Forgotten Dead by
Mob violence in the United States is usually associated with the southern lynch mobs who terrorized African Americans during the Jim Crow era. This book uncovers what is by contrast a neglected chapter in the story of American racial violence, the lynching of persons of Mexican origin ordescent. Over eight decades lynch mobs murdered hundreds of Mexicans, mostly in the American Southwest. Racial prejudice, a lack of respect for local courts, and economic competition all fueled the actions of the mob. Sometimes it was ordinary citizens who committed these acts because of the allegedfailure of the criminal justice system; other times the culprits were law enforcement officers themselves. Violence also occurred against the backdrop of continuing tensions along the border between the United States and Mexico aggravated by criminal raids, military escalation, and politicalrevolution.Based on exhaustive research on both sides of the border, the first half of Forgotten Dead explores the characteristics and causes of mob violence against Mexicans across time and place. The second half of the book relates the numerous acts of resistance by Mexicans including armed self-defense,crusading journalism, and lobbying by diplomats who pressured the United States to honor its rhetorical commitment to democracy.In reconstructing these stories, the authors provide detailed case studies and assess how Mexican lynching victims came in the minds of many Americans to be the "forgotten dead." The conclusion of the book also contains the first-ever inventory of Mexican victims of mob violence in the UnitedStates. With Latinos having an increasingly powerful influence on American public life, this book provides a timely account of their historical struggle for recognition of civil and human rights.
Land, Livelihood, and Civility in Southern Mexico by
In the Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico's Southern Highland region, three facets of sociocultural life have been interconnected and interactive from colonial times to the present: first, community land as a space to live and work; second, a civil-religious system managed by reciprocity and market activity wherein obligations of citizenship, office, and festive sponsorships are met by expenditures of labor-time and money; and third, livelihood. In this book, noted Oaxacan scholar Scott Cook draws on thirty-five years of fieldwork (1965-1990) in the region to present a masterful ethnographic historical account of how nine communities in the Oaxaca Valley have striven to maintain land, livelihood, and civility in the face of transformational and cumulative change across five centuries. Drawing on an extensive database that he accumulated through participant observation, household surveys, interviews, case studies, and archival work in more than twenty Oaxacan communities, Cook documents and explains how peasant-artisan villagers in the Oaxaca Valley have endeavored over centuries to secure and/or defend land, worked and negotiated to subsist and earn a living, and striven to meet expectations and obligations of local citizenship. His findings identify elements and processes that operate across communities or distinguish some from others. They also underscore the fact that landholding is crucial for the sociocultural life of the valley. Without land for agriculture and resource extraction, occupational options are restricted, livelihood is precarious and contingent, and civility is jeopardized.
Our America by
The United States is still typically conceived of as an offshoot of England, with our history unfolding east to west beginning with the first English settlers in Jamestown. This view overlooks the significance of America's Hispanic past. With the profile of the United States increasingly Hispanic, the importance of recovering the Hispanic dimension to our national story has never been greater.This absorbing narrative begins with the explorers and conquistadores who planted Spain's first colonies in Puerto Rico, Florida, and the Southwest. Missionaries and rancheros carry Spain's expansive impulse into the late eighteenth century, settling California, mapping the American interior to the Rockies, and charting the Pacific coast. During the nineteenth century Anglo-America expands west under the banner of "Manifest Destiny" and consolidates control through war with Mexico. In the Hispanic resurgence that follows, it is the peoples of Latin America who overspread the continent, from the Hispanic heartland in the West to major cities such as Chicago, Miami, New York, and Boston. The United States clearly has a Hispanic present and future.And here is its Hispanic past, presented with characteristic insight and wit by one of our greatest historians.
