The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985 Page: 338

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Southwestern Historical Quarterly

ed States-born Anglo women workers held professional or clerical jobs
compared to 5.6 percent for Mexicans and 4.5 percent for blacks (p.
229).
From 1929 to 1939, most area residents experienced hardship, but
Anglos, in general, did not face the degrees of deprivation evident
throughout Hispanic and black neighborhoods. Government reports,
oral histories, and photos poignantly reveal the day-to-day reality for
minorities and impoverished Anglos in San Antonio. The photo-
graphs, in particular, are moving testaments of life during the de-
pression. Indeed, the book's strength lies in the author's skillful inte-
gration of qualitative and quantitative materials.
Although well grounded in the literature dealing with women's
history, Blackwelder overlooks recent research in Mexican-American
history. A perusal of urban studies by Albert Camarillo (Chicanos in
a Changing Society) and Mario T. Garcia (Desert Immigrants) would
have modified her generalizations regarding Hispanic women. Cama-
rillo and Garcia have chronicled the wide-ranging activities of Mexi-
can women, while Blackwelder frequently portrays Hispanas as pas-
sive individuals with few social contacts outside their families. At
times she contradicts herself. In one section, she remarks that Mexican
women have had "a disinclination to act aggressively" (p. 167), where-
as in another, she lauds the courage of Hispana labor activists.
Furthermore, the author dismisses the role of the United Cannery,
Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA-
CIO) in improving the wages and working conditions of those em-
ployed at local pecan-shelling establishments. In fact, she does not even
mention the union by name. She also ignores the contributions of
Luisa Moreno, a charismatic UCAPAWA organizer. Despite gaps in
Mexican-American history and labor studies, Blackwelder has fash-
ioned an insightful portrait of women in San Antonio during the de-
pression, a portrait that contributes significantly to the literature on
Texas women.
University of Texas at El Paso VICKI L. Ruiz
The Forty-Acre Follies. By Joe B. Frantz. (Austin: Texas Monthly
Press, 1983. Pp. xiv+349. Bibliography. $17.95.)
In 1976 President Lorene L. Rogers of the University of Texas at
Austin asked Joe B. Frantz, a campus history professor of considerable
ability and reputation, to complete an unfinished project which was
entitled "An Illustrated Account of the University of Texas." As

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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985, periodical, 1984/1985; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101210/m1/386/ocr/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.

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