Review: Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas, by Philis M. Barragán Goetz

Abstract

Philis M. Barragán Goetz sheds a bright light on the neglected and yet invaluable histories of escuelitas in Texas. Adding significantly to the field of Mexican American and Tejano educational history, Barragán Goetz uses Mexican and U.S. archives, Spanish and English borderlands newspapers, oral histories, escuelita curricula and mementos, and interviews to trace the complexity and nuance of almost a century (1865 through 1960s) of escuelitas in Texas. Escuelitas were both informal and formal grassroots Mexican American community schools without a “governmental or communal body overseeing their development” (p. 1). Escuelitas served the purpose of “ethnic Mexicans’ attempts to educate their children” in Spanish, centering Mexican cultural knowledge and patriotism, and negotiating an “alternative narrative” (p. 17) in the face of two nations, discrimination, obstacles, neglect, and the oversight of the U.S. public schools in Texas.Barragán Goetz argues that the escuelitas created an imaginary dual citizenship whereby ethnic Mexican children were being educated in Spanish literacy and Mexican ideals while living and navigating U.S. schooling and economic advancement. Chapter 1 historicizes the escuelitas’ contexts and increasing Anglo dominance over, and subordination of, Mexican children in Texas through her analysis of the superintendents’ reports revealing the racist attitudes toward the Mexican children and their families. Amidst lack of access and segregated schooling, Barragán Goetz highlights El Colegio Altamirano, which remained open in Hebbronville for over six decades, as an icon of escuelita history in Texas. In Chapter 2, Barragán Goetz expounds on how La Crónica—a Laredo based newspaper published by the influential Idar family—documented the paradoxes of Mexican American experiences in the United States, calling for more just and equitable treatment and advancement through education both through escuelitas and inclusion in the public schools. Chapter 3 centers the lives of four women leaders and activists—Jovita Idar, Leonor Villegas de Magnón, María Villarreal, and María Rentería—whose feminist stances sustained the escuelitas and the education of Mexican children in Laredo, despite the social patriarchy and the “dislocating phenomena” (p. 16) of the Mexican Revolution, modernization in Texas, and progressivism in the public schools. These four laudable women saw childhood education as fertile ground for their social and political ambitions and the futurity of Mexican American communities in Texas. Chapter 4 explains the role of the Mexican Consulate in supporting the escuelitas and in advocating for Mexicanization of children in the United States through diplomatic criticism of U.S. public schools. Chapter 5 highlights how the escuelita experience and curricula became important for activists of the “first” Mexican American generation, who attended escuelitas and public schools and carried on legacies of advocacy and activism that were rooted in their early schooling. María Elena Zamora O’Shea and Texas historian Jovita González are aptly spotlighted in this chapter as educators, scholars, and revolutionaries. Barragán Goetz contends that this generation was the last to attend escuelitas and that their advocacy and success, in part, culminated in the decline of the little schools.Overall, Barragán Goetz traces an important and complex trajectory of escuelita history in Reading, Writing, and Revolution, making this book an essential read for those interested in Mexican American educational history. She also appropriately argues that escuelita history is the “origin story” (p.159) of Mexican American studies. Barragán Goetz corrects a century of history in this book, in showing that Mexican and Mexican American communities have always valued education and have taken on the necessary actions in sustaining the learning experiences of children.