Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression (review)

Abstract

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 287 World War II, the advent ofthe maquiladoras, the impact of migration both on the United States and on the Mexican communities from which the immigrants came. Finally, he discusses current issues such as water, the environment and the problems of drug trafficking and illegal immigration from Mexico. The immigration problem, he maintains , was created by the 20th cenrury and is caused perhaps more by the need for workers here in the U.S. than by unemployment in Mexico. The book finishes with a discussion of the impact of the NAFTA Treaty on the border. There is a black and white map ofthe region as well as a series of black and white photographs throughout the text. Numerous charts are used to illustfate and clarify such information as irrigation on the border, production figures for both sides ofthe border, employment figures by economic sector as well as a chart of border population of Mexican origin by state from 1900-1990. There are copious footnotes and references at the end of each chapter and a list of suggested readings (which has been divided into various categories ) for further research or reading. At times the book is somewhat dry reading. Perhaps more information about the cross-border society ofthe area along with more information about the 'special' language spoken by some inhabitants ofthe region and specific examples of how their daily lives intermingle so frequently would make this a more interesting book for all to read. All in all, however, this book is a good begining for serious study and investigation of the ever-fascinating, mysterious region usually known as the U.S.-Mexico border. D. H.'Jon BeU Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeks from the Great Migration to the Great Depression University of California Press, 1999 By Douglas Monroy Criticized for the gross inaccuracies in Glenn G. Boyer's I Married Wyatt Earp (University of Arizona Press, 1976), U of A President Peter Likins was said to have remarked that blending fact and fiction was just the sort ofthing historians do these days. Driven to invention at times by au courant intellectual trends, Monroy's history retains at its core an objective and useful argument. The book is founded on an impressive command over the rich evidentiary base for the Mexican-origin population in Southern California (available in part because of fears about this ethnic group). While other historians, who reach similar conclusions, have tapped portions of the mine, Rebirth adds both content and nuance to die story. Social workers ' surveys of Mexican "pathology," intimate accounts of labor organizing, fascinating insights into the culture of boxing and equally intriguing preferences of Mexican filmgoers are brought to bear on several critical themes. The author explores the essential nature of México de afuera in Los Angeles and why people left Mexico to create it. External tensions between Mexicans and native elites in the labor market, schools, and welfare systems had their countetpart in internal tensions between immigfants and their acculturating children, and less than harmonious political activity among Mexican Americans. Monroy concludes by presenting two "trajectories" for die post-1940 era: in one, Mexicans assimilate; in the other, they continue being victims and outsiders. The postmodernist nonsense seeping out of departments of literature occasionally mars a well-crafted history, and that movement's wooden prose at times cortupts an otherwise well-written text. When the author "positions us in richly assorted ways" (51) and wains that he writes a "partisan " (2) history, why should the intelligent reader pay any attention? Because Monroy has in fact produced an argument that, while not unassailable , has strong objective merits: pulled out of impoverished Mexico by ruthless capitalist employers , Mexicans confronted a racist and culturaUy arrogant Yankee regime in Los Angeles. Their response was to create a new Mexican-American society, one offended and yet seduced by American cultural norms. Bitter experiences with dis- 288 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies crimination, repatriation, and physical assaults were countered by continued pride in their origins and in their achievements in a hostile setting. This argument has a persuasive quality. Clear evidence of prejudice in the labor...