Throughout the nineteenth century, private, collective, and governmentsponsored repatriations and their subsequent settlements took place in Mexico. For four decades following the Mexican American War, it is estimated that upward of twenty-i ve percent of ethnic Mexicans in California, Texas, and New Mexico may have returned to Mexico proper. These i rst repatriations were facilitated by an ongoing military tradition that frequently requested the settlement of this region with colonists from the northern frontiers. After implementation of the 1883 Land and Colonization Law that stood in as ofi cial immigration policy, and up to the time of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 , sixty colonies would be established: Sixteen by the D í az administration and forty-four by private companies. Mexicans and Mexican Americans populated eight of the sixteen colonies established by the government, or fifty percent. In the colonies founded by private companies, Mexicans repatriated from the United States composed almost twenty-five percent of the settlements during this thirty-five-year period. These are the official numbers that we have, however, a more comprehensive study of this period might reveal a larger pattern that includes private and collective repatriations not mentioned in the final government tally.