William Dusinberre
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195326031
- eISBN:
- 9780199868308
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326031.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This book examines both the social and the political history of slavery. James Polk — President of the United States from 1845 to 1849 — owned a Mississippi cotton plantation with about fifty slaves. ...
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This book examines both the social and the political history of slavery. James Polk — President of the United States from 1845 to 1849 — owned a Mississippi cotton plantation with about fifty slaves. Drawing upon previously unexplored records, this book recreates the world of Polk's Mississippi plantation and the personal histories of his slaves, in what is arguably the most careful and vivid account to date of how slavery functioned on a single cotton plantation. Life at the Polk estate was brutal and often short. Fewer than one in two slave children lived to the age of fifteen, a child mortality rate even higher than that on the average plantation. A steady stream of slaves temporarily fled the plantation throughout Polk's tenure as absentee slavemaster. Yet Polk was in some respects an enlightened owner, instituting an unusual incentive plan for his slaves and granting extensive privileges to his most favored slave. By contrast with Senator John C. Calhoun, President Polk has been seen as a moderate Southern Democratic leader. But this book suggests that the president's political stance toward slavery — influenced as it was by his deep personal involvement in the plantation system — may actually have helped to precipitate the Civil War that Polk sought to avoid.Less
This book examines both the social and the political history of slavery. James Polk — President of the United States from 1845 to 1849 — owned a Mississippi cotton plantation with about fifty slaves. Drawing upon previously unexplored records, this book recreates the world of Polk's Mississippi plantation and the personal histories of his slaves, in what is arguably the most careful and vivid account to date of how slavery functioned on a single cotton plantation. Life at the Polk estate was brutal and often short. Fewer than one in two slave children lived to the age of fifteen, a child mortality rate even higher than that on the average plantation. A steady stream of slaves temporarily fled the plantation throughout Polk's tenure as absentee slavemaster. Yet Polk was in some respects an enlightened owner, instituting an unusual incentive plan for his slaves and granting extensive privileges to his most favored slave. By contrast with Senator John C. Calhoun, President Polk has been seen as a moderate Southern Democratic leader. But this book suggests that the president's political stance toward slavery — influenced as it was by his deep personal involvement in the plantation system — may actually have helped to precipitate the Civil War that Polk sought to avoid.
Daisy L. Machado
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195152234
- eISBN:
- 9780199834426
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195152239.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The westward movement of people connected to the nineteenth‐century expansionism of the developing U.S. helped promote the growth and expansion of many of the mainline Protestant denominations that ...
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The westward movement of people connected to the nineteenth‐century expansionism of the developing U.S. helped promote the growth and expansion of many of the mainline Protestant denominations that traveled to the southwest borderlands of this country. Following the expanding western frontier, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) entered what is today the state of Texas and came face to face with the Tejanos. Bringing Protestantism as a new element in the southwest borderlands of Texas, the Disciples of Christ also carried with them the Euro‐American ideologies and self‐definitions that would function at two levels. First, these would shape their relationship as English‐speaking Protestants with the Spanish‐speaking Roman Catholic Tejanos, and secondly, an ethos was created that would influence the Disciples’ ministry to the Mexican population. This shaping and influence were notable in the often racist and paternalistic missionary ideology of the Disciples throughout the late nineteenth century, into the twentieth century, and even to the present day. This is one slice of the religious history of the nineteenth‐century borderlands where the frontier ethos – with its manifest destiny ideology about a chosen race, a virgin land, divine providence, and democracy – prevented Protestantism from developing and maintaining helpful and empowering relationships with the Tejano‐Mexican community it encountered.Less
The westward movement of people connected to the nineteenth‐century expansionism of the developing U.S. helped promote the growth and expansion of many of the mainline Protestant denominations that traveled to the southwest borderlands of this country. Following the expanding western frontier, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) entered what is today the state of Texas and came face to face with the Tejanos. Bringing Protestantism as a new element in the southwest borderlands of Texas, the Disciples of Christ also carried with them the Euro‐American ideologies and self‐definitions that would function at two levels. First, these would shape their relationship as English‐speaking Protestants with the Spanish‐speaking Roman Catholic Tejanos, and secondly, an ethos was created that would influence the Disciples’ ministry to the Mexican population. This shaping and influence were notable in the often racist and paternalistic missionary ideology of the Disciples throughout the late nineteenth century, into the twentieth century, and even to the present day. This is one slice of the religious history of the nineteenth‐century borderlands where the frontier ethos – with its manifest destiny ideology about a chosen race, a virgin land, divine providence, and democracy – prevented Protestantism from developing and maintaining helpful and empowering relationships with the Tejano‐Mexican community it encountered.
