Review by Choice Review
Foley (Southern Methodist Univ.) writes a general history of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants in the US that is both academic and highly readable. He argues that in spite of the cycles of anti-immigrant hysteria and endemic racism ethnic Mexicans face in the US, the reality is that Mexican people have been part of the country's story since well before there even was a US. The author examines the experiences of Spanish and then Mexican peoples in what is now the US from the 1500s to the present. He also looks at the broader forces of assimilation that have both Americanized Mexicans and Mexicanized Americans (of all ethnic backgrounds), even as that assimilation has spread across the border. Foley argues that from its inception, the US has always been a multicultural and multilingual society, in spite of the traditional resistance to acknowledge it, and his work effectively demonstrates the role that ethnic Mexicans have played in shaping that society. Overall, the quality of scholarship and ease of reading make this work a great option for undergraduates or resource for general readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public, general, and undergraduate collections. --Cameron L. Sinclair, Brookhaven College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this compelling sociological study, noted historian Foley reaches back to the Spanish explorers of what became Mexico and forward to todays headlines, with Hispanics-most of them of Mexican descent-the fastest-growing segment of the U. S. population. He moves with uncommon lucidity through a thicket of litigation and legislation, finding a key point in the Census Bureaus 1977 decision to designate Mexicans and other ethnicities under the pan-ethnic identification Hispanic, chosen instead of other options like Latino or Spanish-origin. He also traces conflicting impulses toward inclusion (1942s Bracero Program; recent attempts to pass the DREAM Act) and exclusion (1954s Operation Wetback; California Proposition 187). Putting a face onto these bureaucratic details, Foley covers the stories of individual political and labor activists, including Cesar Chavez and Reies Tijerina, and myriad cases of discrimination in public places and in hiring and work conditions. The phrase comprehensive immigration reform-invariably referring to Mexicans and other Hispanics-slips all too easily from the lips of conservatives, liberals, Democrats, Republicans, leftists, and rightists. Readers of all political persuasions will find Foleys intensively researched, well-documented scholarly work an instructive, thoroughly accessible guide to the ramifications of immigration policy. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Comprehensive immigration reform has been a hot-topic political issue for much of recent history, with camps split between hardline border security and anti-illegal immigrant sentiment to those pushing for a "path to citizenship" for the thousands of undocumented immigrants in America. Foley (history, Southern Methodist Univ.) tells the story of Mexican migration to the United States, starting with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and required Mexico to cede land that now constitutes California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. The story of this border, and movement across it, has been intertwined in the stories of the United States and Mexico and in fact relates the background of how, through the Mexican immigration saga, the United States is becoming "more egalitarian, more accepting of difference-in short, more American." If demographers are correct that America will become a minority-majority nation by mid-century as predicted, this history will be a critical part of America's future. Verdict This well-researched and well-written overview of the history of Mexican migration to the United States is recommended for those wishing to learn more about the current immigration issue or the history of U.S.-Mexico relations.-Michael C. Miller, Austin P.L. & Austin History Ctr., TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A scholar specializing in the American Southwest tells the underappreciated story of the Mexicans who have helped build America.Hundreds of years before any Anglo crossed the Mississippi westward, Mexicans lived in the present-day American West and Southwest. Ever since, their descendants have occupied a peculiar position in our history. With more than a little justice, Chicano activists, protesting their treatment in the United States, declared during the 1960s, "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us." Foley (History/Southern Methodist Univ.; Quest For Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown Solidarity, 2010, etc.) sets forth the genesis of Mexican America with an introductory, potted history of the Spanish conquest. He devotes more space to the border-altering U.S. land grab of a third of Mexico's territory, first with the annexation of Texas and then with 1848's Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The bulk of the narrative centers on the Mexican experience in America during the 20th century, the decadeslong push/pull between the United States and Mexico, the unceasing controversies over generations of legal and illegal immigrants, and the indispensability of Mexican-American labor to our economy versus the accompanying fear of the foreign. Foley's narrative becomes too crowded with passages discussing 1942's Zoot Suit Riot in Los Angeles, Mexican-American wartime contributions, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and '70s and the "Decade of the Hispanic" in the '80s. The author touches on the creation of the United Farm Workers, the "English First" movement and instances of recurring racism, ranging from the forthright "No Mexicans" signs of the 1940s to the "Frito Bandito" advertisements of the '60s. For Americans long accustomed to understanding the country's development as an east-to-west phenomenon, Foley's singular service is to urge us to tilt the map south to north and to comprehend conditions as they have been for some time and will likely be for the foreseeable future.A timely look at and appreciation of a fast-growing demographic destined to play an increasingly important role in our history. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
