The Lynching of Mexicans in the Texas Borderlands. By Nicholas Villanueva, Jr

Abstract

Nicholas Villanueva Jr. analyzes the growth of anti-Mexican sentiment in the chaotic decade of the 1910s and how that sentiment subsided by the end of the decade. Villanueva argues that the Mexican Revolution influenced the rise of Mexican lynching in Texas because of the violence against Americans in Mexico. Even though this theme is seen throughout the book, it is most clearly stated in Chapter 1, “Expatriates, Exiles, and Refugees,” in which Villanueva describes how the American press promoted the idea that Anglo Americans in Mexico were victims of indignities and expropriations (p. 49). While there is truth to that claim, Villanueva contends that it was exaggerated, which led to problems for Mexican-origin people in Texas and likely in other regions of the Southwest as well. Chapter 5, “World War I and the Decline of Mexican Lynching,” is the especially enlightening in advancing the idea of the “new other.” Throughout chaotic years of the Mexican Revolution, Mexican-origin people were the “enemy other”; however, that perception declined as Anglo Texas found a new enemy: German Americans (p. 163). While it may have become clear to U.S. historians that anti-German sentiments grew during the World War I, few have made Villanueva’s connection, for which he must be given proper credit.