Aztlan

I just had to weigh in here with my thoughts on the whole immigration debate in America.

Firstly, I think immigration should be open to everyone who wants to make a contribution to American society and will be proud to be a part of the United States. It is a long and difficult process, but there are reasons for this. America just can’t saturate immigrants at the influx that would happen if we just opened the borders.

What bothers me here isn’t the whole debate over whether America stole the land or not, but it’s their claim to what is called Aztlan:

Due to the association of Aztlan with Mexican national identity and an indeterminate northern location, the name Aztlán was taken up by some Chicano activists of the 1960s and 1970s to refer to the area of the Southwestern United States ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War. Aztlan appears in the title of the 1968 manifesto issued by the Chicano youth movement, the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, as well as the names of several organizations, such as MEChA, (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, "Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán") and the Nation of Aztlan.

The following rhetoric that has been uttered in support of open borders with Mexico, and I assume makes reference to the Chicano movement’s Aztlan.

Like:
“You took this country. You killed people in order to take this country for yourselves.”

Or:
"They can't deport you from the land that they stole from you!!!"

Okay, here’s a short history lesson: Before the Spanish came to America there wasn’t really such a thing as borders. Then they made some deals with Indian tribes (which later could almost be seen as "stealing"), sent some missionaries up into the California territory, etc. And California and the rest of the South West (including part of Texas) became known as the Spanish Possessions. Then in 1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain, and thus the Spanish Possessions of the modern day American Southwest, became part of the Mexican Republic. Fast-forward almost 30 years to 1849 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo incorporated the land into America.

Now, it should be mentioned here in the case of California, for a few days it just declared itself it’s own nation (Bear Flag Revolution: settlers revolted against the Mexican rule) and then when the revolutionists realized that America had declared war on Mexico, they decided they wanted to become a part of America.

Anyhoo, what I am trying to get at is that I find if hypocritical that some think that Mexico has the moral superiority to claim ownership of lands that it “owned” for about 30 years, when really they were just claiming ownership of land that the Spanish had also previously “stolen.”

[Mexico lays no claims to any American land, I am just responding to people who claim that Mexican nationals have a birth right to live in the American Southwest.]