Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States [Hardcover]

Manuel G. Gonzales (Author), Manuel G. Gonzales (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

This 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 US society, even as the dominant Anglo culture strives to assimilate them. Manuel Gonzales traces the Mexicanos story from before the arrival of the Spanish, through the years of the expanding Spanish frontier, to the creation of the Mexican republic and its relations with the United States - the "Colossus of the North" - along a contentious border. Gonzales describes Mexican life in the young American Southwest and tracks the growing tide of emigration northward always present, but especially strong in the early years of the twentieth century. He recounts the economic hardships of Mexican Americans during the Depression years, the trials of war and its aftermath, and the explosion of ethnic pride and political awareness in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s. Reviewing the history of the last twenty-five years, he sees the failed promise of political and economic gains for Mexicans in the United States, as well as hopeful signs for the future. Throughout this history, Gonzales attempts to do justice to the variety of experience in what is, after all, a heterogeneous community. He tells of vendidos (sellouts) and heroes, the legendary and the little known, the failures and the triumphant. Thorough and balanced, "Mexicanos" 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 twenty-first-century America. A product of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, the systematic study of the history of Mexicanos in the United States - both native-born and immigrant - has been dominated during the past thirty years by movement scholar-activists. Today, Mexican-American history continues to be taught primarily in Chicano/a Studies departments, largely from a militant perspective. However, a changing intellectual climate suggests that the time is ripe for a fresh reassessment of the Mexican-American past. Indeed, in a search for alternate perspectives, even some Chicano and Chicana scholars themselves have begun to challenge the prevailing ethnic studies approach, where victimisation and resistance have been the predominant themes. Eschewing celebratory history, these researchers, from a variety of disciplines, are slowly constructing a more nuanced portrait of Mexican-American life. In fact, much of their work has been on the cutting edge of contemporary research on class, race, gender, and sexuality. Combining the best of the new studies by these Chicano/a revisionists with insights gained through his rigorous grounding in European and Latin American as well as Mexican-American history, Manuel G Gonzales offers a 'non-movement' interpretation of the evolution of the growing Mexican communities in the United States. Throughout, Gonzales attempts to relate the lives of all segments of the heterogeneous ethnic community, not just the heroes who loom so large in movement portrayals; 'even vendidos (sellouts),' he notes, 'have a history.' Moreover, in contrast to older studies, Gonzales's book probes the failures as well as the successes of the community, resulting in a synthesis that is both fair and balanced. On the whole this survey makes a timely and valuable contribution to our understanding of our nation's Mexican population, a burgeoning minority who will play an expanding and vital role in 21st century America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Exhaustive and destined for controversy, this survey of the historical literature about Mexicans in what has become the United States is also a critique of the Chicano studies field. A specialist in the American Southwest and currently a professor of history at Diablo Valley College, Gonzales (The Hispanic Elite of the Southwest) aims to balance what he views as the prevailing liberal, "good guys versus bad guys" bias that is the legacy of the activists who pioneered the field in the late 1960s. his pugnacious approach sometimes creates a hybrid of straight history and diatribe, most evident when he brandishes verbal sabers at his colleagues, although his argument about the shortcomings of the existing scholarship is largely persuasive. In Gonzales's view, too much of the literature focuses on the historical life of the American Southwest, with Mexico as an almost mythical backdrop to a timeline that ends in the 1970s. In particular, his discussions of WWII and its aftermath, including the migratory surge to the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, and the successes and misfortunes of the 1990s, help create a more three-dimensional panorama. Gonzales makes an effort to include many lesser-known figures; he also emphasizes the role of Mexicanas. In the end, Gonzales brings a bracing perspective to this epic story. The lack of maps, however, is unfortunate. 20 b&w photos.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gonzales, a history professor at Diablo State College, anticipates controversy over his new survey of Mexican American history. Over the past generation, that history has to a large extent been told from the perspective of the Chicano movement, with an emphasis on victimization and resistance. Gonzales aims for greater "objectivity," e.g., he believes that the "Indian and the Spanish are equally important in explaining the rise of Mexican culture," and he seeks to balance accomplishments and oppression. One consequence of this approach is that Gonzales gives more credit to the more conservative groups within the Mexican American community than some activist-scholars would. The other primary purpose of Gonzales' overview is to take advantage of significant new scholarship on a variety of subjects over the past two decades; he incorporates that material gracefully in his narrative of more than two centuries of Mexican American history. Appropriate for libraries serving Chicanos and where interest in ethnic studies is strong. Mary Carroll

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253335205
• ISBN-13: 978-0253335203
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mexicanos, August 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (Hardcover)

Finally, a long awaited balanced, and factually well-researched story of mexican-american history, migration and assimilation. It was very impressive to me the thoughtful, scholarly approach to what has recently become mostly an politically biased field. I was quite impressed and captivated by Professor Gonzales' extensive research, as well as his determination to not be swayed by the "politically correct" versions of this important American story, so often told in a cynical manner. In one segment, Professor Gonzales describes the courage with which Mexicanos fought during world war II to defend a country (the U.S.) that while not always gracious, has afforded Mexicanos, including my entire family, their greatest opportunity ever to advance economically, culturally and educationally. He describes how even though the new immigrants faced many hardships and racism, life in America has always been better than the neglect and corruption they faced in Mexico, throughout history. His approach to the subject beginning with the Spanish exploration in the New World, and extending to modern times has been very helpful indeed. His weakest chapter was the last, when he departs from his disciplined scholarly approach to offer weakly supported opinions. Highly recommended historical work for all interested in American history; and certainly for those looking to research their own historical roots.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Passe Euro-Centricism, November 21, 2009

By 

World Reader (World Citizen) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (Paperback)

Takes the perspective of the Spanish as "civilizers" and Indians as "barbarians" as if Cortez or Columbus wrote it themselves. Gonzalez is a hispanophile to the nth degree and makes no bones about it. The perspective is also one that glorifies the conservative elements in Mexican/Mexican American/Chicana/o politics and denounces those that lean to the center or the left. I would imagine it would be Linda Sanchez' (Los Republicanos) kind of "Hispanic" history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarship and Mexican Americans, a Pleasing Departure, November 17, 2009

By 

Rex Field "Slow but Thorough Reader" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mexicanos, Second Edition: A History of Mexicans in the United States (Paperback)

I have, over the years, grown accustomed to the tedious, tortured analysis of Mexican participation in American life as presented by "scholars" in the field. Here, in an unapologetic and well-documented format, is a work of history portraying a people in their real lives, coping with and struggling through the exigencies of colonial violence, the rise of their own culture as a "mestizo" people, national identity and recognition, and ethnic divisions that result in oppression and injustice. All the while, Manual Gonzales steers his intellectual helm mightily to avoid the victimization tools so handily employed by most other authors who write on this subject.

This is not to say that Gonzales scrapes his pages of any speck of subjectivity, but rather that he admits his own biases (i.e., Indian vs. European influences during Mesitzaje) and bows to them accordingly. The intro and background material point up the tendency of historians to include the preponderant movements of their times (often thought of as "historiography") in their thoughts, observations, and ultimate writings on matters such as the history of Mexican people in their many contexts. Gleaning honest, thoughtful history from more modern works written in the era of the awakening of "La Raza" is in many ways as difficult as finding like veracity in the countervailing writings of Spaniards of the ealier period of conquest. Gonzales seems to master a more clinical, objective strategy, and combined with excellent, creative writing skills, provides a most useful survey indeed.