Mexicans in the Making of America by
According to census projections, by 2050 nearly one in three U.S. residents will be Latino, and the overwhelming majority of these will be of Mexican descent. This dramatic demographic shift is reshaping politics, culture, and fundamental ideas about American identity. Neil Foley, a leading Mexican American historian, offers a sweeping view of the evolution of Mexican America, from a colonial outpost on Mexico's northern frontier to a twenty-first-century people integral to the nation they have helped build. Mexicans have lived in and migrated to the American West and Southwest for centuries. When the United States annexed those territories following the Mexican-American War in 1848, the unequal destinies of the two nations were sealed. Despite their well-established presence in farm fields, workshops, and military service, Mexicans in America have long been regarded as aliens and outsiders. Xenophobic fantasies of a tidal wave of Mexicans overrunning the borders and transforming "real America" beyond recognition have inspired measures ranging from Operation Wetback in the 1950s to Arizona's draconian SB 1070 anti-immigration law and the 700-mile security fence under construction along the U.S.-Mexican border today. Yet the cultural, linguistic, and economic ties that bind Mexico to the United States continue to grow. Mexicans in the Making of America demonstrates that America has always been a composite of racially blended peoples, never a purely white Anglo-Protestant nation. The struggle of Latinos to gain full citizenship bears witness to the continual remaking of American culture into something more democratic, egalitarian, and truer to its multiracial and multiethnic origins.
The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States Since 1960 by
Latinos are now the largest so-called minority group in the United States--the result of a growth trend that began in the mid-twentieth century--and the influence of Latin cultures on American life is reflected in everything from politics to education to mass cultural forms such as music and television. Yet very few volumes have attempted to analyze or provide a context for this dramatic historical development. The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States Since 1960 is among the few comprehensive histories of Latinos in America. This collaborative, interdisciplinary volume provides not only cutting-edge interpretations of recent Latino history, including essays on the six major immigrant groups (Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Central Americans, and South Americans), but also insight into the major areas of contention and debate that characterize Latino scholarship in the early twenty-first century. This much-needed book offers a broad overview of this era of explosive demographic and cultural change by exploring the recent histories of all the major national and regional Latino subpopulations and reflecting on what these historical trends might mean for the future of both the United States and the other increasingly connected nations of the Western Hemisphere. While at one point it may have been considered feasible to explore the histories of national populations in isolation from one another, all of the contributors to this volume highlight the deep transnational ties and interconnections that bind different peoples across national and regional lines. Thus, each chapter on Latino national subpopulations explores the ambiguous and shifting boundaries that so loosely define them both in the United States and in their countries of origin. A multinational perspective on important political and cultural themes--such as Latino gender systems, religion, politics, expressive and artistic cultures, and interactions with the law--helps shape a realistic interpretation of the Latino experience in the United States.
Understanding Latino History by
This Latino history textbook is an outstanding reference source that covers many different Latino groups within a single comprehensive narrative. Latinos make up a vibrant, expanding, and extremely diverse population with a history of being in the Americas that dates back to the early 16th century. Today, Latinos represent the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, yet the history of Latinos is largely unknown to the wider nation. This book tells the larger "story" of Latinos in the United States and describes how they represent a breadth of ethnicities, addressing not only those in very large numbers from countries such as Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and El Salvador, but also Latino people from Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, and Costa Rica, as well as indigenous Oaxacans and Mixtecos, among others. Organized chronologically, the book's coverage begins with the arrival of the Spanish in the Americas around 1500 and stretches to the present. Each chapter discusses a particular time period and addresses multiple Latino groups in the United States together in the same narrative. The text is supplemented with interesting sidebars that spotlight topics such as Latino sports figures, authentic recipes, and Latino actors and pop stars. These sidebars help to engage readers and assist them in better understanding the wide range of "the Latino American experience" in the modern context. Provides information that is accessible to a general student audience, supplying a comprehensive narrative history that covers various Latino groups along with profiles of notable Latinos from every era Covers all Latino groups, placing the history of Mexican Americans alongside the cultures and experiences of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, and Central and South Americans Includes primary sources with guiding questions that will help students develop interpretive, critical thinking skills Ideally suited to serve as a reference source and as a classroom survey text for students studying Latino history
