An edition of Mexican Americans (1993)

Mexican Americans

The Ambivalent Minority

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Last edited by ImportBot
January 15, 2023 | History
An edition of Mexican Americans (1993)

Mexican Americans

The Ambivalent Minority

"Some of us have been here for three hundred years, some for three days." This comment, often repeated by Mexican Americans, affirms their status as one of America's oldest ethnic groups, as well as one of its newest and fastest growing. Not surprisingly, many observers (including some Mexican Americans) are concerned about the impact of the burgeoning number of Mexican immigrants on our society - anxieties exacerbated by leaders whose demands for bilingual schools and ballots challenge the goal of assimilation.

Yet for Skerry the critical question is not whether Mexican immigrants will join the American mainstream, but how - on what terms. Those terms, he argues, will be forged in the political arena, where enormous changes have been wrought during the past twenty-five years. Gone are the strong local party organizations that once helped newcomers adapt. In their stead are nationalized parties with weak local roots, and civil rights efforts such as the Voting Rights Act, which offer Mexican Americans powerful incentives to define themselves not as an aspiring immigrant ethnic group but as a racially oppressed minority.

These divergent political styles emerge from Skerry's comparison of the two American cities with the most visible Mexican American communities, San Antonio and Los Angeles. In Texas, where Mexican Americans have indeed been racially subjugated, traditional political institutions and effective community organizing have afforded them much political success, and moderated their deep-seated resentments. Paradoxicallyin California, where Mexican Americans have enjoyed considerable social and economic mobility, their political efforts have been much less successful and characterized by angry protest and racial claims.

Noting that the California model of politics, detached from local communities and propelled by money and media, is setting the national norm. Skerry warns that Mexican Americans are being encouraged to dwell on the undeniable injustices of the past rather than to seize the opportunities of the present. If left unchallenged, the temptation of race politics threatens to fulfill the prophecy of those who insist that Mexican Americans cannot make it into the mainstream.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
480

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority
March 1995, Harvard University Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans: the ambivalent minority
1993, Free Press, Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Maxwell Macmillan International
in English

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Book Details


The Physical Object

Format
Paperback
Number of pages
480
Dimensions
9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
Weight
1.5 pounds

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL7693062M
Internet Archive
mexicanamericans00sker
ISBN 10
0674572629
ISBN 13
9780674572621
Library Thing
523152
Goodreads
4876129

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January 15, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 18, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
April 6, 2012 Edited by ImportBot import new book
October 27, 2011 Edited by ImportBot import new book
April 29, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record