Why has the Spanish language been politicized?

[Damocles]

The truth of the matter is that a substantial portion of what’s now the southwestern United States, for centuries prior to their conquest in 1848-49, was under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and a series of Mexican revolutionary states. The northern parts of these territories were difficult for the authorities in CDMX to enforce their sovereignty over, and secessionists and dissidents moved northward.

Texas is unique in that its origins as a state went far beyond Davy Crockett and the Alamo. Tejanos in the region (ie creole/mulatto Hispanophone dissidents and settlers from Mexico) bet that an independent republic was their best chance at achieving their self-determination. It just so happened that they got screwed over by Anglophone whites from the southern and eastern US who wanted to move there and establish slave plantations.