Gabor S. Boritt (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195089110
- eISBN:
- 9780199853830
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195089110.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This book looks at how Lincoln confronted the central issues of the Civil War era, throwing new light on the revolutionary changes he helped usher in. The book explores the issue of ...
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This book looks at how Lincoln confronted the central issues of the Civil War era, throwing new light on the revolutionary changes he helped usher in. The book explores the issue of self-determination, illuminating Lincoln's views and comparing the South's struggle for independence to others in history (including the post-Soviet situation in Eastern Europe). One chapter offers a provocative comparison of how Lincoln and America's other outstanding war president, FDR, went beyond the limits of the Constitution in defense of the nation and freedom—as they understood them. Another chapter focuses on both the exhilarating moment of emancipation and its disappointing results. A further chapter traces Lincoln's transition from strident opponent of the Mexican War, to resolute war leader (“Destroy the rebel army,” were his terse orders), to speaking out for reconciliation (after Appomattox he exclaimed, “Enemies, never again must we repeat that word”). The next chapter compares the Civil War as a successful attempt at true national unification with the unifications of Italy, Germany, and even Switzerland (which waged a fraternal war not many years earlier). A later chapter provides an incisive look at the premonitions of Civil War that haunted the American republic since independence, including Lincoln's reluctance to accept war as a possibility. Finally, the book establishes once and for all Lincoln's brilliance as a national strategist.Less
This book looks at how Lincoln confronted the central issues of the Civil War era, throwing new light on the revolutionary changes he helped usher in. The book explores the issue of self-determination, illuminating Lincoln's views and comparing the South's struggle for independence to others in history (including the post-Soviet situation in Eastern Europe). One chapter offers a provocative comparison of how Lincoln and America's other outstanding war president, FDR, went beyond the limits of the Constitution in defense of the nation and freedom—as they understood them. Another chapter focuses on both the exhilarating moment of emancipation and its disappointing results. A further chapter traces Lincoln's transition from strident opponent of the Mexican War, to resolute war leader (“Destroy the rebel army,” were his terse orders), to speaking out for reconciliation (after Appomattox he exclaimed, “Enemies, never again must we repeat that word”). The next chapter compares the Civil War as a successful attempt at true national unification with the unifications of Italy, Germany, and even Switzerland (which waged a fraternal war not many years earlier). A later chapter provides an incisive look at the premonitions of Civil War that haunted the American republic since independence, including Lincoln's reluctance to accept war as a possibility. Finally, the book establishes once and for all Lincoln's brilliance as a national strategist.
Rachel St. John
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141541
- eISBN:
- 9781400838639
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141541.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This book details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.–Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the ...
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This book details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.–Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the first decades of the twentieth century. The book explores how this boundary changed from a mere line on a map to a clearly marked and heavily regulated divide between the United States and Mexico. Focusing on the desert border to the west of the Rio Grande, the book explains the origins of the modern border and places the line at the center of a transnational history of expanding capitalism and state power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moving across local, regional, and national scales, the book shows how government officials, Native American raiders, ranchers, railroad builders, miners, investors, immigrants, and smugglers contributed to the rise of state power on the border and developed strategies to navigate the increasingly regulated landscape. Over the border's history, the U.S. and Mexican states gradually developed an expanding array of official laws, ad hoc arrangements, government agents, and physical barriers that did not close the line, but made it a flexible barrier that restricted the movement of some people, goods, and animals without impeding others. By the 1930s, their efforts had created the foundations of the modern border control apparatus. Drawing on extensive research in U.S. and Mexican archives, the book weaves together a transnational history of how an undistinguished strip of land became the significant and symbolic space of state power and national definition that we know today.Less
This book details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.–Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the first decades of the twentieth century. The book explores how this boundary changed from a mere line on a map to a clearly marked and heavily regulated divide between the United States and Mexico. Focusing on the desert border to the west of the Rio Grande, the book explains the origins of the modern border and places the line at the center of a transnational history of expanding capitalism and state power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Moving across local, regional, and national scales, the book shows how government officials, Native American raiders, ranchers, railroad builders, miners, investors, immigrants, and smugglers contributed to the rise of state power on the border and developed strategies to navigate the increasingly regulated landscape. Over the border's history, the U.S. and Mexican states gradually developed an expanding array of official laws, ad hoc arrangements, government agents, and physical barriers that did not close the line, but made it a flexible barrier that restricted the movement of some people, goods, and animals without impeding others. By the 1930s, their efforts had created the foundations of the modern border control apparatus. Drawing on extensive research in U.S. and Mexican archives, the book weaves together a transnational history of how an undistinguished strip of land became the significant and symbolic space of state power and national definition that we know today.
