Mexicanos, Second Edition: A History of Mexicans in the United States

Newly revised and updated, Mexicanos 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 U.S. society, even as the dominant Anglo culture strives to assimilate them. Thorough and balanced, Mexicanos makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the Mexican population of the United States—a growing minority who are a vital presence in 21st-century America.

Customer Reviews:

Mexicanos

By A Customer - August 9, 2000

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,... read more

Passe Euro-Centricism

By World Reader - November 21, 2009

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.

Scholarship and Mexican Americans, a Pleasing Departure

By Rex Field "Slow but Thorough Reader" - November 17, 2009

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... read more