Once California belonged to Mexico and its land to Mexicans; and a horde of tattered feverish Americans poured in. And such was their hunger for land that they took the land, stole Sutter's land, Guerrero' s land, took the grants and broke them up and growled and quarreled over them, those frantic hungry men; and they guarded with guns the land they had stolen. They put up houses and barns, they turned the earth and planted crops. And these things were possession, and possession was ownership. The Mexicans were weak and fed. They could not resist, because they wanted nothing in the world as frantically as the Americans wanted land.John Steinbeck
About This Quote
In the late 1800s, the United States government was in a period of expansion. This expansion was in many forms. In the Southwest, the U.S. army was making a push to occupy territory and establish missions in order to control trade routes.
In California, the U.S. military had been in control for some time and had established a mission in San Diego. However, in these times of expansion, there were many people who wanted land that had been granted to the Spanish but taken by Americans.
These people were called squatters and they stole land from others who had been living there for generations before them. The Mexicans who lived in California were not strong enough to resist this expansion and so they were left with nothing but poverty and suffering.
Source: The Grapes Of Wrath
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