Cultural Difference between Mexicans and Americans Essays -- American

Cultural Difference between Mexicans and Americans While Texas leader Stephen Austin initially had no contempt toward Mexicans, the Anglo-American citizens in the area did. The American Texans of the 1800’s defined Mexicans as â€Å"a race alien to everything that Americans held dear† (De Leon 4). This sentiment would serve as the primary catalyst to the Texas secession from Mexico. When Austin began colonizing the area, he envisioned a place in which Anglo-Americans and Tejanos, Mexicans living in Texas, could live together. Eventually, though, the public opinions of North American settlers in the territory and in Washington would make him realize that the goal of unity between the two groups was impossible. There were many cultural bricks laid by Spaniards, English, Mexicans, and Americans, which built a wall of cultural difference between the Mexicans and Americans so massive that it would lead to war. The Spanish and the English laid the first bricks during the sixteenth century. The English viewed the Spanish as â€Å"heartless and genocidal† (De Leon 4). Ironically, the Spaniards’ cruelty to Indians in Latin America was the primary reason for the English’s characterization. The Spaniards devotion to the Roman Catholic Church made the chasm between the predominately Protestant English and the Spanish grow even wider. The Spaniards continued to lay more bricks through their domination and influence over the inhabitants of Mexico. The Catholic Church became Mexico’s â€Å"largest landowner and moneylender† (Cantrell 105). Today America prides itself on religious freedom; however, during the 1800’s America viewed any religion other than Protestant as a threat. The Anglo-Americans laid the largest set of bricks with their be... ...niversity: William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, 1958. 4.Crane, William Carey. Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston. J.B. Lippincott & Co.: Philadelphia, PA, 1884. 5.Del Castillo, Griswold. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, OK and London, 1990. 6.De Leon, Arnoldo. They Call Them Greasers. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983. 7.Hitsman, J. Mackay. â€Å"The Texan War of 1835-1836†. History Today. 1960 10 (2). 8.Lester, Charles Edwards. Life of Sam Houston. J.C. Derby: New York, 1885. 9.Long, Walter Ewing. Stephen F. Austin’s Legacies. Steck-Vaughn Co.: Austin, TX, 1970. 10.Stenberg, Richard R. â€Å"The Texas Schemes of Jackson and Houston, 1829-1836†. Social Science Quarterly. 1970 50(4). 11.Weber, David J. The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982.