Border Crossings: Mexican and Mexican-American Workers / Edition 1

by John Mason Hart University of Houston

Overview

The history of Mexican and Mexican-American working classes has been segregated by the political boundary that separates the United States of America from the United States of Mexico. As a result, scholars have long ignored the social, cultural, and political threads that the two groups hold in common. Further, they have seldom addressed the impact of American values and organizations on the working class of that country.

Compiled by one of the leading North American experts on the Mexican Revolution, the essays in Border Crossings: Mexican and Mexican-American Workers explore the historical process behind the formation of the Mexican and Mexican- American working classes. The volume connects the history of their experiences from the cultural beginnings and the rise of industrialism in Mexico to the late twentieth century in the U.S.

Border Crossings notes the similar social experiences and strategies of Mexican workers in both countries, community formation and community organizations, their mutual aid efforts, the movements of people between Mexico and Mexican-American communities, the roles of women, and the formation of political groups. Finally, Border Crossings addresses the special conditions of Mexicans in the United States, including the creation of a Mexican-American middle class, the impact of American racism on Mexican communities, and the nature and evolution of border towns and the borderlands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780842027175
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/1998
Series:	Latin American Silhouettes
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.86(h) x 0.56(d)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Culture and Politics of Late Nineteenth-Century Mexican Textile Workers Chapter 2 The Formation of the Orizaban Working Class Chapter 3 Gender, Work, and Class Consciousness among Mexican Factory Workers, 1880–1910 Chapter 4 Syndicalism and Citizenship: Post-Revolutionary Worker Mobilizations in Veracruz Chapter 5 Identity and Culture: The Poza Rica Oil Workers and Nationalization Chapter 6 Labor Formation and Community Development: The Mexican Working Class in Texas, 1900–1950 Chapter 7 As Guilty as Hell: Copper Towns, Mexican Miners and Spatial Development in Arizona Chapter 8 Customs and Resistance: Work and Mexican Immigrants to Chicago, 1910–1930 Chapter 9 Transnational Mexican Workers in California and Their Organizations

Editorial Reviews

An excellent introduction to the methods that Mexican and Mexican-American workers have used in their struggle to maintain both their dignity and their livelihood in Mexico and the United States.

New Mexico Historical Review

A very readable and thought-provoking text.

American Historical Review

Ten essays look at the common features, influences, and patterns that link Mexican and Mexican-American working classes, which scholars generally treat separately because of the political border. Their topics include textile workers in the late 19th century, syndicalism and citizen in Veracruz after the revolution, the petroleum workers of Poza Rica in the 1930s, copper miners in Arizona 1920-50, and immigrants in Chicago 1910-30. Paper edition (unseen), $18.95. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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