Jonathan Fox
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198781837
- eISBN:
- 9780191598968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198781830.003.0016
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
Democracy requires elections, but elections do not always guarantee the organizational autonomy that citizenship requires. Clientelism stands in opposition to autonomy, and its change from an ...
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Democracy requires elections, but elections do not always guarantee the organizational autonomy that citizenship requires. Clientelism stands in opposition to autonomy, and its change from an authoritarian form, where compliance is gained by threats of coercion, goes through many stages before arriving at full autonomy for groups. This study examines a series of three Mexican rural development programmes from the mid 1970s through the 1980s, with an emphasis on the rural Solidarity funds. These show change, but many obstacles, yielding a new form of popular linkage to politics, here called semi‐clientelism, distinctive because compliance is gained by the threat of withholding benefits rather than coercion, while organizations still have no right to autonomy. As a result of bargaining among three key actors, social movements, authoritarian elites, and reformist state managers, voters are less coerced, but still limited.Less
Democracy requires elections, but elections do not always guarantee the organizational autonomy that citizenship requires. Clientelism stands in opposition to autonomy, and its change from an authoritarian form, where compliance is gained by threats of coercion, goes through many stages before arriving at full autonomy for groups. This study examines a series of three Mexican rural development programmes from the mid 1970s through the 1980s, with an emphasis on the rural Solidarity funds. These show change, but many obstacles, yielding a new form of popular linkage to politics, here called semi‐clientelism, distinctive because compliance is gained by the threat of withholding benefits rather than coercion, while organizations still have no right to autonomy. As a result of bargaining among three key actors, social movements, authoritarian elites, and reformist state managers, voters are less coerced, but still limited.
M. Victoria Murillo
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199241149
- eISBN:
- 9780191598920
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199241147.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
After the Debt Crisis of 1982, the PRI implemented policies of stabilization and structural reforms although it had previously advanced protectionism and state intervention during the post‐war ...
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After the Debt Crisis of 1982, the PRI implemented policies of stabilization and structural reforms although it had previously advanced protectionism and state intervention during the post‐war period. These reforms triggered processes of industrial restructuring in the private and public sector and challenged the very institutions, which had sustained the historic alliance between unions and the PRI in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Although the majority of Mexican unions were subordinated to the governing party, some unions chose to negotiate or oppose the reforms. This chapter analyses the responses of the Mexican Workers’ Confederation (CTM) and industry‐specific unions in the automobile, education, electricity, oil, and telecommunication sectors, to explain the variation in the responses of Mexican unions. It focuses on the common behaviour of union leaders facing similar challenges linked to structural reform and the resulting exposure to international economic forces. It explains union responses by highlighting the influence of the competition among unions for the representation of workers and the competition among leaders for the control of the union as well as the historical legacies of the PRI‐CTM relationship.Less
After the Debt Crisis of 1982, the PRI implemented policies of stabilization and structural reforms although it had previously advanced protectionism and state intervention during the post‐war period. These reforms triggered processes of industrial restructuring in the private and public sector and challenged the very institutions, which had sustained the historic alliance between unions and the PRI in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Although the majority of Mexican unions were subordinated to the governing party, some unions chose to negotiate or oppose the reforms. This chapter analyses the responses of the Mexican Workers’ Confederation (CTM) and industry‐specific unions in the automobile, education, electricity, oil, and telecommunication sectors, to explain the variation in the responses of Mexican unions. It focuses on the common behaviour of union leaders facing similar challenges linked to structural reform and the resulting exposure to international economic forces. It explains union responses by highlighting the influence of the competition among unions for the representation of workers and the competition among leaders for the control of the union as well as the historical legacies of the PRI‐CTM relationship.
HUGO LARA CHÁVEZ
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264461
- eISBN:
- 9780191734625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264461.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter discusses a city created by a cinema and a cinema created by the city, with emphasis on the dynamic interplay of these two. In this chapter the focus is on the last three decades, from ...
