Guacamole, chili, and salsa (the music and the food); Nevada, Texas and California; 'buckaroo,' 'ranch' and 'rodeo': the Hispanic and Latino presence in the United States is deeply embedded in the nation's existence.

Hispanics (whether Criollo or Mestizo) were recognized as the first American citizens in the freshly acquired Southwest territory, following the Mexican-American War; and Latinos remained a majority in many states until the end of the 19th century. Students in Texas, perhaps, are unaware of these facts, because for a long time, Mexican-American Studies wasn't a priority in the state; however, the Texas State Board of Education has opted to Latino History lessons to the state's children, providing an ethnically oriented state-approved curriculum to Texas schools.

Mexican-, African-, Asian-, and Native American Studies will be included under Special Topics in Social Studies, following The Texas State Board of Education vote, 11-3, to add the subjects as elective courses. The effort was driven by Ruben Cortez Jr., who grew up with little access to Latino history and won approval from the board to create an elective course on Mexican-American Studies for Texas public high school students.

"In school, we learned a little about Cesar Chavez, as part of a unit on civil rights, it wasn't much. I went through the Texas school system without knowing much about other Hispanics in our history." Cortez said. "This course didn't exist in my day. And it doesn't exist now. But why not create one, to inspire a new generation of kids?"

No, Cortez didn't win approval for the stand-alone course in Mexican-American Studies, but the measure, which gained bipartisan support result, led to a pleasing outcome for Cortez, nonetheless. "I reached a good compromise with my colleagues, it was time we had this conversation. It's a proud day to be a Texan," he shared with NBC News.

Activist in support of state-approved Latino Studies courses shared excitement over the news. Author Tony Daiz expressed, "We came here for Mexican-American Studies and we actually got more, to benefit more communities. It shows that Texas can be a leader in education."

School districts in Texas will have access to state-approved curriculum, and the state has arranged plans to reach out to publishers for materials, which could benefit Latino authors and writers.

The vote surprised many, though support had been frequently thrown behind the proposal. The largest school district in Texas, the Houston Independent School District (HISD), as well a number of other school districts voted on Thursday to approve Mexican American Studies as a graduation elective. Texas Association of School Administrators also approved.

Statistics from 2012-2013 showed that Hispanics comprise 51.3 percent of Texas public school students, and supporters of Mexican-American Studies courses addressed these numbers when making the case for adding ethnic studies. Culturally-inclusive and relevant courses benefit educators and students, alike.

"A Texas principal was recently fired because she told her students that they could not speak Spanish," Diaz said. "If that educator had taken Mexican-American Studies, they would know that such actions are humiliating, offensive to us."

Skeptics have indicated that they don't understand why Mexican-American Studies need to be studied alone or exclusively; and the answer to that, perhaps, is that most history classes aren't inclusive when it comes to effectively teaching studies about Mexican, Mexican-American, Hispanic, Pan-Latin American or ethic history, in general.

Thomas Ratliff, vice chairman of the State Board of Education, stated that he believes that the course inclusion may be turned into "a media stunt, more than a policy discussion." State Board of Education member Patricia Hardy voted no, saying that she favored "local control" or customized course study over state-approved curriculum.

"Any district in the state can develop a Mexican-American studies program if they want to," she said.

According to her, locally-devised program would get into classrooms much quicker than state-approved programs, and it would be much cheaper than designing a state-approved curriculum. Hardy also said that she's looking to do what's best for the whole school system.

Julian Vasquez Heilig, associate professor of Educational Policy and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin, had a striking response to the opposition and those who suggest that other ethnic groups would want their own course after Mexican-American Studies are offered:

"We have lots of science classes, why not have lots of culture classes? It's just providing choices for students to learn from different perspectives," Heilig said.

In the past, Texas State Board of Education's controversies include the Board approving guidelines for history textbooks that question Founding Fathers' ideals of a separation of church and state; the dismissal of social science textbooks that had a "pro-Islamic" biases; and questioning the Board questioning the use of a biology book because it presented evolution as a fact.

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