Final answer:
After the Mexican-American War, Mexico faced decades of violence and racial antagonism, where Mexicans and Mexican Americans lost land rights and faced disenfranchisement due to U.S. policies.
Step-by-step explanation:
After the Mexican-American War, Mexico entered a period of significant turmoil and change. In the wake of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico lost over half of its territorial land. This loss led to major shifts within Mexican society and politics, as well as the treatment of Mexican citizens now living under US rule.
For two decades, the aftermath included a pattern of violence and racial antagonism towards Mexicans and Mexican Americans, particularly regarding land rights. Land deeds were often deemed "imperfect" by the United States government, resulting in mass dispossession of land from tejanos, californios, and others who had been landowners in Texas, California, and New Mexico.
Lands that were once owned by Mexicans in California, for example, shifted dramatically—those having property valued over $10,000 before the war owned only a quarter of such land by the 1870s, and by the 1880s, many californios found themselves without land altogether. Additionally, laws such as California's Greaser Act targeted Hispanic populations, further alienating and disenfranchising them from the dominant society. The impacts of these years extended far beyond the immediate fallout of the war, continuing to be felt throughout society and redefining the American Southwest.