Atlas of Hispanic-American History by
Building on the authoritative text of the award-winning first edition, ""Atlas of Hispanic-American History, Second Edition"" chronicles the important cultural, historical, political, and social experiences of Hispanic Americans through the years. Completely updated and revised, this comprehensive atlas examines Spanish, Native American, and African influences and how they combine in different ways to form the varied cultures of Hispanic America. Numerous full-color maps engage readers with easy-to-grasp facts, figures, and images of everyday life.Coverage includes: The Roots of a People - the multicultural background of Hispanic America and the blending of races and cultures; Spain in the Americas - Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean and voyages to America, the fall of the Aztec Empire, and Florida and the Spanish Caribbean; Independence in the New World - the Spanish and the American Revolution, Independence from New Spain, and Mexican Independence; Manifest Destiny and Hispanic America - the Texas independence movement, the U.S.-Mexican War, the California gold rush and Chilean mining communities; A Time of Transition - Hispanic Americans and the U.S. Civil War, the Basques in America, and the Spanish-American War; and, The Age of World Wars - revolution in Mexico; World War I and World War II, Puerto Rican Americans in the 1920s and 1930s, the rise of the Hispanic labor movement, the Great Depression, and the zoot suit riots.It also includes the Hispanic American Civil Rights Era - the bracero program; Operation Wetback; the question of Puerto Rican statehood; the Cuban Revolution; A Changing Community: The Late 20th CenturyHispanic America Today: the Mexican-American immigration debate; Hispanic religion, artists, writers, musicians, actors, and athletes.
Hispanics in the United States: a Demographic, Social, and Economic History, 1980-2005 by 
The Latino Americans by
THE COMPANION BOOK TO THE PBS DOCUMENTARY SERIES Latino Americans chronicles the rich and varied history of Latinos, who have helped shaped our nation and have become, with more than fifty million people, the largest minority in the United States. This companion to the landmark PBS miniseries vividly and candidly tells how the story of Latino Americans is the story of our country. Author and acclaimed journalist Ray Suarez explores the lives of Latino American men and women over a five-hundred-year span, encompassing an epic range of experiences from the early European settlements to Manifest Destiny; the Wild West to the Cold War; the Great Depression to globalization; and the Spanish-American War to the civil rights movement. Latino Americans shares the personal struggles and successes of immigrants, poets, soldiers, and many others--individuals who have made an impact on history, as well as those whose extraordinary lives shed light on the times in which they lived, and the legacy of this incredible American people.
En Aquel Entonces by
En Aquel Entonces [In Those Days] Readings in Mexican-American History Edited by Manuel G. Gonzales and Cynthia M. Gonzales An interdisciplinary anthology covering diverse aspects of the Mexican-American experience in the United States. The advent of Chicano Studies in the 1960s spawned a tremendous interest in the history of Mexicans in the United States. Committed to a multidisciplinary approach from the very outset, Chicano and Chicana scholars used a variety of perspectives to explain the Mexican-American past, but much of this work has not been readily available to students. En Aquel Entonces is intended as a partial solution to the problem, an anthology that brings together 31 of the most innovative journal articles published during the past four decades. These articles, representing several disciplines, provide students of history with a panoramic portrait of Mexicanos in the United States while at the same time introducing them to Chicana/o historiography. Each of the essays has been carefully edited in consultation with its author to present a text that is more accessible to students and general readers Manuel G. Gonzales is Professor of History at Diablo Valley College and author of Andrea Costa and the Rise of Socialism in the Romagna, The Hispanic Elite of the Southwest, and Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (Indiana University Press). Cynthia M. Gonzales is an Education Specialist at Ygnacio Learning Center in Walnut Creek, California and was Director of Education at Walnut Creek Hospital from 1985-1998.
