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A General Survey of by Antonio Ríos-Bustamante University of Wyoming Occasional Paper No. 25 June 1997
JSRI Occasional Papers: for the dissemination of speeches and papers of value to the Latino community which are not necessarily based on a research project. Examples include historical accounts of people or events, "oral histories," motivational talks, poetry, speeches, and related presentations.
About the Author: Antonio Ríos-Bustamante, a Los Angeles native, is Professor of History in the Department of History at the University of Wyoming, and Director of the Chicano Studies Program at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming. He is a member of the the editorial board of the Public Historian and also principal co-editor with Cristine Marin of “Latinos in Museums: A Heritage Reclaimed.” He has been a member of the Committee on Minority Historians of the American Historical Association and a contributing editor of Aztlán: Journal of Chicano Studies Research (UCLA). He received his B.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. and his Ph.D. in History from UCLA. He has authored over 44 publications on several historical topics concerning Mexicans and Latin Americans in the United States. He is author of Mexican Los Angeles: A Narrative and Pictorial History; and of Latino Hollywood: A Pictorial History of Latinos in the Film Industry, 1916-1945. He is the principal co-author, with Dr. Pedro G. Castillo, University of California, Santa Cruz, of An Illustrated History of Mexican Los Angeles, 1781-1985, published by Chicano Studies Research Center Publications, and of En Los Angeles Mexicano: Una historia social y cultural, 1781-1981 (Mexico D.F.: Editorial Alianza, 1989). An expert in the development of Latino Museums and Public History Programs, he is the author of Latinos and Native Americans in the Museum: The National Survey and Directory of Historical and Art Museum Professional Personnel, MASRC, University of Arizona: 1997.
SUGGESTED CITATION Ríos-Bustamante, Antonio. A General Survey of Chicano(a) Historiography, JSRI Occasional Paper #25, The Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 2000. Table of Contents
Although Mexican Americans have one of the oldest histories of the peoples of the United States, Chicano/a history as a recognized field within United States history is new, with the first historiographic essays in Chicano history appearing in 1970. Acceptance by historians has been gradual, but as of the 1990's the field of Chicano history has been formally recognized by both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Despite formal acceptance, many historians still view the field as questionable, primarily regional, and limited to the Southwest. This essay will examine the origins of the field and three decades of scholarship by Chicano/a historians. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature Mexican Americans/Chicano/as, like other American peoples, including Anglo, African, Native, and Asian Americans, have imagined and changed their ethnic, national, and regional terms of identification. The terms of identification have evolved with large-scale historical, cultural, and ideological changes, and with regional variations, influenced by the multiethnic cultural origins among Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Since 1821, the term Mexicano/Mexican was most widely used. The term Mexico Americano appeared in the 1880's, but was used in a geographic rather than a cultural sense, to identify Mexicans living in the United States. By the 1920's, the term Mexican American was beginning to be used for U.S. citizens and residents of Mexican ethnicity and cultural identity, but as late as the 1940's, the term Mexicano/Mexican was still more widely used than Mexican American. The term Chicano/a, applied to poor Mexican immigrants in the 1920's, became an in-group term for some barrio residents and later a term of political assertion and protest.1 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States Prior to the 1930's, historical writing by Mexicans was mainly regional or local. Mexican Americans tended to view themselves as Mexicans by nationality, as Mexican Americans by political geography, and as Mexicans by descent; secondarily they viewed themselves by regional identity as Tejanos, Nuevo Mexicanos, Sonoreses (Arizonans), and Californianos. Rich regional literatures comprised of memoirs and local histories (the majority unpublished) evolved after 1848, but until the development of Chicano history, most of them were untapped or inaccessible to all but experts in Southwestern and Borderlands history.2 Why didn't the professional study of Mexican-American history develop earlier? A major barrier was that society at large, including scholars, considered Mexican Americans to be an immigrant group without a pre-1900 history. The Spanish Myth, by de-emphasizing the Mexican presence, effectively separated their earlier, pre-1848 history from their later history. As will be discussed later the Spanish period then became the preserve of Borderlands historians focusing on elite officials and missionaries rather than on Mexican settlers. The rare exceptions included works like An Illustrated History of New Mexico by Benjamin Read, as well as the works of Carlos Casta-eda, whose history of Mexican Americans was subsumed in acceptable projects like Our Catholic Heritage in Texas, 1519Ð1936, a 6-volume history of the Catholic Church in Texas. While Casta-eda was the most recognizable professional historian prefiguring Chicano/Mexican-American history, a large number of other authors were writing regional history and folklore, among them George I. Sanchez, Adelina Otero, and Nellie Van de Grift de Sanchez.3 Most 20th Century U.S. historians viewed Mexicans as immigrants and scarcely mentioned them, except in relation to border conflicts with Mexico. Prior to the 1950's, due to discrimination, there were few professional Mexican-American historians and no field of Mexican-American history that they could write about. Early scholars such as Casta-eda, who wrote in the 1920's and 1930's, could work either in Borderlands history or in Texas history, but not in Mexican-American history. Before World War II, the few works dealing with Mexican Americans were
mainly sociological or anthropological studies of labor immigration, works
on home missionary work by Protestant missionaries, or educational studies
focusing on Mexican educational deficiencies. Some of these works contained
useful historical overviews or regional material, much of which was used
by Carey McWilliams in North from Mexico: The Spanish Speaking People
of the United States (1949). After World War II and the Korean War, the GI Bill provided significant numbers of Mexican Americans some access to universities. Scholars from this generation, including Manuel P. Servin, Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and, slightly later, Rodolfo Acu-a, were to play a critical role in either prefiguring or establishing Chicano history. By the 1960's, Servin, Ruiz, and a few others had attained doctoral degrees in Latin American history, and taught courses in Mexican history. Works such as Ruiz's reader, The Mexican War: Was It Manifest Destiny? (1963) were viewed as beacons of scholarship by young Mexican-American students.5 The works of Borderlands social historians, such as Leonard Pitt's The Decline of the Californios (1966), Alan C. Hutchinson's Mexican Settlement in Frontier California (1969), and David J. Weber's Foreigners in Their Native Land: Historical Roots of Mexican Americans (1973) provided a major stimulus to Chicano historians.6 In the 1960's, the field of Chicano history arose as a result of the rise of a new social history and the influence of the Chicano Movement of the 1960's and 1970's. The first courses in Chicano/a history were established in the 1970's, and by the 1980's courses were created in Chicana history, labor history, and historiography, as well as Texas, New Mexico, and California Mexican American history. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans The understanding of Mexican-American history requires an understanding of its relationship to Mexican history and Mexican historical research. Prior to the mid-20th Century, however, there were few, if any, published Mexican histories of the former Mexican territories of Texas, New Mexico, Alta California, and La Mesilla/Arizona. Spanish and Mexican historical literature for the colonial period has been discussed by Juan Gomez Quiones and Weber.7 In the 1980's, the focus of the work of Chicano historians shifted, with increasing recognition and publication in Mexico. Research on immigration also focused attention on the history of Mexican Americans in the Midwest, Plains states, and Pacific Northwest. Important works include Mercedes de Carreras de Velesco's Los Mexicanos que devolvio la crisis, 1929Ð1932 (1974).8 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History Prior to the 1960's, U.S. histories referring to Mexican Americans reflected developmentalist perspectives of the Western Expansion and Spanish Borderlands schools of historiography, or the evolutionist conquest and cultural conquest perspectives in the cultural conflict school of Texas history.9 Borderlands history treated Mexicans indirectly as objects of institutional and political themes. These themes emphasized a perspective of the Southwest as being concerned primarily with the Spanish colonial period. Otherwise Mexicans were viewed through the history of the Anglo-American West, as a barrier to be overcome by the Anglo pioneer settler, as 20th Century immigrants, or as a colorful and touristic Mexican Indian backdrop to the Sun Belt of the late 20th Century. In addition, the history of Mexicans was obscured by a widespread convention among scholars of Western, California, and Borderlands history that pre-1900 settlers were Spanish Americans. 10 This convention was characterized by Carey McWilliams in North From Mexico as the Spanish Myth. While McWilliams was not the first scholar to recognize this major defect in the treatment of the pre-1848 Mexican Far West and Southwest, he was the first to provide a comprehensive reexamination and rebuttal.11 Unfortunately, McWilliams's challenge received little immediate serious attention because historians underrated his book as social journalism rather than scholarly work. It was not until the l960's brought new developments in the discipline of history and the reemergence of a critical ethnic consciousness that North from Mexico received critical acclaim. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Rise of Chicano History and Historiography Since the 1960's, social historians, Chicano historians, and other scholars have initiated an extensive reexamination and reinterpretation of the Mexican presence in United States history. Numerous studies now reveal the complexities and contributions of Mexican society in California and the Southwest during the colonial period and the 19th and 20th Centuries. Early contributors to the development of Chicano history in the 1960's included Servin of the University of Southern California and folklorist Americo Paredes at the University of Texas, Austin. At the very end of the 1960's they were joined by Acu-a at California State University, Northridge; Juan Gomez Quiones Feliciano Rivera at the University of California, Los Angeles; and Matt Meier and Feliciano Rivera at the University of Santa Clara and San Jose State University, respectively.12 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Theoretical and Philosophical Influences Because Chicano/a historiography is new, any discussion of theoretical and philosophical influences must be both tentative and fluid. The brief time frame and small numbers of Chicano/a historians must also be considered. The field is only now nearing the end of its formative phase. The size of the first generation of Chicano/a scholars, who received Ph.D.s between 1970 and 1980, is quite small. Almost all are still in midcareer and are continuing to develop their perspectives. Their students, who received degrees between 1980 and 1990, are in early to midcareer. Compared to the historical discipline in the United States as a whole, even the most senior Chicano/as have barely entered their mature phase. Only a few scholars who began in the middle to late 1950's, prior to the existence of a Chicano history field, are at a career phase comparable to senior American historians. 13 Individual Mexican-American scholars are open to and influenced by multiple philosophical perspectives and change their viewpoints over time. It would be both inaccurate and dogmatic to associate an individual historian exclusively with one point of view, unless they so identify in their writings.
Prior to the 1950's, Mexican-American history writing was carried out by regional, local authors; university-affiliated scholars such as Carlos Casta-eda, Arthur Campa, and Sanchez were rare exceptions.14 Earlier influences on historical interpretation include those from both Mexican and American ideological and philosophical perspectives. Mexican-American regional and local history to the mid-20th Century reflected both Mexican and American ideological influences. Some accounts were costumbrista (attempting to present a literary folkloric archetype of a particular area or community), antiquarian (presenting a isolated incident or anecdotal case or event), or moralistic (presenting a moralist or nostalgic view of a lost past) in being concerned with local and regional tradition. Other manuscripts reflected the successive and competing influences of Mexican liberalism, clerical conservatism, revolutionary populism, and institutionalized revolutionary symbolism.15 Folklorists such as Campa and Americo Paredes pioneered in developing a broader concern with the relationship between regional Mexican-American cultural history and Mexican cultural history. Western American and Borderlands history reflected a philosophical range between American and Latin American conservative (Whig or Catholic clerical) and liberal traditions. By the 1940's, developmentalist perspectives such as those of Arnold Toynbee were influencing some Western Borderlands scholars, while Texas history remained influenced by a evolutionist cultural conflict school.
Important to the development of Chicano history was the convergence of influence from several related fields within history. Chicano history emerged as a new field affected by various philosophical and ideological perspectives, including the new social history; European and Latin American progressive and radical traditions; and Whig and liberal American historical traditions. The field was dominated by the theoretical and methodological concerns of the new social history with its predominantly progressive and radical perspectives. In the 1960's and 1970's prominent new social historians included Herbert G. Gutman, Eric Foner, Gabriel Kolko, Alexander Saxton, Eugene Genovese, Gary Nash, Gerda Lerner, and Lawrence Levine.16 Scholars and theorists from outside the discipline of history provided critical perspective, including Ernesto Galarza, Harold Cruze, Octavio Romano, Tomas Almaguer, Robert Allen, Mario Barrera, Ralph Guzman, Carlos Mu-oz, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Rosaura Sanchez, Renato Rosaldo, Jr., and Martha P. Cotera. International, European, and Mexican influences came from such scholars and theorists as E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Eric J. Hobsbawn, Pierre Villar, Franz Fannon, Antonio Gramsci, Albert Memmi, Leopoldo Zea, Ferdinand Braudel, Luis Gonzalez, Enrique Semo, Josefina Zoraida Vasquez, and Enrique Florescano. Concerns included labor history, movements of the dispossessed and social change, nationalism, education and ideology, the history of racially and sexually excluded groups, and the domination and co-optation of excluded groups. In the American historical tradition, influential liberal historians included Oscar Handlin, Norris Hundley Jr., and Meier. Among the Whig, conservative historians were Arthur Corwin, Jr., Phillip W. Powell, Paul Horgan, and Walter Prescott Webb. A small number of Mexican-American historians were shaped by their traditional training in Whig and liberal American historical interpretations. Most conservative Mexican Americans steered clear of Chicano history, yet a few iconoclasts, such as Manuel A. Machado (Listen Chicano!, 1978), represented a faint Whig voice. A much larger influence has been that of the liberal interpretation, which has continued to exercise a potent influence over a larger sector of Mexican-American historians. This influence was early reflected in the group of scholars associated with the Journal of Mexican American History and in the works of Meier and Feliciano Rivera. 