Blood Oranges : Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands / Timothy Paul Bowman ; foreword by Sterling Evans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bowman, Timothy Paul, 1978- author.

Contributor:

Project Muse, Content Provider.

Series:

Connecting the greater west series.

Connecting the greater west series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unfair labor practices--Texas, South--History--20th century.

Unfair labor practices.

Mexican American agricultural laborers--Texas, South--History--20th century.

Mexican American agricultural laborers.

Migrant agricultural laborers--Texas, South--History--20th century.

Migrant agricultural laborers.

Foreign workers, Mexican--Texas, South--History--20th century.

Foreign workers, Mexican.

Texas, South--Ethnic relations.

Texas, South.

Mexican-American Border Region--Ethnic relations.

Mexican-American Border Region.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Economic aspects--History--20th century.

United States.

Mexico--Emigration and immigration--Economic aspects--History--20th century.

Mexico.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

College Station : Texas A&M University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Blood Oranges traces the origins and legacy of racial differences between Anglo Americans and ethnic Mexicans (Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans) in the South Texas borderlands in the twentieth century. Author Tim Bowman uncovers a complex web of historical circumstances that caused ethnic Mexicans in the region to rank among the poorest, least educated, and unhealthiest demographic in the country. The key to this development, Bowman finds, was a "modern colonization movement," a process that had its roots in the Mexican-American war of the nineteenth century but reached its culmination in the twentieth century. South Texas, in Bowman's words, became an "internal economy just inside of the US-Mexico border." Beginning in the twentieth century, Anglo Americans consciously transformed the region from that of a culturally "Mexican" space, with an economy based on cattle, into one dominated by commercial agriculture focused on citrus and winter vegetables. As Anglos gained political and economic control in the region, they also consolidated their power along racial lines with laws and customs not unlike the "Jim Crow" system of southern segregation. Bowman argues that the Mexican labor class was thus transformed into a marginalized racial caste, the legacy of which remained in place even as large-scale agribusiness cemented its hold on the regional economy later in the century.Blood Oranges stands to be a major contribution to the history of South Texas and borderland studies alike.

Contents:

Note on terminology

Introduction

Border colonies: Mexicans, Anglos, and the South Texas borderlands from ranchland to commercial agriculture

From farmers to colonizers: boosterism and the creation of commercial farming colonies

Making the border orange: citriculture and the changing landscape of the South Texas borderlands during the 1920s

"More Texan than the Texans": colonialism and race in the South Texas borderlands, 1917-1930

Many valleys: the fates of small growers and Mexican workers during the 1930s

Toward a homeland: the Chicano Movement and the intellectual creation of homeland in South Texas

Conclusion

Notes.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-62349-415-X

OCLC:

951453476