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Title: Recovering History, Constructing Race : The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) by Martha Menchaca ISBN: 0-292-75254-7 Publisher: University of Texas Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Significant Contribution
Comment: Contrary to the review by Mr. Araujo, which makes little sense, Professor Menchaca has produced a stunning contribution to current understandings of the Mexican and Mexican American or Chicano experience. Having previously reviewed this book in other contexts, I know all too well the details that make this book significant. In addition to the substantive body of information presented on the cultural contexts and legislative practices that undergird the Mexican American cultural experience, Menchaca's acknowledgement of the African American contribution in said experience, and the legislative and juridical practices that served to disenfranchise people of color in the US Southwest, are all key to what she has to say. Her discussion of the Hispanic colonial Missions and their role in the creation of the Hispanicized Indian communities of the US Southwest is in turn illuminating. Contrary to prevailing anti-Hispanic and or anti-Catholic views of the Mission era, Menchaca makes clear that the hispanicization of the California Indian, for instance, permitted most California Indians of the early American era to assimilate into Mexican and Mexican American communities. This process, she argues, allowed California Indian descendants to survive and prosper under what was otherwise a brutal and genocidal system of early American behavior toward American Indian communities. These critically significant points of departure, and Menchaca's very readable prose, make this a must-have addition to any library on the Mexican American cultural experience.
Rating: 1
Summary: Inaccurately descriptive.
Comment: My two cents.
By M. J Araujo
Philosophy major at the University of California Riverside.
Something to keep in mind:
Blacks were considered property, and a such they were treated. When the land mass which we know today as "Mexico" was in a revolutionary stage, slave owners transferred their negro property to the Caribbean, so that they would not lose their investment. This makes perfect logical sense, as opposed to Menchaca's view that the Spanish made no attempt to protect their investment which is absurd in itself. Her suggestion is equivalent to a person moving out of their house and leaving all their belongings behind for the new tenant to enjoy. Now does this make sense? We must keep in mind that Spain at the time was one of the strongest Countries in the world and was a leading colonizer. The blacks which reside in Mexico today are immigrant arrivals from the Caribbean which came to Mexico upon their own free will.
Now the review:
She can't distinguish the co-reference of the word 'Mexican', and often confuses her own thoughts, amounting to frequent absurdities.
(1)One concept of the word 'Mexican' means person born in the country Mexico. In other words a citizen of Mexico. Under this thought of the word 'Mexican' anyone that is a citizen of Mexico qualifies. Whether they be black,white,asian, etc..(Mexico is a multicultural country) A necessary condition for this thought is the existence of the country known as Mexico( in space and in time)
(2) The other concept of the word 'Mexican' refers to the Mexican Race, people of Spanish and Indigenous heritage.Concept (2) can is present within concept(1).
Her hypothesis on being "Mexican" results in the merging of the two concepts together. The problem with this is that if the country known as Mexico were to disappear, meaning that the government would collapse those people that are immigrants of Mexico and those people that are descendants of people that were immigrants in Mexico, would no longer have the claim to being Mexican, because the country does not exist anymore. The very concept that these people are "Mexican" relies solely on the condition that Mexico exist physically, that is that, it exist in space and time when the concept is expressed.
In contrast, a person that is "Mexican" in the sense that they have Indigenous and Spanish blood, would continue to be Mexican, even after the country Mexico has collapsed and its government has dispersed . When this happens there will only be one referent which refers to the property of "being Mexican".
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