San Antonio College Library

"The edited collection examines violence against Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Texas between 1910 and 1920, perpetrated by strangers, neighbors, vigilantes, and especially law enforcement officers. It also chronicles the efforts of José Tomas Canales, who called for an investigation into the violence committed by Texas Rangers, inspiring a new era of Mexican-American civil rights activism in Texas"--

Part one discusses the development of the Mexican-American community of Houston from 1900-1960. This section discusses how Hispanic activists of the day sought to have Hispanics classified as White Americans. Specifically, chapter 1 discusses the Hispanic community prior to World War II, and chapter 2 discusses Mexican children in the schools and how they were affected by educational policies. Chapter 3 discusses efforts from Hispanic individuals...

"Everybody in the bar had to drop a quarter in the jukebox or be shamed by "Momo" Villarreal. It wasn't about the money, Mary Ann Villarreal's grandmother insisted. It was about the music-more songs for all the patrons of the Pecan Lounge in Tivoli, Texas. But for Mary Ann, whose schoolbooks those quarters bought, the money didn't hurt. When as an adult Villarreal began to wonder how the few recordings of women singers made their way into that jukebox,...

This book explores the complex and sometimes contradictory relations between LBJ and Mexican Americans. Julie Pycior shows that Johnson's genuine desire to help Mexican Americans - and reap the political dividends - did not prevent him from allying himself with individuals and groups intent on thwarting Mexican Americans' organizing efforts. Not surprisingly, these actions elicited a wide range of response, from grateful loyalty to, in some cases,...

In the Mid-1960s, San Antonio, Texas, was a segregated city governed by an entrenched Anglo social and business elite. The Mexican American barrios of the west and south sides were characterized by substandard housing and experienced seasonal flooding. Gang warfare broke out regularly. Then the striking farmworkers of South Texas marched through the city and set off a social movement that transformed the barrios and ultimately brought down the old...

"More than just a civil war, the Mexican Revolution in 1910 triggered hostilities along the border between Mexico and the United States. In particular, the decade following the revolution saw a dramatic rise in the lynching of ethnic Mexicans in Texas. This book argues that ethnic and racial tension brought on by the fighting in the borderland made Anglo-Texans feel justified in their violent actions against Mexicans. They were able to use the legal...

For Mexican workers on the American home front during World War II, unprecedented new employment opportunities contrasted sharply with continuing discrimination, inequality, and hardship. In Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, Emilio Zamora traces the wartime experiences of Mexican workers as they moved from rural to urban areas and sought better-paying jobs in rapidly expanding industries. Contending that discrimination undermined job...

In a book that fundamentally challenges our understanding of race in the United States, Neil Foley unravels the complex history of ethnicity in the cotton culture of central Texas. This engrossing narrative, spanning the period from the Civil War through the collapse of tenant farming in the early 1940s, bridges the intellectual chasm between African American and Southern history on one hand and Chicano and Southwestern history on the other. The White...

The Plan of San Diego, a rebellion proposed in 1915 to overthrow the U.S. government in the Southwest and establish a Hispanic republic in its stead, remains one of the most tantalizing documents of the Mexican Revolution. The plan called for an insurrection of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans in support of the Mexican Revolution and the waging of a genocidal war against Anglos. The resulting violence approached a race war and has...