For The States Formerly Owned By Mexico (Arizona, Texas, etc.) At What Point Did They Become Mostly English Speaking? And What Became Of Anyone Living There, Were They Just US Citizens From That Point On?

by [deleted]

I live in Arizona, which became a state in 1912. At what point in the last 102 years did those speaking English outweigh those speaking Spanish? Was there a high number of English speakers even before it became a state?

cyzta

Arizona wasn't really inhabited or colonized by the Spanish or Mexicans prior to the Mexican-Amrican war. The population of Arizona in 1860 was only 6,482 people, the rest were Indians outside of government's control.

New Mexico, on the other hand, was colonized by the Spanish early on and a sizable community of descendants of the Spanish colonists lives there to this day. They speak a specific dialect of Spanish called New Mexican Spanish.