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This chapter discusses a city created by a cinema and a cinema created by the city, with emphasis on the dynamic interplay of these two. In this chapter the focus is on the last three decades, from 1977 to 2007, a period wherein the symbols and social expressions that were used to delineate the city have grown in strength while some others have consolidated to form Mexico’s current identity. In some of the cases, these symbols were placed in the film intentionally, while others seemed like they appeared through chance. The development of cinema in Mexico was bound with the developments of the city. Mexican cinema has played an important role as a mirror that reflected the developments within the city. Through the medium of film, the moving image became the most useful tool for visualizing the immeasurable wholeness of the city. In this chapter, the most defining moments that have found their way into the Mexican cinema are discussed. These events are the 1985 earthquake, the realities of globalization, and the defeat of the PRI in the 2000 elections. These are interwoven into narratives and images that explore dislocation, isolation and different forms of resistance.Less
This chapter discusses a city created by a cinema and a cinema created by the city, with emphasis on the dynamic interplay of these two. In this chapter the focus is on the last three decades, from 1977 to 2007, a period wherein the symbols and social expressions that were used to delineate the city have grown in strength while some others have consolidated to form Mexico’s current identity. In some of the cases, these symbols were placed in the film intentionally, while others seemed like they appeared through chance. The development of cinema in Mexico was bound with the developments of the city. Mexican cinema has played an important role as a mirror that reflected the developments within the city. Through the medium of film, the moving image became the most useful tool for visualizing the immeasurable wholeness of the city. In this chapter, the most defining moments that have found their way into the Mexican cinema are discussed. These events are the 1985 earthquake, the realities of globalization, and the defeat of the PRI in the 2000 elections. These are interwoven into narratives and images that explore dislocation, isolation and different forms of resistance.
Cybelle Fox
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152233
- eISBN:
- 9781400842582
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152233.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This book examines the role of race and immigration in the development of the American social welfare system by comparing how blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants were treated by welfare ...
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This book examines the role of race and immigration in the development of the American social welfare system by comparing how blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants were treated by welfare policies during the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Taking readers from the turn of the twentieth century to the dark days of the Depression, the book finds that, despite rampant nativism, European immigrants received generous access to social welfare programs. The communities in which they lived invested heavily in relief. Social workers protected them from snooping immigration agents, and ensured that noncitizenship and illegal status did not prevent them from receiving the assistance they needed. But that same helping hand was not extended to Mexicans and blacks. The book reveals, for example, how blacks were relegated to racist and degrading public assistance programs, while Mexicans who asked for assistance were deported with the help of the very social workers they turned to for aid. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, the book paints a riveting portrait of how race, labor, and politics combined to create three starkly different worlds of relief. It debunks the myth that white America's immigrant ancestors pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, unlike immigrants and minorities today. The book challenges us to reconsider not only the historical record but also the implications of our past on contemporary debates about race, immigration, and the American welfare state.Less
This book examines the role of race and immigration in the development of the American social welfare system by comparing how blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants were treated by welfare policies during the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Taking readers from the turn of the twentieth century to the dark days of the Depression, the book finds that, despite rampant nativism, European immigrants received generous access to social welfare programs. The communities in which they lived invested heavily in relief. Social workers protected them from snooping immigration agents, and ensured that noncitizenship and illegal status did not prevent them from receiving the assistance they needed. But that same helping hand was not extended to Mexicans and blacks. The book reveals, for example, how blacks were relegated to racist and degrading public assistance programs, while Mexicans who asked for assistance were deported with the help of the very social workers they turned to for aid. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, the book paints a riveting portrait of how race, labor, and politics combined to create three starkly different worlds of relief. It debunks the myth that white America's immigrant ancestors pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, unlike immigrants and minorities today. The book challenges us to reconsider not only the historical record but also the implications of our past on contemporary debates about race, immigration, and the American welfare state.
Lori A Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300196962
- eISBN:
- 9780300216387
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300196962.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California's Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican ...
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Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California's Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez, this important work also looks closely at how different groups of Mexicans—U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented—confronted and interacted with one another during this period. An incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, this book offers crucial insights for today's ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy.Less
Known as “The Salad Bowl of the World,” California's Salinas Valley became an agricultural empire due to the toil of diverse farmworkers, including Latinos. A sweeping critical history of how Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants organized for their rights in the decades leading up to the seminal strikes led by Cesar Chavez, this important work also looks closely at how different groups of Mexicans—U.S. born, bracero, and undocumented—confronted and interacted with one another during this period. An incisive study of labor, migration, race, gender, citizenship, and class, this book offers crucial insights for today's ever-growing U.S. Latino demographic, the farmworker rights movement, and future immigration policy.
