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Perspectives on Midwestern Chicana/o History University of Minnesota February 1999 During its youth in the late 1960's and early 1970's, Chicana/o historical scholarship emphasized its distinctive history and geography. It paid cursory homage to our indigenous roots among the Aztecs in Central Mexico, but initiated serious investigation in early 19th Century Texas, New Mexico, and California, prior to the mass migration of English-speaking people from the United States. (Acuña, 1972; Meier and Rivera, 1972; Vigil, 1980) The choice had important political and interpretive implications. Acknowledging ancient roots and a geography comprising former Mexican territory permitted Chicana/o scholars to challenge U.S. historians who portrayed the flow of history from east to west, and portrayed Mexicans, if they portrayed them at all, as the last of the immigrants. It emphasized incorporation as a result of military conquest, in contrast with Europeans, who were voluntary immigrants. Legal and political mechanisms imposed on Mexicans without consent deprived them of a land base and resulted in widespread downward mobility, while the dominant political culture continued to restrict Mexicans who entered the U.S. in the 20th Century. The focus on conquest and the Southwest also drew attention to the creation and proximity of the United States-Mexican border, which further distinguished Mexicans from individuals of European, African, and Asian backgrounds. The political border was considered influential in the formation and maintenance of a distinct Chicana/o identity and history. In effect, the distinct chronology and geography provided unity to a group of scholars with often divergent perspectives. Key features of this interpretation of Chicana/o history did not apply to Mexicans in the Midwest, whose continuous presence dates only from the turn of the twentieth century. The early Midwesterners were overwhelmingly immigrants who lived and worked among their European predecessors and more recently-arrived African Americans. With roots mostly in the interior of Mexico, they did not share a collective memory of United States conquest or the concomitant loss of ancestral lands. Finally, the United States-Mexican border had little immediate meaning, located more than one thousand miles away from most Mexicans in the Midwest. I was born in Detroit, and the borderlands I knew best during my youth straddled the United States and Canada. The political border dividing the two nations was marked by the Detroit River, easily crossed by tunnel or bridge to reach Windsor, Ontario, located immediately to the south. Neglect in general and theoretical literature on Chicana/o history has prompted Midwestern Mexicans to complain that Chicana/o Studies displays a similar lack of consideration that Anglo-dominated academia showed toward Chicanas/os in the Southwest a generation ago. The exclusion is replicated even in recent overviews and bibliographies, where reference to extant Midwestern literature is sparse and often lacking entirely (Gutiérrez, 1993; Ríos-Bustamante, 1993; González and Fernández, 1993; I. Garcia, 1996; Griswold, 1997). In this essay I examine interpretive historical frameworks adopted by 20th Century scholars on Midwestern Mexicans, including the literature of the Chicana/o generation. While placing the authors in their contemporary contexts, I simultaneously discuss how a world-systems perspective, which is not new in Chicana/o historical scholarship, permits opportunities to address important theoretical issues in the field. Hardcopy Price: $0.00
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