Leaders of the Mexican American Generation explores the lives of a wide range of influential members of the US Mexican American community between 1920 and 1965 who paved the way for major changes in their social, political, and economic status within the United States. Including feminist Alice Dickerson Montemayor, to San Antonio attorney Gus García, and labor activist and scholar Ernesto Galarza, the subjects of these biographies include some of the most prominent idealists and actors of the time. Whether debating in a court of law, writing for a major newspaper, producing reports for governmental agencies, organizing workers, holding public office, or otherwise shaping space for the Mexican American identity in the United States, these subjects embody the core values and diversity of their generation. More than a chronicle of personalities who left their mark on Mexican American history, Leaders of the Mexican American Generation cements these individuals as major players in the history of activism and civil rights in the United States. It is a rich collection of historical biographies that will enlighten and enliven our understanding of Mexican American history.  

Although immigrants enter the United States from virtually every nation, Mexico has long been identified in the public imagination as one of the primary sources of the economic, social, and political problems associated with mass migration. Between Two Worlds explores the controversial issues surrounding the influx of Mexicans to America. The eleven essays in this anthology provide an overview of some of the most important interpretations of the historical and contemporary dimensions of the Mexican diaspora.

Luisa Moreno spent her life fighting for the rights of Latin Americans and factory workers. Can you imagine what her life must have been like? What was she like as a person? Read this book in order to get to know Luisa Moreno and find out how she tried to make life better for herself and other Americans.

The first text of its kind to trace the combined history of Latino groups in the United States from 1500 to the present day. Latinos have lived in North America for over 400 years, arriving decades before the Pilgrims and other English settlers. Yet for many outside of Latino ethnic groups, little is known about the cultures that comprise the Latino community _ surprising considering their increasing presence in the U.S. population_over 50 million individuals at the latest census. This book explores the heritage and history of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, and Central and South Americans. Unlike similar history surveys on these communities, this book places the 500 years of Latino history into a single narrative. Each chapter discusses the collective group within a particular time period_moving chronologically from 1500 to the present_revealing the shared experiences of community building and discrimination in the United States, the central role of Latinas and Latinos in their communities, and the diversity that exists within the communities themselves. Features a timetable of major events in Latina/o history Emphasizes the bonds between different groups rather than their differences Includes images and illustrations to reinforce learning Connects the shared histories of various Latino communities

An extraordinary exploration of Latinas in the United States from the 1800s to the present, this collection of narrative biographies documents the lives of fifteen remarkable individuals who witnessed, defined, defied, and wrote about the forces that shaped their lives. Since the earliestperiods of Spanish American colonization, women have claimed public space and built communities, both as physical places and as cultural realms. As entrepreneurs, community activists, mystics, educators, feminists, labor organizers, artists and entertainers, many Latinas used the power of the pento traverse and transgress the social boundaries and cultural conventions of their time. Their diverse histories span two centuries and encompass a past of multiple conquests and migrations, taking into account race, region, gender, culture, and social location. Blending insights from history,literary criticism, and cultural studies, this interdisciplinary anthology re-envisions Latina history taking into consideration gendered genealogies of power as charted through grassroots' activism, literature, education, and economic enterprise. Their legacies rest on the production anddissemination of knowledge, which in turn reveals much about their own worldviews and historical agency. This anthology profiles Victoria Reid, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Maria Gertrudis Barcelo, Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Luisa Capetillo, Lola Rodriguez de Tio, Teresa Urrea, Adelina Otero Warren,Jovita Gonzalez Mireles, Pura Belpre, Luisa Moreno, Carmen Miranda, Antonia Pantoja, Ana Mendieta, and Dolores Huerta.

"From the Alianza Hispano-Americana, a mutual aid society founded in Tucson, Arizona in 1894, to the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in 1943, this first-ever dictionary of important issues in the U.S. Latino struggle for civil rights defines a wide-ranging list of key terms. With over 922 entries on significant events, figures, laws, and other historical items, this ground-breaking reference work covers the fight for equality from the mid-nineteenth century to the present by the various Hispanic groups in the United States."--BOOK JACKET.

A pioneering political and intellectual history of the Chicano leaders who emerged from the barrios of the Southwest between 1930 and 1960 Ignacio L. Lopez, George I. Sanchez, Josefina Fierro de Bright, and others and of their effort to capture first-class citizenship for Mexican Americans. Drawing extensively on archival material and oral history, Mario T. Garcia discusses the key figures, organizations, and issues of the movement; in so doing he casts new light not only on Chicano history but also on the histories of American ethnicity and civil rights movements.