Colonialism: The Case of the Mexican Americans

“Colonialism” has been increasingly used by minority ideologues to account for their situation in the United States. Adapting the concept for social sciences involves serious conceptual analysis. This is an attempt to specify the concept in the case of Mexican Americans, with political participation on the elite and on the mass level illustrating the varieties of internal colonialism to which this population has been subjected. Three “culture areas” are delineated: New Mexico, with “classic colonialism;” Texas, with “conflict colonialism;” and California, with “economic colonialism.” Ecology of settlement; historical discontinuities; and proportions of voluntary-immigrant as compared with charter-member descendants in the minority are among the factors distinguishing the three types. The chicano militant ideology incorporates symbols which attempt to transcend these regional differences.