Atlas of Hispanic-American History

Mexicans south of the border. The rail-
road reached New Mexico in 1879 and
Arizona in 1880, bringing new develop-
ment and job opportunities. Railroad
lines began connecting the region to
Mexico in the 1880s, providing an easy
immigration route out of Mexico. Under
the dictator Porfirio Díaz, poverty and
oppression were widespread in Mexico,
encouraging Mexican workers to leave for
the American Southwest, where there
was high demand for laborers at ranches,
railroads, mines, and farms. Mexican
laborers were all the more valued after
the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, enact-
ed as a result of anti-Asian prejudice,
halted the influx of what had been a larg-
er number of Chinese workers. Thus
Mexican immigration to the Southwest
began to grow in the late 19th century—
though not as much as it would in the
century to come.
Partly because of Anglo-American
prejudice against the Spanish-speaking
population in the Southwest, New
Mexico and Arizona were compelled to
wait a long time before being accepted
into the Union as states. In 1912, New

Mexico and Arizona became, respective-

ly, the 47th and 48th states.

WAR WITH SPAIN

As the 19th century drew to a close,

Cuba’s struggle for independence reached

a boiling point. Cuba’s struggle became

bound up with expansionist sentiment in

the United States, where some influential

voices wanted Spain out of the hemi-

sphere so the United States could take

over its colonial role. While colonial

expansion was the impetus, U.S. actions

were justified by invoking the precedent

of the Monroe Doctrine—the policy that

European colonialism would not be toler-

ated in the Americas, and that the United

States would ensure the independence of

North, South, and Central America by

force if necessary. It is ironic then that

during the last years of the 19th century,

the United States would go to war with

Spain over this policy, not only in the

Caribbean, but thousands of miles away

in the Philippine Islands as well.

A TIME OF TRANSITION 117

During the 1880s, vigilante groups like that shown here roamed the Great Plains, Southwest, and elsewhere, cutting barbed wire

and pulling up railroad ties. In New Mexico, a Hispanic group known as Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps) were particularly

active. (Nebraska Historical Society)