Bilingual education is one of the most contentious and misunderstood educational programs in the country. It raises significant questions about this country's national identity, the nature of federalism, power, ethnicity, and pedagogy. In "Contested Policy," Guadalupe San Miguel Jr. studies the origins, evolution, and consequences of federal bilingual education policy from 1960 to 2001, with particular attention to the activist years after 1978, when bilingual policy was heatedly contested.
Traditionally, those in favor of bilingual education are language specialists, Mexican American...

Based on documents from the Laredo Archives, "Life in Laredo" shows the evolution and development of daily life in a town under the flags of Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Isolated on the northern frontier of New Spain and often forgotten by authorities far away, the people of Laredo became as "grand" as the river that flowed by their town and left an enduring legacy in a world of challenges and changes. Because of its documentary nature, "Life in Laredo" offers insights into the nitty-gritty of the comings and goings of its early citizens not to be found elsewhere.
Robert D. Wood,...

Perhaps no other industrial technology changed the course of Mexican history in the United States-and Mexico-than did the coming of the railroads. Tens of thousands of Mexicans worked for the railroads in the United States, especially in the Southwest and Midwest. Extensive Mexican American settlements appeared throughout the lower and upper Midwest as the result of the railroad. Only agricultural work surpassed railroad work in terms of employment of Mexicans. In Traqueros, Jeffrey Marcos Garcilazo mined numerous archives and other sources to provide the first and only comprehensive history...

Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation analyzes the socioeconomic origins of the theory and practice of segregated schooling for Mexican-Americans from 1910 to 1950. Gilbert G. Gonzalez links the various aspects of the segregated school experience, discussing Americanization, testing, tracking, industrial education, and migrant education as parts of a single system designed for the processing of the Mexican child as a source of cheap labor. The movement for integration began slowly, reaching a peak in the 1940s and 1950s. The 1947 Mendez v. Westminster case was the first federal court...

The 2010 US Census data showed that over the last decade the Latino population grew from 35.3 million to 50.5 million, accounting for more than half of the nation's population growth. The editors of "The Roots of Latino Urban Agency," Sharon Navarro and Rodolfo Rosales, have collected essays that examine this phenomenal growth. The greatest demographic expansion of communities of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans seeking political inclusion and access has been observed in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and San Antonio.
Three premises guide this study. The first premise...

"Three Decades of Engendering History" collects ten of Antonia I. Castaneda s best articles, including the widely circulated article Engendering the History of Alta California, 17691848, in which Castaneda took a direct and honest look at sex and gender relations in colonial California, exposing stories of violence against women as well as stories of survival and resistance. Other articles included are the prize-winning Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History, and two recent articles, Lullabies y Canciones de Cuna and La Despedida. The latter two represent Castaneda s most recent...

"Three Decades of Engendering History" collects ten of Antonia I. Castaneda s best articles, including the widely circulated article Engendering the History of Alta California, 17691848, in which Castaneda took a direct and honest look at sex and gender relations in colonial California, exposing stories of violence against women as well as stories of survival and resistance. Other articles included are the prize-winning Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History, and two recent articles, Lullabies y Canciones de Cuna and La Despedida. The latter two represent Castaneda s most recent...

The full history of Mexican American railroad labor and settlement in the United States had not been told, however, until Jeffrey Marcos Garcilazo's groundbreaking research in Traqueros. Garcilazo mined numerous archives and other sources to provide the first and only comprehensive history of Mexican railroad workers across the United States, with particular attention to the Midwest.

Based on articles written for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, author Richard J. Gonzales draws on his educational, inner-city and professional life experiences to weave eyewitness testimony into issues facing Chicanos, including economic, health, education, criminal justice, politics, immigration, and cultural issues. Raza Rising presents a personal recounting of a Chicano s struggle with and understanding of the socio-economic policies and historical actions that impact their ascendancy. Raza Rising offers first-hand observations, supported by well-documented scholarly...