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'I'm From Here': Not All Hispanics Are Recent Arrivals

Apr.11.2014 / 5:47 AM ET CBS, No Author

In 1978, Patricia Madrid became the first woman elected to serve as a district court judge in New Mexico.
Ten years later, she was the first woman elected Attorney General in the state. Americans whose Spanish
and/or Latin American ancestry date back generations say their family histories are not what people think
about when they think of a U.S. Hispanic.

Like many others in the Southwest, Madrids family's presence in New Mexico goes back several
centuries. Her mother can follow her roots back to settlers from a post-Civil War era, and like many
Americans with a mosaic-like family history, she has a mix of Irish and German ancestry as well. Her
fathers side dates back even further back, to the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.

American history is always told from the point of the English rather than these earlier settlements coming
from Latin America or Mexico, says Madrid, who identifies as culturally Hispanic. University of New
Mexico political scientist Gabriel Sanchez says many people are surprised to learn he can trace his
familys background in the U.S. to the 1500s and he has no family in Mexico. Settlements like San Gabriel
and Santa Fe in New Mexico predate Jamestown, the first English settlement in the American colonies.
Yet the lack of familiarity with the history of Latinos in the Southwest contributed to New Mexicos rather
late status in becoming an official state until 1912, argues Sanchez.

At the time, the majority of the population was not non-Hispanic white, but Hispanic and Native American.
At play was the role of race and the dynamic of what it is to be American, he says. The history of
America is taught as east to west, though Mexican origins in the U.S. defy this direction, says Carlos
Velez-Ibez, an anthropologist and Director of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State
University.

Velez-Ibez sees a story of two immigration tales. On the one hand, Ellis Island offered many immigrants
a new opportunity - and often a new name. On the other hand, the U.S. Mexico border was a seemingly
non-existent boundary which many traversed at will and with no consequences for several centuries. We
used to go back and forth freely before there even was a border," says Velez-Ibez, who says it's only
recent American policy which has created such a strict division between the countries.

Lisa Sanchez, a doctoral candidate at the University of New Mexico, is a descendant of Spanish settlers
who received land grants from the King of Spain in the 17th century. She has distinct memories of being in
school and bringing home forms to sign and not seeing an applicable race or ethnicity to identify her. I
would usually check other and then write in the word "Spanish, she says. Both of Lisa Sanchez'
grandfathers fought in World War II, and she says patriotism is something the family takes very seriously.
Even though we identified as Spanish and are proud of that heritage, for my grandparents being
American always came first."

Lisa Sanchez and her family consider themselves Americans of Spanish origin. In states like New Mexico
there have been tensions between families with deep roots in the country who choose to identify as
"Spanish" and those who are either more recent immigrants or choose not to identify as Spanish but as
"Latino" or "Chicano" or "Hispanic." Sanchez, who has done research on the topic, says there are political
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and cultural differences among the groups, which mirror some of the difficulties in seeing the Latino
community as one singular group. Yet she has found a slight freeze in the tensions since the polarizing
immigration debate of recent years has brought the groups closer together.

Northern New Mexico College professor Patricia Perea, who identifies as "Chicana," has traced her
father's lineage to 1692 in present-day New Mexico; he is also of Santo Domingo Pueblo. She traces her
ancestry on her mother's side to Mexican immigrants who came after the country's Civil War in 1910.
Perea, who has also taught in the East Coast at Brown University, finds even students of Latino
backgrounds from states like California or Texas have a "blind spot" about Hispanics' long ties in the U.S.

At Northern New Mexico College where she now teaches, students who want to research their family
history have access to an array of resources, including bound copies of census records for much of the
state and online access to ancestral documents. For many who have researched their roots, their family's
and their culture's long history in the U.S. is something of a revelation.

This deep-seated [Hispanic] history is not talked about, says Perea.

Pinsalo
Contesta las preguntas usando oraciones completas. Responde con al menos 3 oraciones para
cada pregunta.

1.) En este artculo, cuando se menciona America o American, a que se refiere?

(Pas? Continente? Cul?)

2.) En prrafo 4, el antropologista, Carlos Velez-Ibez, dice que la historia de los Estados
Unidos siempre se ensea desde el este al oeste. Por qu esto puede ser un problema?

3.) Cual es una frase o palabra que subrayaste (you underlined)? Por qu lo subrayaste?