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The KUT Longhorn Radio Network Presents: Mexican American Experience Collection

Audio recordings including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns in the series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" from the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.

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PROGRAM INFO

Title:
The Legal System Of The Southwest
Program #
1977-11
Themes:
Politics, Society

Series:
Legal Issues
Host:
Richard Goodman
Guest:
Richard Goodman
Date:
Feb 25, 1977

The Legal System of the Southwest

When the Anglos arrived in the Southwest after the Treaty of Guadalupe, they found a legal system very different from their own. The Mexican laws were based on the southwestern life style and addressed the needs of the region. Eventually, local courts and legislatures adopted or incorporated them into their own laws.

State constitutions often adopted Mexican municipal laws untouched, which allowed each pueblo to have an ayuntamiento or town council and an alcalde, or a magistrate of the pueblo. Legal documents produced at the time were in both Spanish and English to accommodate local officials who could not speak Spanish.

Many Southwestern states also adopted Mexican mining laws, although some like California added the proviso that Mexicans as foreigners needed a special license to mine. It was not until 1870, in the People vs. de la Guerra, that California fully extended citizenship rights to the Mexicans who became Americans after the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. By then however, they had lost much of their land in title disputes when the U.S. government failed to abide by the Treaty of Guadalupe and its provisions, which legally protected Mexican land.

KEYWORDS

Alcalde
Anglos
Ayuntamiento
“Mexican American Legal Heritage in the Southwest”
Bilingual
California
Citizenship
Constable
Discrimination
English Common Law
General Mining Law
Gold Rush
Judge of the Plains
Juez de Campo
Land Theft
Land Titles
Language of the Law
Law
Legal Procedures
Legal System
Los Angeles
Magistrate
Manuel Ruiz Jr.
Marshall
Mexican Municipal Laws
New Mexico
People vs. de la Guerra
Property rights
Public Domain
Public education
Pueblo
San Diego
Sheriff
Surveyor General
Texas constitution
Town council
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Vaquero
Widowhood
Women and land
 

Center for Mexican American Studies | Department of History | The Benson Latin American Collection

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