Using data from the 2008–2016 American Community Survey, we compare the racial identification responses of the Mexican-origin population residing in California to their counterparts in Texas, the two states with the largest and most established Mexican-origin populations. We draw on existing theory and research in order to derive a theoretical account of state-level historical mechanisms that are likely to lead to varying patterns of racial identification within the two states and a set of propositions predicting the nature of this variation. Results indicate that the Mexican-origin population in Texas is substantially more likely to claim White racial identification than their counterparts in California, even after accounting for factors related to racial identity formation. Further analysis indicates that this result is robust and buffets the notion that the historical development of the racial context in Texas has engendered a present-day context in which “Whiteness” carries a distinctive social value, relative to California’s ethnoracial context, and that this social value is reflected in the ways in which individuals of Mexican origin respond to race questions on U.S. Census surveys.

使用 2008-2016 年美国社区调查的数据，我们比较了居住在加利福尼亚的墨西哥裔人口与德克萨斯州的种族认同反应，这两个州拥有最大和最成熟的墨西哥裔人口。我们借鉴现有的理论和研究，以推导出可能导致两个州内不同种族认同模式的国家级历史机制的理论解释，以及一系列预测这种变化性质的命题。结果表明，即使考虑了与种族认同形成相关的因素，德克萨斯州的墨西哥裔人口比加利福尼亚州的同龄人更有可能声称白人种族认同。