Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986

It's very interesting. It tells how Mexicans grew up in Texas, so if you want to know more on how Texas was made this would be a good book.

This Mexican problem is not new. About every thirty years the xenophobes come out of the woodwork to try to turn back the tide. You need to read this book. Why? Because you ignore your history at your own peril. Witness Iraq, just thirty years after Vietnam. This is not a novel. It will require a bit of motivation. It is a serious sociological/historical treatise, but it is not dense. It is well worth the effort. The focus is south Texas, but it is relevant all across the territories taken from Mexico by war: Texas, New Mexico (New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona), and California. Learn about good Mexicans and bad Mexicans, clean Mexicans and dirty Mexicans, dead Mexicans, lazy Mexicans and stupid Mexicans, and other variations on the theme. Find out how Mexicans who threw in with Anglos to secure the independence of Texas ended up dispossessed, disfranchised, disenfranchised, dangling from the end of a rope or digging ditches. Learn what it takes to whiten a Mexican where even heroism in war will not suffice, and see how Mexicans squabbling among themselves for crumbs from the master's table delay their own progress. Don't be afraid. Montejano is dispassionate as a historical sociologist should be. It is 1987 and he is hopeful. He cannot see what the future will bring. If your mind is already made up and you don't wish to be confused with facts, and you're already well caught up in the hysteria, then I don't recommend it. On the other hand, if you sincerely believe that the Mexican problem is susceptible to something other than the final solution, and you have an interest in averting this country's slipping into some shameful reenactment of a tawdry chapter in its history, then you could do a lot worse than to invest a bit of time and money in this book.

I read this book some years ago (about 1994 or 5) and it stays with me every day. What Montejano has done for Texas in telling its social and racial history sheds light into the complex contemporary tensions of the southwest. He skillfully uncovers the racial and class subordination of people with Mexican ancestry. I found this book to be extraordinarily enlightening and useful in interpreting California history. What he does best in the book is isolate the racism of Anglos in the Southwest targeting Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. If you're looking for a quick snippet to get a feel for the book, I recommend chapter 10 on "Segregation". I can only hope that Montejano will grace us with more books.

I can not tell you how many copies of this book I have given away. Why? Because if you're visiting Texas, or have just moved here, and you don't "get" it ( & why would you?), or have lived here a while but have been only subjected to the official story, you MUST read this book. But it's not only Texans -- new and veteran -- who need to read this. If you are interested in Southwestern U.S. history, you need to read it, and if you're interested in a very good case study of how "race" and class work together, against each other, and are intertwined in very complicated ways, you need to read this. And any student of civil rights movements will benefit from Montejano's analysis.Montejano's writing is clear and direct, without being oversimplified. You'll be grateful you read this book, and probably keep coming back to it....things that may not make sense at first will become clearer with time. If only more history was written this well.