Mexicanos by
Mexicanos tells the rich and vibrant story of Mexicans in the United States. Emerging from the ruins of Aztec civilization and from centuries of Spanish contact with indigenous people, Mexican culture followed the Spanish colonial frontier northward and put its distinctive mark on what became the southwestern United States. Shaped by their Indian and Spanish ancestors, deeply influenced by Catholicism, and tempered by an often difficult existence, Mexicans continue to play an important role in U.S. society, even as the dominant Anglo culture strives to assimilate them. Thorough and balanced, this book makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the Mexican population of the United States, a growing minority who will be a vital presence in 21st-century America.
Brown-Eyed Children of the Sun by
Brown-Eyed Children of the Sun is a new study of the Chicano/a movement, El Movimiento, and its multiple ideologies from a broad cultural perspective. The late 1960s marked the first time U.S. society witnessed Americans of Mexican descent on a national stage as self-determined individuals and collective actors rather than second-class citizens. George Mariscal's book examines the Chicano movement's quest for equal rights and economic justice in the context of the Viet Nam War era. Mariscal outlines the social and political conditions that made El Movimiento possible, especially the Cold War, U.S. military interventions, the Black Civil Rights movement, and anti-colonial struggles in the so-called Third World. This context paved the way for U.S. minority groups to politicize their cultural production and elaborate radical identities. Mariscal analyzes many issues that scholars have heretofore ignored when studying El Movimiento. Mariscal argues convincingly that the term "nationalism" fails to adequately describe the complexity of the movement and shows how Chicano/a internationalism arose in response to the Cuban Revolution of 1959. He traces the ideological uses of the image of Cesar Chavez as a touchstone for debate within El Movimiento and explains how some activists such as Reies López Tijerina formed alliances across ethnic boundaries, specifically with African American militants. The final chapters look at attempts to democratize higher education in California and suggest ways in which the legacy of the movement might be relevant to contemporary political projects. "George Mariscal gave us that extraordinary book Aztlan and Viet Nam. Here he turns his attention to a thoughtful analysis and description of the Chicano Movement of the Sixties and Seventies, in all its complexity, excitement, and promise. He finds fascinating connections between "el Movimiento" and certain historical figures like Che Guevara and Cesar Chavez. This book is a rich tapestry of provocative ideas and untold history."--Howard Zinn, author, A People's History of the United States
Landscapes of Struggle by
During the 1980s, El Salvador's violent civil war captured the world's attention. In the years since, the country has undergone dramatic changes. Landscapes of Struggle offers a broad, interdisciplinary assessment of El Salvador from the late nineteenth century to the present, focusing on the ways local politics have shaped the development of the nation. Proceeding chronologically, these essays-by historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists-explore the political, social, and cultural dynamics governing the Salvadoran experience, including the crucial roles of land, the military, and ethnicity; the effects of the civil war; and recent transformations, such as the growth of a large Salvadoran diaspora in the United States. Taken together, they provide a fully realized portrait of El Salvador's troublesome past, transformative present, and uncertain future.
The Zoot Suit Riots by
Provides a detailed account of the political events, social trends, and racial attitudes that contributed to a week-long outbreak of violence in Los Angeles in 1943 by white servicemen and civilians against young Mexican-American 'zoot suiters.' Includes a narrative overview, biographies, primary sources, chronology, glossary, bibliography, and index.
Fight in the Fields by
A "vivid, well-documented account of the farmworkers movement"(Philadelphia Inquirer) and its prime mover, Cesar Chavez. Edited by Diana Hembree with a foreword by Gary Soto and essays by Carey McWilliams, Victor Villaseñor, Alfredo Véa, Jr., Peter Matthiessen, Rudolfo Anaya, and others. Black-and-white photographs throughout.
