Blood Oranges
Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4760226 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jim Norris (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 104 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 273-274 |
| Publication date | 2017-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jax139 |
| OpenAlex | W2683605204 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
Timothy Paul Bowman's Blood Oranges focuses on the establishment of the citrus-based economy in south Texas during the early twentieth century and how the ethnic Mexican population there became marginalized and exploited. The author's thesis is that “twentieth-century South Texas history unfolded the way it did because Anglo-Americans colonized the region after 1848” (p. 2). After briefly describing the Spanish settlement of the region, Bowman plunges into a narrative of south Texas after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) and how ethnic Mexicans (a term the author uses) and a minority population of Anglos coexisted. The arrival of the railroad in 1904 disrupted the relative balance, and midwestern farmers who introduced citrus cultivation to the lower Rio Grande Valley quickly transformed the region. Citrus cultivation was labor intensive, but the region's boosters who lured in midwesterners sold the new arrivals on the availability of ethnic Mexican workers, whether residents or those just across the Rio Grande. The soon-dominant Anglo population gained political control by the 1920s and created a “Juan Crow” society. The Great Depression drove many smaller growers out of business as agribusinesses gained primacy and manipulated the border to ensure a steady supply of cheap labor. The colony freed itself from political control during the Chicano uprising of the 1960s
Agriculture · Archaeology · Colonialism · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Geography · Great Depression · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Population · Settlement (finance · Sociology · Archaeology and Natural History · Demography · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law
Police Brutality and Mexican American Families in Texas, 1945–1980
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Strengthening Partnerships entre las Familias, las Escuelas, y la Universidad for Dual Language Bilingual, Bicultural, Biliterate Education (DLB 3 E)
The American West and the World
Nuestra ciencia as transborder ecological knowledge and survival
| Citations per year | 0.63 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2025 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |