Feb. 2 came and left with very little notice this year. It usually does. It's a date of historic significance to Americans of Mexican descent. But it's best known for being the anniversary of an enormous land transfer: the date when the northernmost half of Mexico became the southernmost part of the United States.

I'm positive that there will be readers who will balk at my use of the word “transfer” to describe what they see as more of a land “grab.” I understand their point. And I'm interested in the larger context of the grab/transfer. On Feb. 2, 1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which was a treaty of peace the terms of which were mostly dictated by the United States. That much can't be argued; Mexico had lost the two-year long Mexican-American War and was not in a position to negotiate from strength.

The United States got 525,000 square miles of land stretching from the Rio Grande to Utah and points west, roughly 55 percent of the Mexican territory. And for that, Mexico received $15 million in mid-19th-century dollars.

Inside that territory, and for that price, were people — human beings who knew nothing of the machinations of international negotiations, wars or treaties.

The descendents of those people, those families, and the millions of others who have played hopscotch with the border of Guadalupe-Hidalgo are the people who proudly call themselves Mexican-American today.

The hyphen that is maligned by some folks who may lack a perspective of culture and history is a graphic representation of an historical event. For the record, the hyphen does not connote national loyalty, the record of achievement and sacrifice of Mexican-Americans speaks for itself. The hyphen is a matter of identity. Here's a personal example; hopefully it will clarify matters. My father is an immigrant from Mexico, so I'm first-generation American. But my maternal grandfather was immigrant as well, so that makes me second-generation American.

And among my eight great-grandparents there were some who came here from another country; the math is simple. But here's the important thing. My ancestors on my mother's side of my family date back to pre-treaty days. They lived in the area of what is now Cuero before the border jumped them. So my family has been here since before this was Texas.

Make no mistake, I am a loyal and productive American. I can't go back from where I came; I'm already there. The hyphen proves the point. The treaty only complicates that fact.