Latino USA: a cartoon history by
Latino USA represents the culmination of Ilan Stavans's lifelong determination to meet the challenges of capturing the joys, nuances, and multiple dimensions of Latino culture within the context of the English language. In this cartoon history of Latinos, Stavans seeks to combine the solemnity of so-called "serious literature" and history with the inherently theatrical and humorous nature of the comics. The range of topics includes Columbus, Manifest Destiny, the Alamo, William Carlos Williams, Desi Arnaz, West Side Story, Castro, Guevera, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Neruda, GarcíMáuez, the Mariel Boatlift, and Selena. Stavans represents Hispanic civilization as a fiesta of types, archetypes, and stereotypes. These "clichéigurines" include a toucan (displayed regularly in books by GarcíMáuez, Allende, and others), the beloved Latino comedian Cantinflas (known as "the Hispanic Charlie Chaplin"), a masked wrestler, and Captain America. These multiple, at times contradictory voices, each narrating various episodes of Latino history from a unique perspective, combine to create a carnivalesque rhythm, democratic and impartial. For, as Stavans states, "History, of course, is a kaleidoscope where nothing is absolute." Latino USA, like the history it so entertainingly relates, is a dazzling kaleidoscope of irreverence, wit, subversion, anarchy, politics, humanism, celebration, and serious and responsible history.
Bad Mexicans: race, empire, and revolution in the borderlands by 
Cuba: an American history (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) by 
A Place at the Nayarit: how a Mexican restaurant nourished a community by
"Extraordinarily relevant and meaningful."--Elee Wood, New York Times Latinx Files 2022 Best Books, Los Angeles Times L.A. Taco's 2022 Best Books 2022 Porchlight Business Book Awards Longlist 2023 PROSE Award North American & US History Finalist, Association of American University Presses MacArthur Genius Natalia Molina unveils the hidden history of the Nayarit, a restaurant in Los Angeles that nourished its community of Mexican immigrants with a sense of belonging. In 1951, Doña Natalia Barraza opened the Nayarit, a Mexican restaurant in Echo Park, Los Angeles. With A Place at the Nayarit, historian Natalia Molina traces the life's work of her grandmother, remembered by all who knew her as Doña Natalia--a generous, reserved, and extraordinarily capable woman. Doña Natalia immigrated alone from Mexico to L.A., adopted two children, and ran a successful business. She also sponsored, housed, and employed dozens of other immigrants, encouraging them to lay claim to a city long characterized by anti-Latinx racism. Together, the employees and customers of the Nayarit maintained ties to their old homes while providing one another safety and support. The Nayarit was much more than a popular eating spot: it was an urban anchor for a robust community, a gathering space where ethnic Mexican workers and customers connected with their patria chica (their "small country"). That meant connecting with distinctive tastes, with one another, and with the city they now called home. Through deep research and vivid storytelling, Molina follows restaurant workers from the kitchen and the front of the house across borders and through the decades. These people's stories illuminate the many facets of the immigrant experience: immigrants' complex networks of family and community and the small but essential pleasures of daily life, as well as cross-currents of gender and sexuality and pressures of racism and segregation. The Nayarit was a local landmark, popular with both Hollywood stars and restaurant workers from across the city and beloved for its fresh, traditionally prepared Mexican food. But as Molina argues, it was also, and most importantly, a place where ethnic Mexicans and other Latinx L.A. residents could step into the fullness of their lives, nourishing themselves and one another. A Place at the Nayarit is a stirring exploration of how racialized minorities create a sense of belonging. It will resonate with anyone who has felt like an outsider and had a special place where they felt like an insider.
Barrio America: how Latino immigrants saved the American city by
The compelling history of how Latino immigrants revitalized the nation's cities after decades of disinvestment and white flight Thirty years ago, most people were ready to give up on American cities. We are commonly told that it was a "creative class" of young professionals who revived a moribund urban America in the 1990s and 2000s. But this stunning reversal owes much more to another, far less visible group: Latino and Latina newcomers. Award-winning historian A. K. Sandoval-Strausz reveals this history by focusing on two barrios: Chicago's Little Village and Dallas's Oak Cliff. These neighborhoods lost residents and jobs for decades before Latin American immigration turned them around beginning in the 1970s. As Sandoval-Strausz shows, Latinos made cities dynamic, stable, and safe by purchasing homes, opening businesses, and reviving street life. Barrio America uses vivid oral histories and detailed statistics to show how the great Latino migrations transformed America for the better.