Assault on Mexican American Collective Memory, 2010-2015

The refrain throughout Rodolfo F. Acuña's Assault on Mexican American Collective Memory is that history matters. Arguably, this theme defines all of Acuña's work, most notably Occupied America (1981). But in his most recent book, Acuña focuses on a five-year period from 2010 to 2015 that begins with the battle to save Mexican American studies in the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona and ends with Donald J. Trump's presidential victory, asking what impact that win will have on the Chicanax/Latinx community and on the nation. Why does history matter? Acuña's answer lies in the book's subtitle: Swimming with Sharks. The sharks are the forces of neoliberalism, calling for austerity while plundering public institutions and resources and converting them into profit-generating businesses. Acuña's book is a grito—a loud cry against neoliberalism, which started under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and that continues today. Whether neoliberalism is the gentrification of working-class Chicano neighborhoods such as Boyle Heights in Los Angeles or the privatization of public universities in California, its impact is the same: the erasure of memory

Austerity · Battle · Economic history · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Victory · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law