17 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Theoretical and Philosophical Developments It is too early for more than a tentative discussion of the theoretical and philosophical development of Chicano historiography from the 1970's through the 1990's. Any attempt at interpretation also inevitably has ideological association with the development of the directions of national and Mexican-American/Latino/Hispanic politics from the 1970's through the 1990's. As noted, a major limitation in identifying philosophical/ideological schools in Chicano historiography is quite simply the very small number of Chicano/a historians in the 1970's. Indeed, prior to 1970 there was not a single Chicana with a Ph.D. in history who was primarily engaged in teaching and research on Chicana/Mexicana history.18 Because of this, the period from 1970 to 1980 was a formative one in which key historians such as Servin, Acua, Gomez Quiones , and Louise A-o Nuevo Kerr acted as pioneers in striking new directions. Often it was scholars from disciplines like anthropology, sociology, and political science among them Paredes, Sanchez, Ernesto Galarza, Tomas Almaguer, and Fred A. Cervantes who took the lead in charting theoretical and philosophical directions. Because of the small numbers, it is more accurate to speak of theoretical/philosophical clusters and affinity groups rather than schools or groups. By the end of the 1970's, Chicano/a/Mexican-American history had developed several theoretical and philosophical clusters.19 These can be characterized as internal colonial, colonial and labor resistance, Chicana feminist, labor assimilation, liberal, and conservative (Whig). It must be emphasized that the degree of theoretical and philosophical consistency was developing unevenly and did not necessarily imply a highly defined philosophical and theoretical unity. Rather, it reflected general interests in developing research agendas and some degree of commitment or reaction to the applied focus of Chicano studies. Individual scholars were open to and influenced by multiple philosophical perspectives, and few, if any, associated exclusively with one viewpoint. Because of this complexity, it would be a mistake to directly correlate philosophical perspectives with thematic approaches or subfields. The internal colonial perspective was defined by the work of sociologists Tomas Almaguer and Mario Barrera, and the major historian who employed it was Rodolfo Acu-a, while many then graduate students, including Ramon A. Gutierrez, adopted it in their early writings. Colonial and labor resistance had been defined in part by Carey McWilliams and culturally enriched by Americo Paredes.20 The major historian associated with this perspective was Juan Gomez Quiones , who was also the most prolific historiographic essayist. The Chicana feminist perspective was initially defined by nonhistorians Martha P. Cotera and Rosaura Sanchez, and later by historian Louise A-o Nuevo Kerr and sociologist Ana Nieto G-mez. 21 The Chicano labor assimilation perspective was defined by historian Mario T. Garcia and influenced by U.S. immigration and labor historians. The liberal perspective was best represented by Matt Meier and Feliciano Rivera. A conservative (Whig) tendency was vocally represented by Manuel A. Machado, whose book Listen Chicano! opened with a preface written by Barry Goldwater. By the late 1990's, this configuration had begun to shift as scholars reexamined and better defined their positions. Rodolfo Acu-a shifted from use of the internal colonial perspective, and Juan Gomez Quiones from the colonial perspective, to a developing postcolonial perspective that was first defined in the critique of the internal colonial perspective by political scientist Fred A. Cervantes.22 Another contributor to the postcolonial school and to the development of the field of subaltern studies is Jorge Klor de Alva. Ramon A. Gutierrez, a self-described early proponent of the internal colonial perspective, emerged as the first and leading Chicano historian proponent of a postmodernist perspective. The postmodernist perspective has been much enriched by scholars in cultural studies, comparative literature, and sociology, too numerous to be mentioned here. Key figures include Tomas Almaguer, Bruce Novoa, Ramon Saldivar, Genaro Garcia, and Nicolas Kanellos. A significant cluster of scholars have moved toward a vaguely defined liberalism and neoliberalism. These include several prominent scholars who appear to occupy an ambiguous space between the labor assimilation perspective and a neoliberal perspective. Their future work should clarify changes in their philosophical perspectives. Other scholars, including Matt Meier, appear to be positioned between liberalism and neoliberalism.23 Finally, the underdeveloped conservative position has shifted to a neoconservatism and received a real voice from cultural commentator Richard Rodriguez. Richard Garcia, who has been influenced by Rodriguez, appears to represent a recent move in this direction by some Chicano historians.24 This tentative interpretation of philosophical influences on Chicano/a history can be confirmed or modified only by detailed analysis of the work of historians, their statements, and continuing changes and enrichment from many sources. Any characterization of colleagues must be tentative and subject to revision. In reality, historical scholars are dynamic and seek, receive, integrate, express, and debate multiple influences in a constant effort to advance the quality of historical theory, research, writing, and teaching. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Major issues in Chicano history include (1) the periodization and degree of historical continuity between pre-twentieth-century Mexicans and twentieth-century Mexican Americans; (2) the stagnation or decline perspective of nineteenth-century Mexican society in the Southwest; (3) the origins of Mexican labor organizations and the influence on them of the American labor movement; (4) the role of women in the reproduction of Chicano/a identity and culture, and the lives and struggles of Mexican women as central in Chicano/a history; (5) the imagining of and changes in identities i.e., national, ethnic, regional, local, gender; and (6) organization, politics, and political ideology. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Periodization has been much debated and is linked to the debates on different
paradigms of Chicana/Chicano history. Many periods have been proposed
as the starting point of Chicano history. Among these periods and corresponding
paradigms are: 1. Indigenous Native American Creation Origins. A native theological perspective of origins claimed by those Mexican, Chicano indigenistas who accept the validity of indigenous theology as the origin of Mexicans as a people of fundementally indigenous identity. 2. Bering Straits theory, 15,000Ð100,000 A.D., Starting from the presence of prehistoric asiatic migration, Mexicans are viewed as mainly indigenous, with the earliest scientifically proven presence of Native Americans viewed as their earliest origin. 3. Meso-American Pre-Classic to Classic. Olmecs, Teotihuac‡n, Toltecs, Mexicans indigenous with the earliest Meso American civilizations viewed as the most significant starting point. 4. 1100 A.D. Arrival of eleven Chichimec tribes/clans led by Zolotl in valley of Mexico from Aztlan, based upon the Chichimeca Nahua Mexica chronicles as a historical origin for the Mexican and Mexican-American people Colonial Period/Mestizaje Colonial Period/Mestijaeje. 5. Early Conquest, 1521Ð1640. The period of early contact/conquest/colonization viewed as most formative in its subsequent influence on Mexican society, including Catholicism, the Spanish language, and the origin of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a symbol of Mexican identity.
