Book Review

¡Pobre Raza! covers periods of Mexican American history that other historians have previously harvested. Still it remains a highly original work. Based on documents from Mexican, United States, and state archives, it contributes a significant amount of new knowledge. It is, as one review says, "an exhaustive look at how Mexicans and Mexican Americans fared under the U.S. judicial system" from 1900 to 1936.	1
The work crosses borders, with F. Arturo Rosales skillfully integrating events in Mexico and the United States. The work begins on the border just before the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It shows how United States policy encouraged violence toward Mexicans. Using little-known Spanish-language newspapers, the author weaves a strong narrative, clearly exploring the development of Mexican communities in the United States, as well as their continued bonding with what he calls México Lindo, beautiful Mexico. The author also manifests the continuing bonds of Mexican communities in the United States to the mother country by describing the various Mexican American fund-raising activities to help the victims of natural disasters in México Lindo.	2
Yet Rosales makes it clear that Mexicans on this side were not blind to injustices in this country. He excavates little-known civil rights struggles that most mainstream historians have ignored. Rosales thus challenges the black-white paradigm through which most historians interpret United States history.	. . .