INTRODUCTION

Approximately “25 percent of the total Mexican American population of the Southwest in the 1850s” was repatriated in the four decades following the end of hostilities, according to noted historian of the Mexican American experience Professor Richard Griswold del Castillo. Although accurate i gures would be almost impossible to determine because of the imprecision of statistical data then and now, studies have surfaced over the past few years that shed light on repatriation and return migrations. According to one author, for instance, the total number of Mexicans that “returned” to Mexico between 1848 and 1880 from the ceded territories amounted to 3,000. 3 Yet one Mexican commissioner sent to recruit Mexican families in New Mexico places the number much higher noting: “I have the satisfaction of being able to inform your Excellency that . . . at least eighty thousand persons are ready to emigrate to the territory [Chihuahua] of the republic.” Hence, the number of Mexicanos that migrated south in the decades after the Mexican American War continues to generate debate accompanied by a variety of conl icting numbers, but Griswold’s estimate of thirty-one thousand appears to be the most thoughtful of the lot.