ABSTRACT
Robert Blauner's article in Social Problems is one of the more ambitious attempts to relate the concept of "colonialism," as developed by Kenneth Clark, Stokely Car-michael, and Elridge Cleaver, to sociological analysis. In at least the one state of New Mexico, there was a situation of comparatively "pure" colonialism. Outside of New Mexico, the original conquest colonialism was overlaid, particularly in the 20th century, with a grossly manipulated voluntary immigration. The chapter discusses a "culture trait" that is attributed to Mexican Americans both by popular stereotype and by social scientists—that is, a comparatively low degree of formal voluntary organization and hence of organized participation in political life. On the elite level, Spanish or Mexican leadership remained largely intact through the conquest and was shared with Anglo leadership after the termination of military rule in 1851. Mexican Americans in Texas had a sharply contrasting historical experience.
