Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - András Tarnóc: Ethnic Consciousness in Chicano Literature: The Voice of "La Raza".

Despite guarantees of protection for Mexican political and economic rights, cultural dislocation and political oppression characterized the period of "Anglo-American Conquest" lasting from 1849 till 1910 (Moquin 251). In a clash of opposing systems of property rights and law codes, the Anglo-Americans became victorious as Spanish land titles could not stand the test of the dominant legal system. In his account of the activity of the Land Commission, established by Congress in 1851, John S. Hittel of Hutchings' California Magazine argued that the defeat of Mexican land titles not only eliminated Mexican-American estates but laid the foundations for an economic, cultural, and demographic crisis as well (Moquin 263—71). Responding to the desperate plight of Mexicans, Juan Nepomuceno Cortina rebelled against American rule in Texas and achieved a mythical status after several clashes with the Texas Rangers. His "Proclamation to the Mexican-Americans of South Texas" anticipated the ethnic pride movements of the 1960's, describing his race as a group of proud, gentle people filled with "inward sweetness and adorned with the most lovely disposition towards all that is good and useful in the line of progress" (Moquin 274—75). Cortina's reference to Mexicans "lifting their grand edifice among the ruins of the past" anticipates the Chicano Movement's later invocation of the myth of Aztlán. The fourth period of Mexican-American history started in 1910 with the Mexican revolution and is personified by the image of the immigrant. Although northward immigration from Mexico started in the 1840's, Porfirio Diaz's corrupt and brutal regime functioned as the main push factor from 1910. Mexican immigrants comprised a large sector of the labor force of the Southwest working in three main areas, agriculture, mining and railroad construction. Whereas Mexican immigration is mostly associated with field workers escaping peonage, the establishment of the League of United Latin American Citizens in 1929 reflects such middle-class goals as the "acquisition of the English language" and the development of the "best, purest and most perfect type of a true and loyal citizen of the United States of America." At the 63