Mexicans in the making of America / Neil Foley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Foley, Neil, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mexican Americans--History.

Mexican Americans.

Mexicans--United States--History.

Mexicans.

Immigrants--United States--History.

Immigrants.

National characteristics, American.

Transnationalism--History.

Transnationalism.

United States--Relations--Mexico.

United States.

Mexico--Relations--United States.

Mexico.

United States--Ethnic relations.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Mexico--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 p.)

Edition:

Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2014

Language Note:

English

Summary:

According to census projections, by 2050 nearly one in three U.S. residents will be Latino, and the overwhelming majority of these will be of Mexican descent. This dramatic demographic shift is reshaping politics, culture, and fundamental ideas about American identity. Neil Foley, a leading Mexican American historian, offers a sweeping view of the evolution of Mexican America, from a colonial outpost on Mexico’s northern frontier to a twenty-first-century people integral to the nation they have helped build. Mexicans have lived in and migrated to the American West and Southwest for centuries. When the United States annexed those territories following the Mexican-American War in 1848, the unequal destinies of the two nations were sealed. Despite their well-established presence in farm fields, workshops, and military service, Mexicans in America have long been regarded as aliens and outsiders. Xenophobic fantasies of a tidal wave of Mexicans overrunning the borders and transforming “real America” beyond recognition have inspired measures ranging from Operation Wetback in the 1950s to Arizona’s draconian SB 1070 anti-immigration law and the 700-mile security fence under construction along the U.S.-Mexican border today. Yet the cultural, linguistic, and economic ties that bind Mexico to the United States continue to grow. Mexicans in the Making of America demonstrates that America has always been a composite of racially blended peoples, never a purely white Anglo-Protestant nation. The struggle of Latinos to gain full citizenship bears witness to the continual remaking of American culture into something more democratic, egalitarian, and truer to its multiracial and multiethnic origins.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Prologue: “America’s Changing Colors”

1. The Genesis of Mexican America

2. No Estás en Tu Casa

3. Becoming Good Neighbors

4. Defending the Hemisphere

5. Braceros and the “Wetback” Invasion

6. The Chicano Movement

7. Brave New Mundo

8. Fortress America

Epilogue: “We Are America”

Abbreviations

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

9780674744837

0674744837

9780674735675

0674735676

OCLC:

891590306