7. Late-Bourbon Reforms, 1750Ð1810. A period of increasing colonial state power which displaced, and antagonized criollo elites, and intensified exploitation and local resistance by Indians and castas, including mestizos and mulatos. Mexican Revolution/Independence 8. Hidalgo, Morelos, Guerrero Revolution. The outbreak of armed revolt and the mass proclamation of a Mexican national identity and liberal ideology. 9. Independence, 1821. The actual achievement of formal political independence and establishment of a Mexican national state. War and Annexation by Anglo-Americans 10. Texas, 1836. The separation of Tejanos, (the five thousand Mexican inhabitants of Texas) viewed as the creation of a Mexican group outside of the Mexican state and dominated by non-Mexicans. 11. Mexico-U.S. War, 1836Ð1848. Viewed as the creation of the first Mexican group within the United States, outside of the Mexican state, and dominated by non-Mexicans. 12. Transitional Period, 1850Ð1880's, viewed as the period when fundamental social, economic, and political conditions characterizing the Mexican-American/Anglo-American relationship were established. Viewed as formative period of either colonial, internal colonial, or other forms of domination of Mexican Americans within the United States. Historical events in Mexico during the periods of the Reforma 1850's,
the War of the French Intervention, 1860Ð67, and the Porfiriato, 1877Ð1910,
can also be viewed as significantly influencing the Mexican community
in the United States during the late 19th Century. 13. Immigration of one million Mexicans to the United States between 1900 and 1920. The first large 20th Century wave of immigration is viewed as a fundemental factor in the formation of Mexican-American identity and community. The Mexican Revolution, 1910Ð19, can be viewed as contributing not only to stimulating immigration but also as influencing Mexican ideology and self-images in the United States in the mid-20th Century. Sometimes viewed from the Oscar Handling immigration perspective that Mexican immigration can be explained by the same basic assimilation framework as that of other immigrant groups. A variant model holds that Mexican Americans are assimilating as working-class ethnics who are culturally and socially integrated but economically disadvantaged relative to other Americans. The periods most often proposed as the start of Chicano/a history are pre-1521 A.D., 1836, 1848, 1850Ð80's (the transitional period), and 1900Ð1920. Several of these correspond to a particular paradigm or historiographic approach. The pre-1521 A.D. period corresponds to several different perspectives, including an indigenous perspective that views Chicanos as Native Americans whose identity has been negated by Spanish, Mexican, and later Anglo-American domination. The conquest is thus viewed as initiating the colonization of the Mexican people. Gender approaches also view the Spanish conquest as a key point in the construction of a European-derived patriarchy, based upon a shame/honor system that subjugated women and men.25 The colonial transculturation perspective views the period from 1521 to 1821 as one of transculturation (a process of cultural change from an earlier culture to a new one), mestizaje (the intermixture of different ethnic and cultural groups), and development of a syncretic culture (a new culture evolving from the combination of elements of several earlier cultures). This perspective was developed by ethno historians like Eric Wolf in Sons of the Shaking Earth (1959) and revisionist historians like Jaime E. Rodriguez and Colin M. MacLachlan in The Cosmic Race: A Reinterpretation of Colonial Mexico. (1980). The 1836 and 1848 dates place emphasis on the annexation and conquest of the native population that became the Mexican population within the United States. The Texas revolt in 1836 resulted in the separation of five thousand Tejanos from Mexico. The signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 placed a Mexican population of nearly one hundred thousand within the United States. Rodolfo Acua's masterwork Occupied America begins with the foreign settlement in Texas leading up to the 1836 revolt. 26 Albert Camarillo characterized the period from 1848 to the 1880's as being the critical transitional period in the formation of the unequal set of relationships that have since prevailed between Mexicanos and Anglo-Americans in the Southwest. Pre-1848 Mexican regional identity in Mexico's far north, while reflecting a popular civic and cultural concept of Mexicano, lacked the institutional state-created cult of Mexicanidad that was characteristic of the development of Mexican elementary and secondary education beginning in the 1880's.27 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Issues of Periodization and Complexity The very complexity of Chicano history suggests that it has no single starting point, except in a formal sense. More productive is a multiperiod approach recognizing that many or all of these periods are phases of Chicano history. Obviously, there will be continuing debate on their respective degrees and types of relevance, but it may be alleged that all are, in some respects, starting points or phases. Furthermore, these starting points in some degree correspond to particular ideological perspectives of Chicanos, whether or not that historians recognize correspondence. In this sense, 1900 may be as much an imagined beginning as 1100 or 1848. For example, in the imagining of the Chicano/a indigenista historian, the arrival of Xolotl in 1100 is more real than the beginnings of working-class ethnic assimilation in 1900. Thus, rather than closing off the field at a single, official date, it is more useful to view all of these dates or phases as an unending transitional research agenda being constantly redefined, debated, and reimagined. Chicano historians quickly confronted the Spanish myth. Critics such as Arthur Corwin Jr. argued for a lack of continuity in which the earlier history of Spanish people was made distinct from that of post-1900 Mexican immigrants. While the early periods studies by Chicano historians provide a corrective of the Spanish Myth, they are not intended to and do not negate the influence of Spain and of European Spaniards. Rather, they effectively demonstrate that Spanish influence was primarily mediated and modified through the presence of Mexican settlers in Alta California and the Southwest. An increasing number of community studies, including those of Camarillo (1979) and Griswold del Castillo (1979), further show a continuity of community, culture, and identity among California's Mexican population, from the pobladores (settlers) of the 18th Century to the Mexican immigrants and community of the l980's. These demonstrate a changing, dynamic community formed by both its past and the influences of the present, as opposed to a static continuity. Another difference in interpretation has been the 19th Century Mexican stagnation, or decline perspective, in which colonial and Mexican society are viewed as decadent or in decline. Contrary to the stagnation perspective, the colonial and Mexican national periods in far northern Mexico were periods of growth, adaptation, and change. Following Mexican independence, Nuevo Mexico and Alta California society entered an even more dynamic period of change. While Tejas was devastated by the royalist military during the 1811Ð14 revolution, by the mid-1820's a recovery was stimulated by foreign trade.28 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Theoretical and Thematic Approaches There is an ever-increasing number of theoretical and thematic approaches and sub fields of Chicano history. Newer approaches have developed from older ones. Some have resulted from the influence of other disciplines, such as sociology and comparative literature. Others have resulted from the application of new theories and methodologies. They sometimes overlap in varying degrees; for example, gender studies and the history of the family; intellectual history and postmodern cultural studies. New sub fields are continuing to emerge. New paradigms may combine several approaches in new working synthesis.29 The first thematic areas that developed were social, labor, immigration,
and border history. Since then, many new theoretical and thematic approaches