Mark Rifkin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195387179
- eISBN:
- 9780199866786
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387179.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
The book explores the creation and extension of U.S. jurisdiction in the antebellum period, particularly over Native Americans and former Mexicans. It examines how U.S. law recodes the identities and ...
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The book explores the creation and extension of U.S. jurisdiction in the antebellum period, particularly over Native Americans and former Mexicans. It examines how U.S. law recodes the identities and territoriality of these populations and the self-depictions they offer in nonfictional texts. The government's narration of national space is haunted and disturbed by the persistence of the political geographies of peoples made domestic in the absorption of indigenous and Mexican lands. Exploring the confrontation between U.S. law and the self-representations of those once-alien peoples subjected to it, the book focuses on Indian removal in the southeast and western Great Lakes and the annexation of Texas and California. In foregrounding self-determination, a central concept in current international debates over the rights of indigenous peoples, the project challenges the somewhat amorphous image of betweenness conveyed by such prominent critical formulations as "the borderlands," "the middle ground," and "the contact zone," examining a variety of writings (including memorials, autobiographies, and histories) produced by imperially displaced populations for the ways that they index specific forms of collectivity and placemaking disavowed by U.S. policy. More specifically, it shows how U.S. institutions legitimize conquest as consensual by creating forms of official recognition and speech for dominated groups that reinforce the obviousness of U.S. mappings and authority, and it demonstrates how forcibly internalized populations disjoint, refunction, and contest the roles created for them so as to create room in public discourse for critiquing U.S. efforts to displace their existing forms of land tenure and governance.Less
The book explores the creation and extension of U.S. jurisdiction in the antebellum period, particularly over Native Americans and former Mexicans. It examines how U.S. law recodes the identities and territoriality of these populations and the self-depictions they offer in nonfictional texts. The government's narration of national space is haunted and disturbed by the persistence of the political geographies of peoples made domestic in the absorption of indigenous and Mexican lands. Exploring the confrontation between U.S. law and the self-representations of those once-alien peoples subjected to it, the book focuses on Indian removal in the southeast and western Great Lakes and the annexation of Texas and California. In foregrounding self-determination, a central concept in current international debates over the rights of indigenous peoples, the project challenges the somewhat amorphous image of betweenness conveyed by such prominent critical formulations as "the borderlands," "the middle ground," and "the contact zone," examining a variety of writings (including memorials, autobiographies, and histories) produced by imperially displaced populations for the ways that they index specific forms of collectivity and placemaking disavowed by U.S. policy. More specifically, it shows how U.S. institutions legitimize conquest as consensual by creating forms of official recognition and speech for dominated groups that reinforce the obviousness of U.S. mappings and authority, and it demonstrates how forcibly internalized populations disjoint, refunction, and contest the roles created for them so as to create room in public discourse for critiquing U.S. efforts to displace their existing forms of land tenure and governance.
Cybelle Fox
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691152233
- eISBN:
- 9781400842582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691152233.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter looks at the emergence of the perception of a “Mexican dependency problem,” which gained early traction in Los Angeles. Prior to the 1920s, social workers in the city were cautiously ...
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This chapter looks at the emergence of the perception of a “Mexican dependency problem,” which gained early traction in Los Angeles. Prior to the 1920s, social workers in the city were cautiously optimistic that Mexicans could be assimilated, and they saw relief as one step in that process. As Mexicans made greater use of relief, however, social workers' initial optimism waned. By the mid-1920s, they became convinced that Mexicans were a dependent and diseased population, lacking in thrift and ambition. They decided that their efforts at Americanizing this group had failed. Concerned that charity funds were essentially subsidizing the agricultural industry, they came to believe that Mexicans represented an illegitimate economic and social burden to “American taxpayers.” Mexicans, they concluded, were racially inassimilable after all.Less
This chapter looks at the emergence of the perception of a “Mexican dependency problem,” which gained early traction in Los Angeles. Prior to the 1920s, social workers in the city were cautiously optimistic that Mexicans could be assimilated, and they saw relief as one step in that process. As Mexicans made greater use of relief, however, social workers' initial optimism waned. By the mid-1920s, they became convinced that Mexicans were a dependent and diseased population, lacking in thrift and ambition. They decided that their efforts at Americanizing this group had failed. Concerned that charity funds were essentially subsidizing the agricultural industry, they came to believe that Mexicans represented an illegitimate economic and social burden to “American taxpayers.” Mexicans, they concluded, were racially inassimilable after all.
