Books by Manuel G. Gonzales,
Diablo Valley College, FACCC Member

Book Description
"The author is also especially good in weaving relevant historical developments in Mexico throughout the analysis. This, in particular, should set this book apart from others in the field, and adds a much needed transnational dimension to Mexican American history. . . . [A] readable, engaging, and lively synthesis." --David G. Gutierrez, University of California, San Diego

Rather than studying Mexican-American history from the militant perspective so popular in recent decades, this book offers a fresh reassessment of that past which paints a more nuanced portrait of Mexican-American life. Victimization and resistance are not the only themes that thread their way through this complex history. Gonzales's narrative embraces all segments of a heterogeneous community, not just the heroes who loom so large in movement portrayals. Moreover, in contrast to older studies, Gonzales's book probes the failures as well as the successes of the community. The result is a timely and valuable new history that is both fair and balanced.

From Kirkus Reviews, April 12, 1999
A thoughtful, thorough survey of events in the history of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos, Hispanos, and Latinos. That so many terms should apply to the same people is the result, writes Gonzales (History/Diablo Valley Coll.), of that peoples quest over several generations for identity as an ethnic minority in the US. Since the 1960s Chicano has been a favored term yet one that is politically laden and not widely accepted in the mainstream. Neither, he believes, has Mexican historiography generally, because it has been both heavily politicized and largely confined academically to Chicano and ethnic studies departments. This ideological orientation, he writes, has worked against the complete acceptance of Chicano historians and other Chicano scholars by their colleagues in the academy. Gonzales suggests that Mexican is the better overarching term, especially because, in a broad survey taken in 1990, 62 percent of people of Mexican heritage born in this country preferred [it], as did 86 percent of the immigrant population. He also demonstrates by example that history need not be overtly politicized in order to score political points. He proceeds to unfold a lively narrative that begins with the Spanish conquest of Mexico and ends in the Gringolandia of the late 1990s. Gonzales has a sharp eye for historical ironies. In one section, for instance, he examines the role of the bandido, or bandit, in the mainstream cultures perception of Mexicans generally. Lawlessness, he writes, was not uniquely characteristic of the oppressed Mexican population; it was rampant on the frontier . . . . Indeed, some historians have seen a lack of respect for the law as an American tradition. Yet, he writes, accommodation by the conquered Mexican population was much more common than resistance; even though on the frontier they were despised as being racially inferior, most Mexicans struggled to be good citizens. That overlooked tradition, Gonzales notes, emerged in many ways: in the deeds, for instance, of Jos M. Lpez, an army sergeant who killed more enemy soldiers than any other American in World War II. And it continues today, he asserts, in the increased presence of Mexicans in all aspects of mainstream culture and particularly among the intelligentsia. Likely to be widely used in college history courses, Gonzales' book will be of much interest to general readers as well. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.