Becoming Mexican American Ethnicity Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles 1900-1945 Review
Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Civilisation, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945
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This is a nice study that emphasizes Mexican immigrants' creation of a new culture in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. The text starts in Mexico and covers the motion of Mexicans to Los Angeles, before spending time discussing the way that both Americans and Mexicans tried to "assimilate" them further into their respective nationalities. However, Mexicans in the Us had already begun to create a hybrid identity. With the highest number of Mexicans in the United States by 1928, Los Angeles was the destination for many, but the crux of the creation of Chicano culture was the Great Depression.
During the Not bad Depression, betwixt the economic collapse (with Mexicans' selection to return) and mass deportation carried out by the newly-created Edge Patrol, Los Angeles lost i/3 of its Mexican population. Those who stayed became increasingly enlightened of the fragility of their state of affairs. To maintain their status, both economically and culturally, numerous Mexican immigrants and their children began to join unions en masse. Much like African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans, Mexican-Americans increasingly became active in Civil Rights struggles. Between the drastic transformations brought nearly the Great Depression, Mexican-American hybridity emerged in a context of increasingly hostility to their existence.
Notably, about historians of immigration to the United States have emphasized the importance of social mobility to the "Americanization" or "ethnicization" of immigrant groups. However, Sánchez'south text is interesting in that his subjects lacked social mobility. They were racialized and classified as fundamentally working course (or lower). The Nifty Depression really destroyed what little prospects Mexican immigrants to the United States had. But, by becoming increasingly involved in unions and fighting for their rights, they combined the culture of their homeland with that of the US. Reallly interesting stuff here.
I don't dear debates over Americanization or assimilation, simply Sánchez does a adept chore here.
In the summer of 1943, the Zoot Suit riots broke out in Southern California, a racial conflict involving white vitriol aimed at Mexican American countercultural youth known as pachucos. George Sanchez's history of Mexican American migrants and Chicanos at the plough of the 20th century gives us insights into the context for that incident. He argues that Mexican American migrant feel can't be understood in the aforementioned style as European migrant experiences of assimilation, or a gradual progression from "backward," non-modern and Erstwhile World ways en route to modernity in the so-chosen New World. Applying the insights of postmodern thinkers in the field of Chicana/o Studies, Sanchez'due south history portrays Mexican Americans unlike they have been portrayed before. Like anthropologist Renato Rosaldo, Sanchez begins from the acknowledgement that culture is not static and in the process explodes a number of commonsense notions including but not express to: 1) the idea that Mexican immigrants come to the US from rural/non-modern backgrounds 2) the ida that Mexican immigrants wanted to motion to the The states and not return to Mexico three) Mexican workers were "birds of transit" 4) Mexican civilisation is static in its patriarchal character and v) Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty are the middle of American migration.
For a book that was published 25 years ago, it's still refreshing.
Becoming Mexican American is exactly what the title suggests: it's the story of the cosmos of the Mexican-American culture, specifically in the early 1900'south in Los Angeles. This is a fascinating topic, and Sanchez pulls it off actually well. He'southward Mexican-American himself, the son of Mexican immigrants, and his sensitivity to the nuances of the culture are very apparent throughout the book.
He'southward also remarkably fifty-fifty in his narrative. While he's certainly supportive of the Mexican-American community and points out the many flaws in how America dealt with the situation, he doesn't go overboard. He uses his sources creatively and tells his story well. Here's a quick example, where he's describing how easy it was to cantankerous the border from United mexican states into America around the turn of the century (where I commencement the quote, he'due south describing the experience of an inspector sent to observe the edge patrol):
Two days later on, Inspector Seraphic crossed again, noticing how niggling attention was paid to the motion of Mexicans across the border. While the immigration official on duty at the Stanton Street Bridge sat in his office, hundreds of Mexicans passed back and forth without inspection. Afterward nearly an hour of observation, Seraphic reported that the official had made no endeavor to go out his seat and sat inside by the stove reading a paper. Mike Romo, a longtime El Paso resident, remembered a similar situation on the Sante Fe Bridge. "...One evening I was coming along about six:00 or vii:00. There was a man [there]; he was the only one at the bridge, on a soap box. Evidently he was sleeping; he had his head downwards. Anyhow, I guess he heard me walking. He lifted up [his head] and looked at me, and and so down it [went] again. They didn't bother about anything!"
I I am excited to share one of my favorite books in Chicanx history with you all as part of the #latinxbookstagramtour and as role of #latinxheritagemonth. USC historian George J. Sanchez's Becoming Mexican American is a astounding work in Chicanx history which depicts the Los Angeles Mexican American customs in the showtime half of the 20th century. This book covers this menstruum every bit Sanchez contends information technology is the menstruation when generations of Mexicans moored themselves to Los Angeles catalyzed by the tumultuous Mexican Revolution. The central premise of his work is that cultural adaptation occurred during the Great Low despite the absence of economic and social mobility. In other words, the community anchored around the Plaza and the Boyle Heights-Dais corridor is a "fascinating story of cultural invention." Despite bearing witness to such harsh historical realities as the repatriation movement of the 1930s and the Zoot Arrange Riots during World War Two, a unique Mexican American culture developed characterized by a brand of ambivalent Americanism.
Chapters comprehend a range of subjects including family life, religion, music and mass culture, and the repatriation movement. Beginning around 1930, Mexicans both voluntarily returned to United mexican states and others were forcibly removed, or deported during ambitious deportation sweeps. Meticulous research by Sanchez suggests that as much as 30% of the Mexican community of LA returned. It is an ugly in our history which as unfortunate parallels today. The book is highly recommended for those interested in LA history and Chicanx history. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review coming soon on jimbotimes.com
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April 12, 2022read for schoolhouse. learned some new stuff but not heart-opening.
Sanchez focused on the pull and push button factors that contributed to the migration of so many beyond the border north to the United States during the get-go few decades of the twentieth century. During this time, these immigrants experienced attempts at groups both trying to Americanize and Mexicanize them. These immigrants would first experience the efforts to Americanize them, equally seen in Los Angeles, which was so proceeded past counter attempts to Mexicanize the immigrants to maintain their loyalty and promote a return migration to Mexico. This back and forth contributed to the development of a Mexican American identity, which was evident in areas nutrient, and clothes to give some examples, and was particularly axiomatic in the 2d generation of children born in the United states. Sanchez argued the development of the Mexican American identity through their singled-out culture and handling of discrimination. This Mexican American identity adult, as noted by Sanchez, in the face of the Keen Depression and without swell mobility economically or socially. (xiii)
A couple comments on the volume: I particularly enjoyed the charts and maps. For example, the map on page 73 of Mexican residences in LA was peculiarly helpful to visualize the customs layout. All the same, I personally idea at that place were too many cake quotes throughout the book that were distracting to the menses of the capacity.
Good for agreement the push button and pull forces that led Mexicans to cantankerous the boarder to the US and back and the significant role that American businesses and government played in that. If yous don't go through all of it, the first few chapters are my favorite anyway. Well researched.
A historical monograph of Mexican-Americans in Fifty.A. during the twentieth century, this historical account sheds light on the complex and conflicted experiences of Mexican-Americans. Information technology's some other fascinating read—if yous're a history nerd, like me.
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Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106278.Becoming_Mexican_American
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