History of Mexican Americans

The history of Mexican Americans largely begins the aftermath of the annexation of Northern Mexico in 1848, when nearly 80,000 Mexican citizens—of what are now California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico—became U.S. citizens. Large-scale migration increased the U.S.' Mexican population during the 1910s, as refugees fled the economic devastation and violence of Mexico's revolution and civil war. Until the mid-20th century, most Mexican Americans lived within a few hundred miles of the border, although some resettled along rail lines from the Southwest into the Midwest.