De Hidalgos a Peon's, Que Paso?

Hispanic New Mexican's who came north from Mexico with don Juan de Onate in 1598 were promised "hidalgo" status for their efforts if they stayed here a specified amount of time. Now hidalgo status was a granting of nobility at it's lowest rung. Yet by the time the United States annexed the province there were mostly folks whom the Americans classified as peon's, landless poor.

Here is what I think happened. and there seems to be several causes.

1) Between the "entrada" in 1598 and Mexican Independence from Spain on Sep. 16, 1821 New Mexicans of every stripe were ignored by the Spanish authorities in both Mexico City and Madrid, Spain. Utterly ignored by any measure being used at the time. By being ignored by their government my ancestors had to make do with what they had on hand, they had to adjust, adapt AND adopt. Adjust to the fact hidalgo status was not worth what they had been led to believe, adapt to the local conditions and adopt methods of survival used by the Indians. Especially when they could not go back, it was decreed that abondoning the colony was not to be condoned. And in reality it was enforced. They could not leave so they had to adjust, and they did.

2) Between Sep. 16 1821 and when the Americans occupied the province on Aug. 15, 1846 New Mexicans were further ignored by the new government in Mexico City. But by this time they had adapted to the harsh conditions. And hidalgo status be dammed, you had to survive. And the way to survive was to copy the Indians just as they had been doing before. They had been surviving here for untold generations.

3) My ancestors were seen as landless poor by the Americans as they came here and they documented that. By comparison my ancestors may have been poor, but most were landless only in the way the Americans viewed land ownership. Most land was held by individuals or by community grantees as mercedes or land grants. But most of the American who came early, fur trappers, did not appreciate the New Mexicans and they did not hesitate to document it, if they could write, by word of mouth if they couldn't. The traders who started arriving a bit later , but still in the early 1800's, thought the same way, and most of them could document this in writing. When the Army of the west arrived on Aug. 15, 1846 the "peon" label was attached to all with the glue provided by writings of the military. And it stuck.