La comunidad mexicana en los Estados Unidos

This work seeks to stimulate, within Mexican historiography, greater understanding and research concerning the historical circumstances of early Mexican immigrant communities in the United States. The edited volume, comprised of four articles, succeeds in its main purpose by providing readers with a short but useful historical account of the experience of several Mexican immigrant communities between 1848 and 1940. However, the contributions are uneven in their sophistication, demonstrating different levels of engagement with recent discussions in the field.The book opens with Lawrence Taylor’s article on Mexicans in California during and after the Gold Rush. As the author reminds us, the roots of many of the conflicts Mexican immigrants face today are to be found in the history of California immigrants during the second half of the nineteenth century. Taylor mentions discriminatory mining laws and the plight of Californios who were dispossessed of their lands and their political power as examples of the early animosities developed against people of Mexican origin in California. Additionally, Taylor explores the barrioization, or process of spatial segregation, within many California cities during the late nineteenth century, as well as the arrival of new waves of Mexican immigrants during the 1880s, as lenses on the social tensions that affected people of Mexican origin. The article, however, suffers from a dated bibliography. This helps explain why Taylor does not refer to crucial topics, including the process of racialization of the Mexican community during the second half of the nineteenth century, a topic explored recently by, among others, Stephen J. Pitti.Fernando Alanis’s article explores some of the factors that help explain the emergence of stereotypes about the Mexican immigrant. According to Alanis, between 1890 and 1922, a strong nationalist debate arose concerning immigration and the social and labor conditions of immigrant communities; this gave room for the appearance of a strong and general derogatory stereotype that has endured to the present day. The article provides a good context of the nativist discourses and the increase of Mexican immigration during the period, but its strongest contribution is the way it takes into account the racialization of the Mexican community, giving relevance to the actions of radicals and nationalists who felt their racial supremacy threatened by the presence of Mexicans and other undesirable foreigners during this period of time.Victoria Lerner’s work on Mexican exiles during the Mexican Revolution is a valuable contribution, because it explores the topic of Mexicans who did not travel to the United States in search of economic opportunities. Lerner first defines the distinguishing characteristics of exiles, compared to immigrants or refugees, describing exiles as those who left the country for political motivations alone. After providing a very schematic account of the number of exiles who left during the revolution, their heterogeneous character, and the moments in which they left the country, Lerner concentrates on their adaptation in the United States, describing the cities where they lived and their economic experiences. Lerner concludes that these exiles did not engage in the types of unskilled labor that other immigrants did, and instead played an important role as political activists. However, the article — which is solidly grounded in documentary evidence — is too schematic in its approach and provides more of a characterization than a deep analysis of Mexican exiles during the revolution.David Badillo’s article, which is probably the most interesting of the book, considers the experience of Mexicans in Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century, and more specifically of Mexicans who lived in the Near West Side and tried to become integrated. Not seeking total Americanization, Badillo argues that Mexican immigrants in the Midwest were more successful at integration than immigrants elsewhere, and he uses their social and spatial mobility as an example of this. The presence of a mosaic of immigrants in an environment of reform — in which the Hull House project played a crucial role, attending to the necessities of thousands of immigrants — helps explain this. Exploring Mexican and other associations, the role of the Catholic Church, reform movements, and even internal divisions within the Mexican community, Badillo provides an interesting account of Mexicans living far away from the border in a multiethnic environment.This book will be of interest for all historians who do research on the presence of Mexican immigrants and exiles in the United States, as well as to sociologists who want to explore the experiences of early Mexican immigrant communities. However, the clear writing style, the logical presentation, and manageable size of the text make the book accessible for a nonacademic public as well, which is certainly an important merit that compliments the editor’s goal

Art · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Gold rush · Historiography · Humanities · Immigration · Mexican americans · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Racialization · Social science · Sociology · Sophistication · Anthropology · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law