The Early American Period: The Mexican Colonia and Anglo San José, 1848-1919 · Before Silicon Valley

Title

The Early American Period: The Mexican Colonia and Anglo San José, 1848-1919

Description

In 1848 after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican American War, California became part of the United States. Anglo Americans now controlled the levers of power, and Mexicans struggled to retain their political, economic, and social status. In 1850 California entered the U.S. as a free state, and San José (initially called St. Joseph by the Americans) was the first incorporated city, growing rapidly from approximately 900 in 1845 to approximately 3,400 in 1860. San José also served as California’s first state capital between 1851-1853. Americans moved the central commercial district of St. Joseph away from the Mexican pueblo (known as the colonia) located on Market Street between the Guadalupe River and Santa Clara Avenue to a new area, First Street between St. John and San Fernando streets.

St. Joseph became a segregated town as the Anglo ex-miners who settled in the area attempted to subjugate the original Mexican residents, preventing them from participating in American culture, economic opportunities, and politics. Out of the 48 delegates to the 1849 California Constitutional Convention in Monterey, at least eight were prominent Mexican Californio families from San José. Yet Mexican Californio political power in Santa Clara County had declined dramatically by the 1870s. As a result, displaced Mexican landowners began to settle in the downtown colonia, alongside the pueblo’s Mexican tradesmen, craftsmen, shopkeepers, professionals, and their families. Mexican residents, now restricted to living in the footprint of the old Pueblo, were marginalized in the new Anglo community.

Scholar Talk

https://vimeo.com/811460752/d6366be72a

https://vimeo.com/812203586/c439025dcd

Identifier

B4SV Exhibit Topic One: Slide 012