They had to have written documents for the land ownership which many did not have. The courts did not help them every much because it was mainly made up of Anglos. Even though there was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which issued them land in 1848, the Mexicans still had no power and were beginning to lose a majority of their land. The "Myth of the great rip-off" claims Anglo Americans moved westward and stole land from the Mexicans. The myth is actually true because the Anglos Americans established towns near Mexican settlements and the population began increasing. The population reached a point where it was so large that it began to overtake the Mexican land and the Mexicans couldn't" do anything about it because they had no power and the police did not help them. As the Anglo Americans increased their possessions of the land in the Southwest, they gained control of the economy and politics thus limiting the power of Mexicans. With this power, Anglos discriminated the Mexicans by keeping them in low wage and unskilled jobs that would ultimately get them nowhere. The racialization and discrimination of Mexicans was produced largely by America's "Manifest Destiny," the ideal to expand westward and take over all territory. The Manifest Destiny is an American belief that God blessed America to be successful and be the conqueror of all this land because America is dominant while other countries were inferior. Americans believed that Mexicans were inferior to them and that "inferior people belong in inferior jobs." By using the Manifest Destiny as the reason of stratification, Americans began to predisposed Mexicans as being lazy, made for backbreaking labor and never planning for the future. They were "sojourn laborers who work and go home to Mexico." By comfortable disposing these stereotypes upon Mexicans, Anglo Americans can give justification for why the Mexicans were perfect for this low wage, hard labor type of jobs, and never progressing.
