The racism was so prevalent and extensive that it was normal for Americans to feel the way they did against what they saw as inferior Mexicans whom they identified as "greasers". It was not uncommon, it was the rule rather than the exception to be racist. Americans only hid these feelings when addressing New Mexicans, not when talking to or otherwise communicating with each other.
Anna Mary McKee would write letters back home about her experiences in New Mexico. The letters reflect the deep seated racism amongst "Americans" in New Mexico at the time. The racism was not something they acquired when they got to New Mexico, it was a racism that they bought with them from the "states".
A prime example, and there are many in her letters, is the wedding of one of her pupils, Jose Blas Salazar the son of Jose Rafael Salazar and Maria Josefa Espinosa with Elisa Struck, the daughter of George David Struck and Maria Josefa Mondragon in Taos on December 31, 1884. Reference the quotes below on the marriage invitation and marriage ceremony:
"Our oldest scholar was to be married and we had received invitation in Spanish. His name is Senor Blas Salazar and his bride is Senorita Luisa Strock. We dressed in our best "bib and tucker" and went. We nearly expired, the whole affair was too ludicrous for anything. As good as a circus, indeed much better. The bride, a perfect beauty really, was dressed too absurdly for anything. She wore white jewelry and a long veil but was bedecked with bows and crimson flowers. We went to the house, the groom came down from the ball room to receive us, for you know it is an immense honor for Americans to attend their fandango's."
"The house had only a mud floor and the tables had no cloth, our wine was served in black bottles, one at each plate. Alice and I congratulated Blas and he answered our speech with an "all right". You may believe we had hard work to keep from laughing in his face."
Another example from another letter:
"In Mora the priest charged a poor man $25 for saying mass for the soul of his favorite mule which had died and, as the priest said, was suffering in Purgatory. The priest actually stood in the doors of the corrals and baptized the sheep, hogs and other animals".
And yet some more"
"Speaking of the "Greaser", let me tell you something about him. To begin with, he evidently endeavors to adapt himself to his surroundings and render himself as inconspicuous as possible, his garments are mud colored and he lives in a mud house. The Greaser has a constitutional aversion to water and seems to take a special delight in dirt. The most impressive about him, except his costume, is his odor, Words fail me."
The image she paints of herself in these letters to her parents is that of a first class hypocrite religious self righteous racist. And we must take into account that there letters were written to her father, William B. McKee, a Presbyterian minister and to her mother. She came voluntarily to teach and convert New Mexicans, Mexican Greasers were the primary targets of these educational and conversion efforts on the part of Eastern missionaries who flocked to New Mexico after the 1846 invasion and occupation by the Americans.
The quotes come from the New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 79, Number 1, Winter 2004. The article is titled "I Feel as if I Were on Some Other Planet" The New Mexico Correspondence of Presbyterian Missionary Anna Mary McKee, 1884 - 1885. The article is written by Les Valentine the University Archivist at the University Library of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
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