economy grow at increasingly high rates. As a result of the number of Mexicans that used the railroads to enter and work in the United States, first on a seasonal then ultimately a permanent basis, the southwestern present-day cities developed with a profound Mexican/Latino influence.

The inclination of the United States to increase its economic influence, in this case through expanding railroads in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, would ultimately alter the cultural and economic characteristics of the United States. Railroads both in the United States and Mexico transported Mexican immigrant laborers to the southwest. The connection between the railroads and Mexican labor not only resulted in economic growth but also the cultural incorporation of Latino culture into the never-ending melting pot of America. The capitalistic influences and actions of the United States on Mexico would eventually lead to relations both negative and positive. But at the time there was a general consensus [t]hat Mexico and the United States are bound to each other by mutual responsibilities.[1]

[1] The Mexican Problem, The New York Times, March 23, 1870, 4.