have been added, so that the list now includes: A major issue has been whether Chicano labor organization resulted primarily because of the influence of the American or Mexican labor movements, was a independent development, or was some combination of the two. Studies of agricultural labor include Griswold del Castillo and Richard Garcia, Cesar Chavez: A Triumph of Spirit (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995); Mark Reisler. By the Sweat of Their Brow: Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United States, 1900Ð1940. (N.Y.: Greenwood Press, 1976); Camile Guerin Gonzalez. Mexican Workers and American Dreams: Immigration, Repatriation, and California Farm Labor, 1900Ð1939. (Rutgers, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994); Devra Weber. Brown Sweat, White Gold. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). Studies of industrial workers include Clete Daniel, Chicano Workers and the Politics of Fairness: The FEPC in the Southwest, 1941Ð1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991). A comprehensive history is Juan Gomez-Qui-ones. Mexican American Labor, 1790Ð1990 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico 1994). An important regional study is Emilio Zamora. The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas (College Station: Texas A & M. University Press, 1993), which credits Mexican-American workers with the major impetus for their own organization. The essays in John Mason Hart, ed., Crossing Borders (New York: Scholarly Resources, 1998) examine the relationship of Mexican and Mexican-American labor. 2. Immigration History. Chicano immigration history reflected the influences of the Oscar Handlin school of immigration history and a new revisionist Chicano immigration history. Immigration historian Arthur Corwin stated that Mexican-American history began in the 1900's with large-scale immigration. This was challenged by Rodolfo Acu-a and by Juan Gomez Qui-ones. In the 1980's Ricardo Romo (Mexican Americans in the New West, in The Twentieth Century West, Gerald D. Nash and Richard W. Etulain, eds. [Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989]; and George J. Sanchez Becoming Mexican American. [New York: Oxford University Press, 1993] have developed a modified perspective that views the 20th Century as the primary focus of Mexican American history. The first seminal work was Manuel Gamio's massive study Mexican Immigration to the United States. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930); and The Mexican Immigrant: His Life Story (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931). A new synthesis of pre-1930 immigration was provided by Lawrence A. Cardoso, Mexican Emigration to the United States, 1897Ð1931 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1980). Immigration history is intertwined with the work of the labor school of historians, especially Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, described above. This includes Antonio Rios-Bustamante, ed., Mexican Immigrant Workers in the United States. (Los Angeles: CSRC, University of California, 1981); Carlos Vasquez and Manuel Garcia y Griego, eds., Mexican U.S. Relations: Conflict and Convergence (Los Angeles: CSRC, UCLA, 1983). Mario T. Garcia, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880Ð1920. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1981) examined El Paso as the main twentieth-century gateway. Studies of the 1930's repatriation include Francisco E. Balderrama, In Defense of La Raza. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982); Francisco E. Balderrama, The Decade of Betrayal. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996); and Juan Garcia, Operation Wetback. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980). More recently George Sanchez, in Becoming Mexican American (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), views Mexican Americans as culturally assimilating but economically lower-class American ethnics, similar to the experience of Polish, Czech, and Hungarian immigrants in the Midwest. 3. Urban Rural History. The development and growth of Mexican-American communities and neighborhoods has been a major focus of Chicano historians starting with Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in a Changing Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 1979) and Griswold del Castillo. Los Angeles Barrio 1850Ð1890. (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press 1979). While beginning with an urban emphasis, community studies are inherently both urban and rural, dealing with a transition from rural to urban communities. A key historiograpic essay is Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in the American City. in Chicano Studies: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Eugene E. Garcia et al., eds. (New York: Columbia University, Teachers College Press: 1984). Gilbert Gonzalez and Raul Fernandez, Chicano History: Transcending Cultural Models, Pacific Historical Review 4, 469Ð497 (1994), have criticized Chicano urban historians for an overemphasis on urban communities and ignoring rural communities. In making this overdue criticism they have in fact exposed a dichotomy regarding what has actually been more a process of transition from rural to urban communities, within which the scale of what constitutes urban has also changed quantitatively and qualitatively. Southern California and Texas communities have been more heavily treated than other areas. Arnoldo De Leon has written the seminal studies of San Antonio, Houston, San Angelo, and other Texas cities. Major works include: Griswold del Castillo, Tucsonenses and Angelenos: A Socio-Economic Study of Two Mexican American Barrios, 1860Ð1880, Journal of the West 18, no. 1 (January, 1979: 58Ð66); Ricardo Romo, History of a Barrio: East Los Angeles (Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 1983); Antonio Rios-Bustamante, Mexican Los Angeles: A Narrative and Pictorial History (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto Press, 1992); Antonio Rios-Bustamante, ed., Mexican Immigrant Workers in the U.S. (Los Angeles: CSRC Publications, UCLA, 1981); Antonio Rios-Bustamante and Pedro Castillo, An Illustrated History of Mexican Los Angeles, 1781Ð1985 (Los Angeles: CSRC Publications, UCLA, 1981); Rodolfo Acu-a, A Community Under Siege: A Chronicle of Chicanos East of the Los Angeles River, 1945Ð1975. (Los Angeles: CSRC Publications, UCLA, 1984); Rodolfo Acu-a, Anything but Mexican (New York: Verso, 1996); Arnoldo De Leon, The Tejano Community, 1836Ð1900 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982); Arnoldo De Leon, Mexican Americans in Texas: A Brief History (University of Kansas: 1989); Gilberto Hinojosa, A Borderlands Town in Transition: Laredo, 1755Ð1880 (College Station, Tex.: A & M University Press: 1983); Gilbert G. Gonzalez, Labor and Community: Mexican Citrus Worker Villages in a Southern California County, 1900Ð1950 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994); and Martha Menchaca, The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995). 4. Chicana History. Chicana history of Mexican women is as wide-ranging as Mexican-American history as a whole. Women have participated in all aspects of life. Their lives, struggles, and contributions are essential to the recovery and writing of a comprehensive history. Major themes include the role of women in the reproduction of culture; changing female-male relationships; women at work and in labor organization; changing female and male gender roles and images; biographical studies and literary history; and political and cultural ideology in Mexican-American history. Important works include Rosaura Sanchez, The History of Chicanas: Proposal for a Materialist Perspective, in Between Borders: Essays on Mexicana/Chicana History, Adelaida del Castillo, ed. (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto Press, 1990: 1Ð29); Antonia Casta-eda, The Political Economy of Nineteenth Century Stereotypes of Californians. in Between Borders: Essays on Mexicana/Chicana History, Adelaida del Castillo, ed. (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto Press. 1990: 213Ð236); Adelaida del Castillo, Between Borders: Essays on Mexicana/Chicana History, (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto Press. 1990: vÐxv). Cynthia E. Orozco, Sexism in Chicano Studies and the Community, in Chicana Voices, Theresa Cordoba, ed. (Austin: CMAS, University of Texas, 1986: 11Ð18); Cynthia E. Orozco, Beyond Machismo. La Familia, and Ladies Auxiliares: A Historiography of Mexican Origin Women's Participation in Voluntary Associations and Politics in the United States, 1870Ð1990, Perspectives 5 (1995); Alma Garcia, The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse, 1970Ð1980. in Unequal Sisters, Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz eds. (New York: Routledge, 1990: 418Ð431); Antonia Casta-eda, Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History: The Discourse, Politics, and Decolonization of History. Pacific Historical Review 61, no. 4 (1992). Vicki L. Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican American Women in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings, Alama M. Garcia, ed. (New York: Routledge, 1978); Alma Garcia, The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse, 1970Ð1980. in Unequal Sisters, Ellen Carol Du Boise and Vicki L. Ruiz eds. (New York: Routledge, 1990). Works on women workers and labor organization includes Vicki L. Ruiz. Cannery Women/Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930Ð1950 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1987). Historiographic essays by Ruiz include: Mascaras y Muros: Chicana Feminism and the Teaching of U.S. Women's History. (1994); and Star Struck: Acculturation, Adolescence, and Mexican American Women, 1920Ð1940. (1992). Anthropologists such as Adelaida del Castillo and have contributed to the analysis of Mexican women's roles by examining Dona Marina Malinche and Tonantzin/Guadalupe see Adelaida del Castillo, Malintzin Tenepal: A Preliminary Look into a New Perspective (Los Angeles: Chicano Studies Publications University of California, 1977). Other works include, Sara Deutsch, No Separate Refuge: Culture, Class, and Gender on an Anglo-Hispanic Frontier in the American Southwest, 1880Ð1940 (1987); Elizabeth Salas, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military. (1990); Shirlene Ann Soto, The Mexican Women: A Study of Her Participation in the Revolution, 1910Ð40 Ph.D. diss. (1977); Raquel Rubio Goldsmith; Seasons, Seeds, and Souls: Mexican Women Gardening in the American Mesilla, 1900Ð1940 (1994). Maria Lina Apodaca, The Chicana Women: An Historical Materialist Perspective, Latin American Perspectives 4, nos. 1 and 2 (winter/spring 1977); Deena J. Gonzalez, The Spanish Mexican Women of Santa Fe (Ph.D. diss., U.C. Berkeley 1985); Gilberto Garcia, Beyond the Adelita Image: Women Scholars in the National Association for Chicano Studies, 1972Ð1992, Perspectives 5, (1995); George J. Sanchez. Go After the Women: Americanization and the Mexican Immigrant Woman, 1915Ð1929. in Unequal Sisters, Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz eds. (New York: Routledge, 1990: 250Ð263); Gilberto Garcia, Beyond the Adelita Image: Women Scholars in the National Association for Chicano Studies, 1972Ð1992 (1995); and Deena J. Gonzalez, The Widowed Women of Santa Fe: Assessments on the Lives of an Unmarried Population, 1850Ð1880 (1990). 5. Regional History. Regions, regionalism, and regional identities have been primary influences in Mexican history from the pre-1521 Meso-American periods to the present. Early regional studies included works by amateurs Benjamin Read and Hubert Howe Bancroft, and professional works such as Dr. Carlos Casta-eda's Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (1936), More recent monographs include Griswold del Castillo's The Los Angeles Barrio,1850Ð1890 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979); Thomas Sheridan's Los Tucsonenses (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1986; and Arnoldo De Le-n's The Tejano Community. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque: 1982. Juan R. Garcia Mid-West Mexicanos in the 1920's: Issues, Questions, and Directions. General works include: Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, Development of the Mexican Working Class North of the Rio Bravo, (Los Angeles: CSRC, UCLA, 1982; Antonio Rios-Bustamante, ed., Regions of the Raza: Changing Perspectives of Mexican American Regional History. (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto Press, 1992); Carlos E. Cortes, Mexicans, in Harvard Encyclopedia, Stephen Therstrom, ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1980); and Thomas D. Hall, Social Change in the Southwest, 1350Ð1880 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1989). The works of Arnoldo de Leon and Griswold del Castillo are of key importance. Newer regional historiographic surveys include Griswold Del Castillo, Tejanos and California Chicanos: Regional Variations in Mexican American History, Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 1, no. 1 (winter 1985); Arnoldo De Leon, Tejano History Scholarship: A Review of the Recent Literature. West Texas Historical Association Year Book 59 (1985): 116Ð33; and Arnoldo De Leon, Texas Mexicans: Twentieth Century Interpretations in Texas Through Time: Evolving Interpretations, Walter L. Buenger and Robert A. Calvert eds. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991); Arnoldo De Leon, Mexican Americans in Texas: A Brief History (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1993); David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836Ð1986 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987); Andres Tijerina, Tejanos & Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821Ð1836 (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1994); Sara Deutsch, No Separate Refuge: Culture, Class, and Gender on an Anglo-Hispanic Frontier in the American Southwest, 1880Ð1940; Richard Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992); and Ralph. H. Vigil, ed., Spain and the Plains (University Press of Colorado, 1994). Also see Thomas E. Chavez, An Illustrated History of New Mexico, (University Press of Colorado, 1992); Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in California: A History of Mexican Americans in California (San Francisco: Boyd & Fraser, 1984); Antonio Rios-Bustamante, The Barrioization of Nineteenth Century Mexican Californians: From Landowners to Laborers, in Anthropology of the Americas; Masterkey 60, nos. 2 and 3 (summer/fall 1986); 26Ð35; Antonio Rios-Bustamante, Mexican Los Angeles: A Narrative and Pictorial History (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto, 1992); Douglas Monroy, Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Juan R. Garcia, Mid-West Mexicanos in the 1920's: Issues, Questions, and Directions, Social Science Journal 19 (April 1982); Erasmo Gamboa, Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942Ð1947 (Austin: University of Texas, 1990); Erasmo Gamboa, Chicanos in the Northwest: An Historical Perspective, El Grito 6, (summer 1973). 6. Border History. Border history developed as an offshoot of concern with immigration, folklore, and urban history. Folklorist Americo Paredes developed seminal cultural critiques of the border region and Mexican American culture. Juan Gomez-Qui-ones led in developing a historiographic analysis of the border and border culture. Sociologists such as Jorge Bustamante and Raul Fernandez also influenced historiographic perspectives. See Raul A. Fernandez, The United States-Mexico Border (Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Press, 1977). Major studies include those of historians Juan Gomez-Qui-ones and Oscar Martinez. See Juan Gomez-Quinones, Mexican Immigration in the United States and the Internationalization of Labor, 1848Ð1980: An Overview, in Mexican Workers in the United States, Antonio Rios-Bustamante, ed. (Los Angeles: CSRC, University of California, 1981); Juan Gomez-Quinones, Notes on an Interpretation of the Relations Between the Mexican Community in the United States and Mexico, in Mexican U.S. Relations Conflict and Convergence, Carlos Vasquez and Manuel Garcia y Griego eds. (Los Angeles: CSRC, University of California, 1983); Oscar J. Martinez, Troublesome Border (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1988); and Oscar J. Martinez, Border People: Life and Society in the U.S. Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1991). 7. Mexican/Mexican-American Relations. Mexican Americans have always been concerned with Mexico and their relationship to it. The Mexican War and Treaty of Guadalupe created a changed relationship with Mexico. The Mexican Revolution, and cycles of anti-immigration hysteria, equate to important periods of political conflict. Key works are Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, Piedras contra la Luna, Mexico en Aztlan y Aztlan en Mexico: Chicano-Mexican Relations and the Mexican Consulates, 1900Ð1920. in Papers of the IV International Congress of Mexican History, James W. Wilkie, et al. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976); Griswold Del Castillo, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1991); Juan Gomez-Quinones, Notes on an Interpretation of the Relations Between the Mexican Community in the United States and Mexico, in Mexican U.S. Relations Conflict and Convergence, Carlos Vasquez and Manuel Garcia y Griego eds. (Los Angeles: CSRC, UCLA, 1983); David Maciel, La Frontera historiografica: Mexico y Estados Unidos 1968Ð1988 (1989); Axel Ramirez, Chicanos: El Orgullo de Ser (Mexico: UNAM, 1992); Juan Gomez Quiones y Antonio Rios-Bustamante, La Comunidad Al Norte Del R'o Bravo, in La Otra Cara de Mexico: El Pueblo Chicano (Mexico D.F.: El Caballito, 1977): 24Ð35; and Juan Gomez Quiones , The Origins and Development of the Mexican Working Class in the United States: Laborers and Artisans North of the Rio Bravo, 1600Ð1900 (Los Angeles: CSRC, UCLA, 1977). Relations during the Mexican Revolution are examined in Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, Sembradores, Ricardo Flores Magon y el Partido Liberal Mexicano: A Eulogy and a Critique, (Los Angeles: CSRC, UCLA, 1973); John Mason Hart. Anarchism and The Mexican Working Class, 1860Ð1931; James A. Sandos, Rebellion in the Borderlands: Anarchism and the Plan of San Diego, 1904Ð1923 (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1992. 