Excerpt from Term Paper:

...... The notion of Spanish people was at times used. Generally speaking, this term is used frequently in the United States to refer indiscriminately to any person that speaks Spanish. As such, it is imprecise and often inappropriate in that it includes people from more than two dozen countries, spanning the entire American continent, the Caribbean and Spain (Mexican History Study Guides, 2003). However, from a historical perspective, this notion was used in a pejorative manner taking into account the fact that the Spanish had conquered todays Mexico through destructive actions and campaigns (Jenkins, 1997); this made the perspective on the term of Spanish to be a negative one. The term was used in particular during the war with Mexico because of the connotation it had for describing the negative attitude of the considered conquerors
The terms used to identify dwellers of particular areas of what would later become US territory varied according to the region in which they were employed. With reference to the Mexican case, the term of Californio came to be employed. It identified the Spanish Californians during the Mexican rule over the territory. Following the rebellious actions against the Mexican rule who had imposed very strict

Need this essay? If it's not quite what you're looking for there are over 50,000 more to search from, so you can find the term paper or essay that meets your needs.