Mexico origins of South Texas Mexican Americans, 1930

South Texas Mexican Americans have historically come from a hinterland source area immediately across the Rio Grande rather than from distant interior states that have been chief contributors for Mexican immigration to other parts of the U.S. State birth certificate records make possible the historical reconstruction of emigrant source areas by town as well as state in Mexico. The historical geography of source towns reinforces the contention that South Texas is culturally linked to a trans-Rio Grande homeland, not a central Mexico core.