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Reviews
| Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity, and Nation, 1916–39, by Gabriela F. Arredondo. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. 255 pages. $60.00, cloth.
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| Gabriela F. Arredondo's study of the Mexican residents of Chicago between 1916 and 1939 is a thorough yet approachable work that could be easily adopted for classroom use. Arredondo argues that Mexican migrants navigating the ever-shifting ethnic terrain of interwar Chicago combined the recently developed revolutionary tradition of their homeland with evolving narratives of race in immigrant America to forge a distinct Mexican-American identity. Not only did this identity differ from that of non-migrant Mexicans, but also from that of other immigrant groups in Chicago. The Mexican experience was unique because these newcomers faced the difficulties common to immigrants, as well as the racial antagonisms and discrimination suffered by African Americans. In response to this doubly difficult situation, Arredondo explains, the Mexican migrant community forged a Chicago Mexicanidad (Mexicanness). Similarly, other Chicagoans adjusted to this new population in ways ranging from benevolent to malicious. A key theme throughout the text is that the people of Chicago, Mexican and non-Mexican, immigrant and native-born, created the racial/ethnic dynamics that shaped life in the city they shared. |
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The reader gains from Mexican Chicago a thorough appreciation of the complexity of identity formation as influenced by race, class, gender, and current events as well as an understanding of the myriad factors determining the flow of immigrants to a particular destination. Arredondo illustrates, for example, that Mexicans in Chicago never experienced "whitening" as other demographic groups did, but rather experienced increasing racially and economically motivated discrimination over time. Similarly, while other, predominantly Anglo, immigrant groups overcame barriers of language and culture, native Chicagoans and these immigrants continued to view Mexicans as racially distinct and, thus, perpetually foreign. As a result, Arredondo argues, many Mexican migrants saw their time in Chicago as temporary and moved frequently between the U.S.-Mexico border region, rural parts of the upper Midwest, and the city. The racial dynamics at work among Chicago's various populations tempered the lure of employment opportunities in the city's stockyards and factories. These dynamics impacted everything from employment and housing patterns to gender relations, practices of religious worship, and leisure activities. Through Arredondo's analysis, the reader can see the complexity of the immigrant experience in early twentieth-century America. |
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In presenting her argument, one significantly more nuanced than the immigration narrative familiar to most students, Arredondo presents a dynamic, fluid set of issues and series of events that shaped the development of one of America's major cities. Mexican Chicago weaves analyses of race and national identity through three decades, highlighting the impact of major events in both the United States and Mexico on the fate of Chicago's immigrant populations. Discussions of the Mexican Revolution, the Great Depression, and the First World War, for example, help to situate Mexican Chicago within its macro-level chronology, while detailed discussions of individual action and agency provide micro-level understanding of why people acted, felt, and thought as they did. Thus, this case study of the Mexican experience in Chicago between 1916 and 1939 provides instructors who adopt it for the classroom the flexibility to use it as a starting point for discussions of a variety of topics relevant to other demographic groups and applicable to a longer chronological period. |
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From a course perspective, Mexican Chicago has several potential uses. An obvious choice for a United States or Chicano history class, Mexican Chicago could also add much to courses devoted to immigration, labor history, urban studies, race relations, and multiculturalism. The argument is complex, the analysis sophisticated, but the writing is clear, straight-forward, and appropriate for an undergraduate audience. One of the most important classroom strengths of this work is how human Arredondo makes the historical actors. Because the reader comes to know something of them and their lives, he or she can relate to their experiences. A second strength of this work, particularly when assigned to advanced undergraduate students, is its research methodology and the way in which Arredondo works discussions of it and her historiographical influences into the text. These discussions are clearly written and Arredondo's argument and evidence is logically and meticulously presented. Thus, the text can serve not only to inform students about the subject matter at hand, but also as an example of how to conduct and present research. Finally, Arredondo leaves readers with the idea that, while immigration has changed since 1939, much remains the same. Countless class assignments could stem from such an idea. |
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| Cazenovia College |
Julia L. Sloan |
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