8. Political History. Griswold Del Castillo, in The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1991) examines the treaty which defined the political status of conquered Mexicans after 1848. The first general political history of Mexicans in the United States was by political scientist Ralph Guzman, The Political Socialization of the Mexican American People (Ph.D. Diss., UCLA, 1970). The major political histories are Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, Roots of Chicano Politics: 1600Ð1940 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1994); and Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise, 1940Ð1990 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990. Works examining the development of political ideology include Rudolfo A. Anaya, ed., Aztlan: Essays on the Chicano Homeland (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989); Mario Barrera, Beyond Aztlan: Ethnic Autonomy in Comparative Perspective (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988); and Arturo Rosales, Mexican Immigrant Nationalism as an Origin of Identity for Mexican Americans: Exploring the Sources, in Mexican American Identity, Martha E. Bernal, ed. (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto, 1992. An important concern has been the Chicano movement, Carlos Munoz Jr., Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement (New York: Verso, 1989); Juan Gomez Quiones , Mexican Students Por La Raza; Ignacio M. Garcia, United We Win: The Rise and Fall of La Raza Unida Party (Tucson: Mexican American Studies and Research Center, University of Arizona, 1989); and Armando Navarro, Mexican American Youth Organization (Austin: University of Texas, 1995). Works concerning leadership and organizations include Griswold Del Castillo
and Richard Garcia, Cesar Chavez: A Triumph of Spirit (Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, 1995); Cynthia Orozco, The League of United Latin American
Citizens and the American G.I. Forum, LULAC (Ph.D. Diss., UCLA, 1993);Benjamin
Marquez, LULAC: The Evolution of a Mexican American Political Organization
(Austin: University Texas, 1993. Carl Allsup, The American G.I. Forum:
Origins and Evolution (Austin: CMAS, University of Texas, 1982). 9. Intellectual History. Chicano intellectual history has been influenced by studies in folklore, literature, and political history. Key influences include Americo Paredes, Luis Leal, Juan Gomez Quiones , and Francisco Lomeli. Key works include Americo Paredes, The Folk Base of Chicano Literature, in Modern Chicano Writers, Joseph Sommers, ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1979): 4Ð17; Luis Leal, Mexican American Literature: A Historical Perspective, in Modern Chicano Writers, Joseph Sommers, ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1979); 18Ð30; Francisco A. Lomeli, An Overview of Chicano Letters: From Origins to Resurgence. in Chicano Studies: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Eugene E. Garcia, ed. (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1984); and Juan Gomez-Qui-ones, Toward a Concept of Culture in Modern Chicano Writers, Joseph Sommers, ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1979). Mario Garcia has examined the role of intellectuals in the 1930's and 1940's in Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994); Mexican Americans, Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930Ð1960 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); and Ruben Salazar: Border Correspondent (Berkeley: University of California, 1995). See also Richard Garcia. Rise of the Mexican American Middle Class, San Antonio, 1929Ð1941 (College Station: Texas A & M University, 1991). Postmodern cultural studies are an important influence on intellectual history, and include such works as Jose David Saldivar, The Limits of Chicano Cultural Studies. (1990); and Ramon Saldivar, Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference (Madison: University of Wisconsin: 1990). 10 Gender and Family History. Chicano family history, which began with
a demographic, social, and economic focus, has broadened to a concern
with the history of patriarchy, gender relations and identity-stimulated
gender history during the 1980's. The work of Griswold del Castillo has
been key. See Griswold del Castillo, La Familia: Chicano Families in the
Urban Southwest, l848 to Present (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1984); idem, Neither Activists Nor Victims: Mexican Women's
Historical Discourse The Case of San Diego, 1820Ð1850, California
History (fall 1995) idem, Patriarchy and the Status of Women in the Late
Nineteenth-Century Southwest, in The Mexican and Mexican American Experience
in the Nineteenth Century, Jaime E. Rodriguez, ed. (Tempe, Ariz.: Bilingual
Press, 1989); and Alex Saragoza, The Conceptualization of the History
of the Chicano Family, in On the State of Chicano Research in Family,
Labor and Migration Studies, Armando Valdez et al. eds. (Stanford, Calif.:
Stanford Center for Chicano Research, Stanford University, 1983). 11. Postmodern and Cultural Studies. The postmodernist critique reexamines gender, patriarchal, and national components that can be integrated into a new synthesis for Chicano/a historiography. A excellent basic introduction is Frederic Jameson, Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991). Other key works include Jose David Saldivar, The Dialectics of Our America (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991); Jose David Saldivar, The Limits of Chicano Cultural Studies, American Literary History 2, (summer 1990); Hector Calderon Criticism in the Borderlands (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991); Ramon Gutierrez, Community, Patriarchy and Individualism: The Politics of Chicano History and the Dream of Equality. American Quarterly 45, no. 1 (March 1993): 44Ð72; Richard Garcia, Turning Points: Mexican Americans in California History: Introduction to Special Issue, California History (fall 1995); Richard Garcia, The Origins of Chicano Cultural Thought: Visions and Paradigms Romano's Culturalism, Alurista's Aesthetics, and Acuna's Communalism, California History 74, no. 3 (fall 1995): 226Ð29. 12. Public History. Public or applied history are historical programs, media, publications with an impact in society outside of the university. Public history includes local history or popular history and history museums, historical societies, and their public programs. Mexican-American public history programs have been gradually increasing as scholars, museums, historical societies, and government agencies begin to produce Latino programs. Mexican-American public history programs are described in Antonio Rios-Bustamante, El Orgullo de Ser: Latino Public History and Museum Programs. working paper (Tucson: Mexican American Studies and Research Center, University of Arizona, 1992); and Antonio Rios-Bustamante and Christine Marin eds. Latinos in Museums: A Heritage Reclaimed (Malabar, Flor.: Krieger Press, 1997). A study of Latino representation in museums is Antonio Rios-Bustamante, Latinos and Native Americans in the Museum: The National Survey and Directory of Historical and Art Museum Professional Personnel (Tucson: Mexican American Studies and Research Center, University of Arizona, 1997). 13. Oral History. Important Chicano/a oral history studies include Vicki L. Ruiz, Oral History and la Mujer: The Rosa Guerrero Story, in Women on the on the United States- Mexico Border: Responses to Change, Vicki L. Ruiz and Susan Tiano eds. (Boston: Unwin & Allen, 1987): 219Ð231; Oscar Martinez, Border People (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994); Raquel Rubio Goldsmith, Oral History: Considerations and Problems for its Use in the History of Mexicanos in the United States, in Regions of the La Raza: Changing Perspectives of Mexican American Regional History and Culture, Antonio Rios-Bustamante, ed. (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto Press, 1993); Devra Ann Weber, The Organizing of Mexicano Agricultural Workers: Imperial Valley and Los Angeles, 1928Ð34, An Oral History Approach. Aztlan (1972); Carlos Vasquez, The Oral History Program (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1996). Important Oral History programs for Chicanos exist at the University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles and at the University of New Mexico. The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, has begun Impact Los Alamos: Traditional New Mexico in a High-Tech World, 1945Ð1995, which will examine the impact of the federal laboratories at Los Alamos on native New Mexicans. 