Mexicanos, Third Edition: A History of Mexicans in the United States - Softcover

Gonzales, Manuel G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253221250 ISBN 13: 9780253221254

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Newly revised and updated, 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, Mexicanos makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the Mexican population of the United States―a growing minority who are a vital presence in 21st-century America.

About this title

About the Author:

Manuel G. Gonzales is Professor of History at Diablo Valley College. His books include Andrea Costa and the Rise of Socialism in the Romagna and The Hispanic Elite of the Southwest. He is editor (with Cynthia Gonzales) of En Aquel Entonces (IUP, 2000).

From Kirkus Reviews:

A thoughtful, thorough survey of events in the history of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos, Hispanos, and Latinos. That so many terms should apply to the same people is the result, writes Gonzales (History/Diablo Valley Coll.), of that peoples quest over several generations for identity as an ethnic minority in the US. Since the 1960s Chicano has been a favored term yet one that is politically laden and not widely accepted in the mainstream. Neither, he believes, has Mexican historiography generally, because it has been both heavily politicized and largely confined academically to Chicano and ethnic studies departments. This ideological orientation, he writes, has worked against the complete acceptance of Chicano historians and other Chicano scholars by their colleagues in the academy. Gonzales suggests that Mexican is the better overarching term, especially because, in a broad survey taken in 1990, 62 percent of people of Mexican heritage born in this country preferred [it], as did 86 percent of the immigrant population. He also demonstrates by example that history need not be overtly politicized in order to score political points. He proceeds to unfold a lively narrative that begins with the Spanish conquest of Mexico and ends in the Gringolandia of the late 1990s. Gonzales has a sharp eye for historical ironies. In one section, for instance, he examines the role of the bandido, or bandit, in the mainstream cultures perception of Mexicans generally. Lawlessness, he writes, was not uniquely characteristic of the oppressed Mexican population; it was rampant on the frontier . . . . Indeed, some historians have seen a lack of respect for the law as an American tradition. Yet, he writes, accommodation by the conquered Mexican population was much more common than resistance; even though on the frontier they were despised as being racially inferior, most Mexicans struggled to be good citizens. That overlooked tradition, Gonzales notes, emerged in many ways: in the deeds, for instance, of Jos M. Lpez, an army sergeant who killed more enemy soldiers than any other American in World War II. And it continues today, he asserts, in the increased presence of Mexicans in all aspects of mainstream culture and particularly among the intelligentsia. Likely to be widely used in college history courses, Gonzaless book will be of much interest to general readers as well. (20 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0253221250
• ISBN 13: 9780253221254
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 424