What is it about Saying We're Sorry--New Federal Legislation and the Forgotten Promises of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Comment)

摘要

This comment illustrates one chapter of this history; a history of accumulated injustices premised upon racist notions and fueled by self-serving political and judicial institutions. In doing so, this comment demonstrates the United States government's culpability for the dispossession of Mexican-American landholders. More specifically, this comment focuses on the federal government's and judiciary's actions subsequent to ratification of the Treaty and the 153 years of inequality under the law that have followed. By tracing the political and legal history of the Southwest, this comment makes evident the underlying force behind this era of injustice-United States economic policy. This comment specifically illustrates the United States' desire to acquire and control land. The war, Treaty, federal legislation, and judicial opinions that followed have all resulted in the dispossession of Mexican-American landholders and the simultaneous enrichment of White America. A survey of the relevant historical, political, and judicial actions during the middle to late nineteenth century demonstrates that the acquisition and control of land was the primary factor behind the disenfranchisement of Mexican Americans at the precise moment that they became a substantial component of the population of the United States.