Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/623

Rh "Throughout America," says a traveller, Froebel, "the term 'American' is almost exclusively applied to the people of the United States;—a practice by which the 'manifest destiny' of that compound of the most active elements of the present generation of mankind is thoughtlessly recognized, even by those who are most immediately threatened by it; for in all Spanish countries los Americanos means the people of the great Northern republic." Let this definition, by a foreign writer, satisfactorily explain the use of the word, and its origin, and let it not be charged upon us that we have arrogated to ourselves this distinctive term of superiority. Much to our discredit, it is indiscriminately applied to all individuals from over the Border, whether the land of their nativity be the New or the Old World. At least nine out of ten of these murders—let it be distinctly understood—are by foreign-born citizens of the United States, coming mainly from that country notorious for its turbulent population. While I was in Chihuahua, I remember, two murders occurred of a particularly brutal character, and all the native citizens of respectability held up their hands in horror at the barbarous deeds of los Americanos. Yet they proceeded from the usual source. "They were 'Americans,'" said one of my countrymen indignantly, commenting on the affair; "every foreigner is an American here; but one was born in England, and the other came straight over from Ireland!"

Very fortunate it is for Northern speculators and the railway men that the Governor of the State, Don Luis Terrasus, and the Mayor of the city, Don Juan Zubiran, are gentlemen of broad and enlightened views, courteous and refined, who enter heartily into the progressive movement, and strive with all their power to allay, rather than promote, sectional animosities. The two newspapers here printed in the interests of Americans, "The Enterprise" and "The Chihuahua Mail," though a little too sanguine in their predictions of immediate prosperity for the northern investor, are yet excellent pacificators; and as the Mail prints half of its broad columns in Spanish, and does not hesitate to bestow a healthy criticism upon the State and city government now and then, they are very important factors