Chapter 15: Language Rights for Mexican Americans and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Several indigenous minorities inhabit the United States and its territories. One indigenous minority is the Mexican American, who trace their lineage to the Mexicans who were living in the American Southwest at the time of annexation by the United States of more than half of the Mexican territory (this includes the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of the states of Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, and Oklahoma). Other indigenous groups include Puerto Ricans, American Indians, native Hawaiians, the Chamorro people of Guam, and other Pacific Islanders. None of these groups voluntarily joined or became a territory of the United States. Yet although from time to time some of them have raised the issue of independence, especially in Puerto Rico, they generally have been content with signing treaties that granted them some degree of autonomy or special rights within the United States. With the exception of the Mexican Americans of the Southwest, all of the conquered minorities mentioned above have obtained special powers of self-government, including language rights. For example, in both the State of Hawaii and Guam, the indigenous languages, Hawaiian and Chamorro respectively, have equal status with English in schools, courts, and other dealings with government. Similarly, in Puerto Rico, Spanish and English are co-official languages (Kilty & Vidal deHaymes, 2000; Kymlicka, 1995).