Claudio Lomnitz-Adler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520077881
- eISBN:
- 9780520912472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520077881.003.0015
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
Power makes for a regional structure of places. This “structure of places” is made up of a set of loci for cultural interaction, and a set of ideologies about relative positions. “Places” are ...
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Power makes for a regional structure of places. This “structure of places” is made up of a set of loci for cultural interaction, and a set of ideologies about relative positions. “Places” are therefore both objective and subjective situations. “Culture” can be felt with conviction, or it can be played from an emotional distance. The spatial structures of cultural production that have been investigated reveal a kind of system to these processes of disaffection and conviction. Octavio Paz saw “masks” as reflections of solitude—as reflections of a personal and collective concealment because of their insecurity vis-à-vis others. He was probably right about the transition that Mexican culture was going through when he wrote The Labyrinth of Solitude. Paz also claimed that Mexican history was the history of a man looking for his filiation.Less
Power makes for a regional structure of places. This “structure of places” is made up of a set of loci for cultural interaction, and a set of ideologies about relative positions. “Places” are therefore both objective and subjective situations. “Culture” can be felt with conviction, or it can be played from an emotional distance. The spatial structures of cultural production that have been investigated reveal a kind of system to these processes of disaffection and conviction. Octavio Paz saw “masks” as reflections of solitude—as reflections of a personal and collective concealment because of their insecurity vis-à-vis others. He was probably right about the transition that Mexican culture was going through when he wrote The Labyrinth of Solitude. Paz also claimed that Mexican history was the history of a man looking for his filiation.
Claudio Lomnitz-Adler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520077881
- eISBN:
- 9780520912472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520077881.003.0019
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This chapter reports a spatial analysis of Mexican political forms. Most of the works on Mexican national culture emerged out of concern with the forms in which Mexico was or was not modernizing. The ...
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This chapter reports a spatial analysis of Mexican political forms. Most of the works on Mexican national culture emerged out of concern with the forms in which Mexico was or was not modernizing. The touchy defensiveness that Octavio Paz and Samuel Ramos identified, named, and criticized was the result of the distance and forms of interrelations between intimate cultures in Mexico. By creating new concepts, the conceptual problems involved in understanding regional culture have been emphasized. It mentioned that localist ideologies, including nationalism, cannot be analyzed without understanding their relationship to actual spaces of cultural production. Nationalism cannot be understood without an analysis of culture in the national space. Throughout, this book has shown that the specific characteristics of national ideologies have significant effects throughout the national space. Thus, the study of culture in the national space is fundamental for the discussion of alternative forms of nationalism.Less
This chapter reports a spatial analysis of Mexican political forms. Most of the works on Mexican national culture emerged out of concern with the forms in which Mexico was or was not modernizing. The touchy defensiveness that Octavio Paz and Samuel Ramos identified, named, and criticized was the result of the distance and forms of interrelations between intimate cultures in Mexico. By creating new concepts, the conceptual problems involved in understanding regional culture have been emphasized. It mentioned that localist ideologies, including nationalism, cannot be analyzed without understanding their relationship to actual spaces of cultural production. Nationalism cannot be understood without an analysis of culture in the national space. Throughout, this book has shown that the specific characteristics of national ideologies have significant effects throughout the national space. Thus, the study of culture in the national space is fundamental for the discussion of alternative forms of nationalism.
Rachel St. John
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141541
- eISBN:
- 9781400838639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141541.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This introductory chapter provides a history of the U.S.–Mexico border. Long before the border existed as a physical or legal reality it began to take form in the minds of Mexicans and Americans who ...
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This introductory chapter provides a history of the U.S.–Mexico border. Long before the border existed as a physical or legal reality it began to take form in the minds of Mexicans and Americans who looked to maps of North America to think about what their republics were and what they might someday become. Their competing territorial visions brought the United States and Mexico to war in 1846. Less than two years later, the border emerged from the crucible of that war. With U.S. soldiers occupying the Mexican capital, a group of Mexican and American diplomats redrew the map of North America. In the east, they chose the Rio Grande, settling a decade-old debate about Texas's southern border and dividing the communities that had long lived along the river. In the west, they did something different; they drew a line across a map and conjured up an entirely new space where there had not been one before.Less
This introductory chapter provides a history of the U.S.–Mexico border. Long before the border existed as a physical or legal reality it began to take form in the minds of Mexicans and Americans who looked to maps of North America to think about what their republics were and what they might someday become. Their competing territorial visions brought the United States and Mexico to war in 1846. Less than two years later, the border emerged from the crucible of that war. With U.S. soldiers occupying the Mexican capital, a group of Mexican and American diplomats redrew the map of North America. In the east, they chose the Rio Grande, settling a decade-old debate about Texas's southern border and dividing the communities that had long lived along the river. In the west, they did something different; they drew a line across a map and conjured up an entirely new space where there had not been one before.
