The signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended hostilities in the war between the United States and Mexico (1846-48). Although aspects of the conflict have generated extensive scholarship in recent years, the treaty itself has remained an obscure chapter in the diplomatic and legal history of U.S.-Mexican relations.
In this pioneer study, Richard Griswold del Castillo offers an in-depth analysis of numerous critical aspects of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. After providing a succinct synthesis of the background, diplomacy, and drafting of the treaty, the narrative furnishes a wealth of original research and interpretations. The author argues that there is much more to the treaty than just the settlement of the war itself. The document set the tone for future U.S.-Mexican relations. An important examination of the interpretation and implementation of the treaty by the U.S. legal system further indicates the great distance between the promise and the spirit of the treaty and its actual implementation. As the book convincingly demonstrates, the beneficiaries of rulings in court cases dealing with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo have been U.S. corporate and government interests, usually at the expense of U.S. territorial minorities: Chicanos and Native Americans.
A major contribution of this study is its discussion of how the treaty has served as a legal basis for the contemporary social struggle of the Chicano and Native American movements. Ironically, certain articles of the treaty originally were drafted specifically to protect the civil and legal rights of these communities. In addition, the book has current relevance. Implicit is the United States’s historical inconsistency in abiding by international law and its failure to keep the commitments made to its minority communities. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is a well-written, important, and carefully researched monograph that merits close attention by scholars of the United States and Mexico.
