The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 83, July 1979 - April, 1980 Page: 423
464 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
vital economic factors involved in both the "push" and the "pull" pres-
sures that are the motor forces for this complex phenomenon. Inclusion
of such articles would have greatly enhanced the usefulness of the book.
Nonetheless, Mexican Workers in the United States is a useful class-
room aid, dealing with a subject that promises to increase dramatically
in importance in the 198os.
Cornell University VERNON M. BRIGGS, JR.
Listen Chicano! An Informal History of the Mexican-American. By
Manuel A. Machado, Jr. (Chicago: Nelson Hall Publisher, 1979.
Pp. xviii+ 196. Foreword, introduction, bibliography, index.
$15.95.)
Mexican Americans in a Dallas Barrio. By Shirley Achor. (Tucson:
University of Arizona Press, 1979. Pp. xii+ 2o2. Preface, introduc-
tion, appendices, references, index. $12 .5o.)
The more militant (and less scholarly) of the contemporary breed
of Chicano historians tend to rhapsodize over the presumed unity of
Mexican Americans residing in the United States. Not only do they
downplay the intense differences in the historical experiences of those
"Ethnics" living in California from "Hispanics" in New Mexico and
likewise the "Tejanos" of Texas from the Mexican Americans in Ari-
zona, but they also commonly fail to acknowledge and pay due heed
to the considerable divergences in attitudes caused by class differences
within each regional group. Mexican Americans with status and money
do not necessarily share a common world-view with their poverty-strick-
en ethnic fellows; nor does the hard-working manual laborer ordinarily
clutch to his bosom a fellow Mexican American who is on welfare, no
matter what their cultural affinities may be in the eyes of the larger
society. One of the great values to be found in the works of Machado
and Achor is that both authors duly take heed of the influence of class
in shaping the historical experiences and the present-day behavior of
the Mexican American population.
Machado, a professor of history at the University of Montana and a
Mexican American, is refreshingly candid in his articulation of a con-
servative interpretation of the Mexican American past. As might be
expected in a book dignified with an introduction penned by Senator
Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, the author casts a jaundiced eye at
many of the claims and assertions of the Chicano historiographical Left
and emphasizes Mexican American accommodation to the majority423
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 83, July 1979 - April, 1980, periodical, 1979/1980; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101207/m1/481/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.