Edward Ricketts
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ...
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Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends—artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures—including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts's mind “had no horizons.” This collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts's scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts's unique, holistic approach to science, include “Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip,” the basic manuscript for Steinbeck's and Ricketts's “Log from the Sea of Cortez”; the essays “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” and “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry”; several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. This critical biography, with a number of rare photographs, offers a new, detailed view of Ricketts's life.Less
Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends—artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures—including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts's mind “had no horizons.” This collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts's scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts's unique, holistic approach to science, include “Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip,” the basic manuscript for Steinbeck's and Ricketts's “Log from the Sea of Cortez”; the essays “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” and “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry”; several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. This critical biography, with a number of rare photographs, offers a new, detailed view of Ricketts's life.
JOHN MASON HART
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520223240
- eISBN:
- 9780520939295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520223240.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about nature of U.S. involvement and influence in Mexico. This volume examines the political and military events in Mexico after ...
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This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about nature of U.S. involvement and influence in Mexico. This volume examines the political and military events in Mexico after 1865 and describes the history-making interactions between Americans and Mexicans in Mexico. It describes the activities of individuals and businesspeople who as a collectivity constituted much of the American influence in Mexico.Less
This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about nature of U.S. involvement and influence in Mexico. This volume examines the political and military events in Mexico after 1865 and describes the history-making interactions between Americans and Mexicans in Mexico. It describes the activities of individuals and businesspeople who as a collectivity constituted much of the American influence in Mexico.
Timothy Matovina
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691139791
- eISBN:
- 9781400839735
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691139791.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter argues that the long-standing links between Latin and North America already lead many Latinos to adopting a more hemispheric perspective to Catholicism in the United States. The memory ...
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This chapter argues that the long-standing links between Latin and North America already lead many Latinos to adopting a more hemispheric perspective to Catholicism in the United States. The memory that Hispanics established faith communities in Spanish and Mexican territories before the United States expanded into them shaped the historical development of those communities as they, their descendants, and even later immigrants became part of the United States. The chapter shows how such perceptions conflict with the presumption that European immigrants and their descendants set a unilateral paradigm for assimilating newcomers into church and society. Since the early 1990s, the geographic dispersion of Latinos across the United States and the growing diversity of their national backgrounds have brought the historical perspectives of Catholics from Latin America and the United States into unprecedented levels of daily contact.Less
This chapter argues that the long-standing links between Latin and North America already lead many Latinos to adopting a more hemispheric perspective to Catholicism in the United States. The memory that Hispanics established faith communities in Spanish and Mexican territories before the United States expanded into them shaped the historical development of those communities as they, their descendants, and even later immigrants became part of the United States. The chapter shows how such perceptions conflict with the presumption that European immigrants and their descendants set a unilateral paradigm for assimilating newcomers into church and society. Since the early 1990s, the geographic dispersion of Latinos across the United States and the growing diversity of their national backgrounds have brought the historical perspectives of Catholics from Latin America and the United States into unprecedented levels of daily contact.
Roderic Ai Camp
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199742851
- eISBN:
- 9780199866298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742851.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This introductory chapter discusses reasons for interest in and examination of Mexican leadership over four decades, and the scholarly basis of the study, including looking at original sources, such ...
