the finishing touches on this video overview of Mexican Immigration through New Mexico and the Southwest and uploaded it to YouTube at http://twurl.nl/gmqs07 . This was about a month in the making, what with the researching, scripting, recording, editing and all, but it holds together pretty well. It’s a nine-minute summary or overview “from 30,000 feet,” so it covers quite a lot of ground in a short time.
It follows the 600-year period from 1400 to 2009 covered by the Albuquerque, New Mexico Historical Timeline, and correlates historical events in Mexico, New Mexico and the Southwest. It begins with the thousand years of native populations trading from New Mexico into Mexico and over to the coastal areas that would become California. It covers the northward pull of silver mining from Mexico City to Zacatecas and Chihuaha in the 1500s, and Oñate’s extension of El Camino Real an additional 700 miles northward, establishing the first permanent settlement in Nuevo Mexìco in 1598. Other events affecting Mexican immigration in this period include:
• The 1803 Louisiana Purchase
• 1821 Independence from Spain and the Mexican Republic period
• Creation of the Lone Star Republic of Texas in 1835
• The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo’s massive land transfer
• Railroads arriving in the 1880s
• The Mexican Revolutionary period from 1910 to 1930
• The Great Depression and the Mexican Repatriation Program
• The Bracero “guest worker” program from 1942 to 1964
• Operation Wetback in 1954
• The Maquiladora Program from 1964 to now
• 1994 NAFTA
• Corporate globalization
• The 2005 California Apology Act for the 1930s Mexican Repatriation Program
• The effects of the current economic downturn
In these events, you can see a “we want you – we don’t want you” pendulum swinging for over 150 years, and some acknowledged racial profiling of U.S. citizens of Mexican descent in the Mexican Repatriation Program of the ‘30s and Operation Wetback in 1954.
The intent of the video is to bring some hopefully neutral historical information and perspective to the current discussion of immigration. If you have comments or observations, I would appreciate your sharing them with me on this blog post so interested individuals may see and appreciate them.
If you’d like to know more about the Timeline itself, click on 5 Perspectives On Albuquerque or Creating The Timeline.
Tags: Albuquerque, Albuquerque Timeline, Apology Act, Bracero, Bracero Program, Camino Real, Cezar Chavez, Chihuahua, Cibola, di Niza, Esteban, Estevan, Gadsden Purchase, globalizing, Immigration, Louisiana Purchase, Maquiladora, Mexican independence, Mexican Repatriation, Mexican Republic, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, NAFTA, New Mexico, Onate, Operation Wetback, Santa Fe Trail, Spain, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, U. S., Zacatecas
Posted in History, Immigration, New Mexico, Southwest, Timeline, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
In creating the Albuquerque Historical and Cultural Timeline, I was struck with the many layers of interactions between Mexico, New Mexico, the Southwest and the U.S.
Trade and immigration between “Mexico” and “New Mexico” has ebbed and flowed for more than a thousand years and most certainly will continue into the future.
The thought arose that it might be interesting and perhaps timely to use the Timeline to explore the history of Mexican immigration into/through New Mexico and the U.S. in the next video.
The Timeline could focus and correlate events taking place over time and geography and through politics – economics – cultures.
At a first look, I began noticing patterns of human and economic behavior of push-pull and supply-demand that seemed to emerge and persist right up into today’s news:
- Borders are arbitrary lines drawn on a map and then arbitrarily agreed upon
- People, nature and commerce do not necessarily adhere to these lines
- Cheap(er) labor can be seductively important to business profitability
- Cheap(er) labor consists mainly of needier than average individuals
- “Needier than average” can arise from strong financial need or desire, weak education, weak political awareness, shaky legal status, drought-flood-disease-war; the pool is large and constant
- Globalizing and internationalizing production and trade has usually sought access to untapped resources, such as: needier than average labor, cheaper than average minerals and materials, weaker than average laws, more available than average land
- Economic profit can be a stronger incentive than laws or penalties
- Enforcement of laws can vary widely for many different reasons and to many different advantages (and disadvantages)
Exploring the Timeline this way should be interesting; plus, by posting this I’ll create the incentive to really get the thing done!
Tags: border, business, economic, economics, globalization, Immigration, international, labor, law, Mexico, New Mexico, profit, profitability, Southwest, supply-demand, Timeline, trade, U. S.
Posted in History, Immigration, Mexico, New Mexico, Southwest, Timeline, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Welcome to the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Historical and Cultural Timeline blog.
The idea for the Albuquerque Historical and Cultural Timeline arose from a 2004 conversation with Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez. His mention of the upcoming 300th birthday of the founding and naming of Albuquerque stimulated me to put two years into creating the Albuquerque Historical and Cultural Timeline, correlating and displaying 600 years of historical and cultural events across New Mexico, the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
I need to express deep appreciation here for the following individuals who very graciously provided information, assistance, support and guidance throughout:
- Elizabeth Chestnut – Historian, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
- Dr. Linda Hall – History Professor, UNM
- Scott Meredith – History PhD candidate, UNM
- Dr. Cynthia Radding – Director of Latin American & Iberian Institute, UNM
- Rubén Saláz – Historian, author, Tri-Centennial History Task Force
- Dr. Joseph P. Sánchez – Superintendent of the Spanish Colonial Research Center, a partnership between the National Park Service and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque
- Joe S. Sando – Historian, author, Archive Director for Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
- Deb Slaney – Curator of History – Albuquerque Museum of Art and History
- Dr. Jane Slaughter – Professor and Chair of History Department, UNM
- Juan M. Solana – Mexican Consul and Alberto Bernal Acero – Deputy Mexican Consul
- Claude Stephenson – State Folklorist and author of The Albuquerque Arts Alliance “Albuquerque Cultural Survey”
- Sandia Laboratories Graphic Arts Department
- Don Couchman – Historian and Chairman of the Tricentennial History Task Force
- Craig Newbill – Executive Director, New Mexico Humanities Council
- Jerry Geist and Vicky Osborne – El Jefe and La Jefecita of the Tricentennial Committee
Without their support and assistance, the Timeline would not be visible to the public in the East Wing of the Convention Center and in the passenger waiting area of the Albuquerque International Sunport.
I intend through this blog to explore and present interesting historical and cultural stories contained within the Timeline in a series of blog-post and video formats. I hope you enjoy the very first video, “5 Perspectives on Albuquerque,” which is an overview of the structure and ‘how to read’ the timeline.
Your comments, thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
Tom
Tags: Albuquerque, Asia, cultural, culture, Europe, historical, History, Indian Pueblo, Martin Chavez, Mexican, Mexico, New Mexico, Pacific, Spain, Timeline, U. S., United States, University of New Mexico, UNM
Posted in Albuquerque, History, Mexico, New Mexico, Southwest, Timeline, Uncategorized | No Comments »