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This introductory chapter discusses reasons for interest in and examination of Mexican leadership over four decades, and the scholarly basis of the study, including looking at original sources, such as a data bank of 3,000 national politicians. It explains how the study is divided into three critical periods: the pre-democratic era, 1935–88; the democratic transition, 1988–2000; and the democratic era, 2000–09. It examines a number of central questions, including how the changing role of political institutions influences the characteristics and experiences of influential political leadership, the extent to which informal in contrast to formal characteristics impact on leadership composition, the degree to which non-violent alterations in a political model produces as dramatic changes as does violence, the influence of three technocratic generations, the role of women in democratic leadership, the rise and fall of local politics, and the influence of informal versus formal political characteristics.Less
This introductory chapter discusses reasons for interest in and examination of Mexican leadership over four decades, and the scholarly basis of the study, including looking at original sources, such as a data bank of 3,000 national politicians. It explains how the study is divided into three critical periods: the pre-democratic era, 1935–88; the democratic transition, 1988–2000; and the democratic era, 2000–09. It examines a number of central questions, including how the changing role of political institutions influences the characteristics and experiences of influential political leadership, the extent to which informal in contrast to formal characteristics impact on leadership composition, the degree to which non-violent alterations in a political model produces as dramatic changes as does violence, the influence of three technocratic generations, the role of women in democratic leadership, the rise and fall of local politics, and the influence of informal versus formal political characteristics.
Lori A. Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300196962
- eISBN:
- 9780300216387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300196962.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter examines the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee's (UFWOC) 1970 strike in the Salinas Valley and the various groups of UFWOC allies and detractors involved. It first considers the ...
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This chapter examines the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee's (UFWOC) 1970 strike in the Salinas Valley and the various groups of UFWOC allies and detractors involved. It first considers the circumstances that led to the strike before discussing the strike in more detail. In particular, it analyzes the battle between Cesar Chavez's supporters, including farmworkers, and opponents as hundreds of incidents of violence erupted between the UFWOC and Teamsters Union during the strike's initial weeks. It also explores the various tactics employed by growers in response to the strike, the racial violence that erupted, the involvement of women such as Ethel Kennedy and Coretta Scott King, and the unprecedented cooperation seen between Mexican Americans and Mexicans.Less
This chapter examines the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee's (UFWOC) 1970 strike in the Salinas Valley and the various groups of UFWOC allies and detractors involved. It first considers the circumstances that led to the strike before discussing the strike in more detail. In particular, it analyzes the battle between Cesar Chavez's supporters, including farmworkers, and opponents as hundreds of incidents of violence erupted between the UFWOC and Teamsters Union during the strike's initial weeks. It also explores the various tactics employed by growers in response to the strike, the racial violence that erupted, the involvement of women such as Ethel Kennedy and Coretta Scott King, and the unprecedented cooperation seen between Mexican Americans and Mexicans.
Lori A. Flores
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300196962
- eISBN:
- 9780300216387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300196962.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This book investigates the history of the Salinas Valley to show how agriculture-centered environments and economies affected the politicization of U.S.-born and immigrant Mexicans in ...
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This book investigates the history of the Salinas Valley to show how agriculture-centered environments and economies affected the politicization of U.S.-born and immigrant Mexicans in twentieth-century California. Located in Monterey County on California's central coast, the Salinas Valley occupied a central place in debates over agribusiness, labor, and immigration policy during the 1960s. Today, the valley's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, and U.S. agriculture more generally, remains heavily dependent on Latino (mostly Mexican immigrant) labor. This book argues that the Salinas Valley, as an agricultural empire, was a microcosm of key transitions and moments in America's labor, immigration, and Latino history. It examines how Mexican Americans navigated their social place and political identity in an increasingly corporatized agricultural setting, especially in the face of a large influx of Mexican guestworkers brought by the government-sponsored Bracero Program (1942–1964). It also considers how people “became Mexican American” and articulated that identity in agricultural settings, as well as how these Mexican Americans then became Chicanos. Finally, it traces the Chicano Movement's evolution in California.Less
This book investigates the history of the Salinas Valley to show how agriculture-centered environments and economies affected the politicization of U.S.-born and immigrant Mexicans in twentieth-century California. Located in Monterey County on California's central coast, the Salinas Valley occupied a central place in debates over agribusiness, labor, and immigration policy during the 1960s. Today, the valley's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, and U.S. agriculture more generally, remains heavily dependent on Latino (mostly Mexican immigrant) labor. This book argues that the Salinas Valley, as an agricultural empire, was a microcosm of key transitions and moments in America's labor, immigration, and Latino history. It examines how Mexican Americans navigated their social place and political identity in an increasingly corporatized agricultural setting, especially in the face of a large influx of Mexican guestworkers brought by the government-sponsored Bracero Program (1942–1964). It also considers how people “became Mexican American” and articulated that identity in agricultural settings, as well as how these Mexican Americans then became Chicanos. Finally, it traces the Chicano Movement's evolution in California.