14. Family History and Genealogy. Family history and genealogy has developed from the research of genealogists and historians in California, New Mexico, and Texas. During the 1960's and 1970's, stimulated by the state genealogical societies, an increasing number of people were attracted to family history research. Major reference works include George R. Ryskamp, Tracing Your Hispanic Heritage (Riverside, Calif.: Hispanic Family History Research, 1984); George R. Ryskamp, Finding Your Hispanic Family Roots (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997). The SHHAR, a journal, is published by the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research, Fullerton, California, which also publishes a membership bulletin, Somos Primos. 15. Religious History. Religion has been a central factor in Mexican-American history, but studies of Mexican Catholicism and Protestantism is new. Important works dealing with Mexican Catholicism include Jay P. Dolan and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, Mexican Americans and the Catholic Church, 1900Ð1965 (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994); and Cliford L. Holland, The Hispanic Dimension (Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1974). 16. Educational History. The study of Mexican Americans and the educational system is central to interpretations of the identity, segregation, politics, and civil rights struggles of Mexican Americans in the 20th Century. Early 20th Century Americanization educational reform programs tracked Mexican children into remedial and industrial arts programs. Studies that examine these themes are Gilberto G. Gonzalez, Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation (Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1990). Mexican organizations had to fight school segregation, often in cooperation with African-Americans. See Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., Let All of Them Take Heed: Mexican Americans and the Campaign for Educational Equality in Texas, 1910Ð1981 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987). 17. Psychohistory. Psychohistory studies is an underdeveloped area with great potential, major works in this area include Rodolfo Alvarez, The Psycho-Historical and Socioeconomic Development of the Chicano Community in the United States, Social Science Quarterly 53 (March 1973): 920Ð942; Mauricio Mazon, Zoot Suits Riots (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984). 18. Ethnohistory. Enthnohistory, anthropology, and folklore all have influenced historical conceptions of the development of Mexican culture. An important work is Eric Wolf's Sons of the Shaking Earth (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959). Folklorist Americo Paredes exercised a major influence on views of the development of Mexican-American folk identity and culture though his landmark studies. See Americo Paredes, With a Pistol in His Hand (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1958). Essays by Americo Paredes particularly influential for Chicano historians include The Folk Base of Chicano Literature and The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture: Popular Expressions of Culture Conflict Along the Lower R'o Grande Border, which form part of a series of works now collected in Americo Paredes, Folklore and Culture of the Texas Mexican Border (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994). 19. Film. Histories of Mexicans and Latinos have moved from images, and stereotypes to studies of playwrights, filmmakers, actors, and cinematographers, including Eustasio Montoya, Ramon Novarro, Dolores Del Rio, and Chicano dramatic and documentary filmmaking. Key works include Luis Reyes and Pater Rubie, Hispanics in Hollywood: An Encyclopedia of Film and Television (New York: Garland Press, 1994); Gary D. Keller, Hispanics and United States Film: An Overview and Handbook (Tempe, Ariz.: Bilingual Press, 1994); David Maciel, El Norte: The U.S.-Mexican Border in Contemporary Cinema (Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, San Diego State University, 1990); Antonio Rios-Bustamante, Latino Participation in the Hollywood Film Industry, 1911Ð1945, in Representation and Resistance, Chon A. Noriega (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1992); Antonio Rios-Bustamante, Mary Murillo: Early Anglo Latina Scenarist, in Romance Languages Annual 1995 (West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1995); Fernado Del Moral Gonzalez, El Rescate de un Camarografo: Las Imagenas Perdidas de Eustasio Montoya, Renato Rosaldo Lecture Series (Tucson: Mexican American Studies and Research Center, University of Arizona, 10, 1992Ð93); Rosa Linda Fregoso, The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1995). 20. Chicano/a Art History. Chicano art history has antecedents in the art literature of Hispanic folk art in the Southwest, Spanish colonial revival architecture, and Santeros. This earlier literature was conditioned on the premise that southwestern folk art was primarily Spanish colonial and had a relation to Mexico as a conduit to Spanish art traditions. Until the 1960's few if any Mexican Americans held degrees in art history, and fewer still held professional positions as professors, curators, or critics of art in the United States. This is as opposed to Mexican-American artists and journalists writing in Spanish language newspapers on art produced by Mexicans in the United States. The first major work on the topic, Mexican American Artists (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973), was authored by Jacinto Quirarte, one of the first Mexican Americans to hold a Ph.D. in art history. Since then the field has expanded in relation to the tremendous advance in recognition of Chicano art, and the work of Chicano Artists. Major sources include Tomas Ybarra Frausto and Shifra Goldman, eds., Arte Chicano A Comprehensive Bibliography of Chicano Art, 1965Ð1981. (Berkeley: Chicano Studies Library Publications Unit, University of California, 1985.); Griswold del Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirnation, 1965Ð1985 (Los Angeles: Wight Gallery, University of California, 1991), which contains a comprehensive and authorative series of essays. Animportant work by a Mexican art historian is Sylvia Gorodezky. Arte Chicano como cultura de protesta (Mexico D.F.: Universidad Nacional de Mexico, 1993). An especially important source are the catalog of exhibitions published by museums including those of the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, the Mexican Museum of San Francisco, and other institutions. These publications include Victor A. Sorell, The Barrio Murals/Murales del Barrio (Chicago: Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, 1987); Amalia Mesa-Bains, Ceremony of Memory : New Expressions in Spirituality among Contemporary Hispanic Artists, (Santa Fe, N.M.: Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe, 1988); Rene Yanez, Gronk! A Living Survey, 1973Ð1993 (San Francisco: Mexican Museum, 1993). Other works include Chon Noriega, From the West: Chicano Narrative Photography (Seattle: Mexican Museum, University of Washington Press, 1995); Antonio Rios-Bustamante and Cristine Marin, eds. Latinos in Museums: A Heritage Reclaimed (Melbourne: Krieger Press, 1997), contains essays on the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, Chicano graphic art in East Los Angeles, and performance art. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Chicano Historiographic Paradigms Several powerful paradigms have emerged within Chicano historiography. The first of these are Mexican Americans as natives of the land and Mexican Americans as twentieth-century immigrants. While often presented as opposites, the two perspectives can be integrated in a new synthesis combining and recognizing both processes. Developing paradigms include world systems, gender, and postmodernism. These include critiques of gender, patriarchal, and nationalist components of the first two decades of Chicano historiography. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes The natives of the land paradigm includes several subperspectives: 30 1. Indigenous Meso-American perspective. Ethnohistorians and anthropologists David Carrasco and James Diego Vigil have provided support for the continuing importance of the Meso-American origins of Chicanos (Carrasco, Religions of MesoAmerica, 1990; Vigil, From Indians to Chicanos: The Dynamics of Mexican American Culture, 1980). Historian John R. Chavez examines the influence of the Chichimec concept of Aztlan in The Lost Land: The Image of the Southwest (1984). 2. Spanish Myth perspective. The oldest section of the community, Spanish colonials, and their history are separated from that of other Mexican Americans on the basis of a unique Spanish heritage. 3. Resistance perspective. This emphasizes the violent, nonviolent, and passive resistance to conquest and the imposition of a dominant Anglo-American society (See Rodolfo Acu-a, Occupied America). Emphasis is placed upon resistance to colonization, internal colonization, and other forms of domination. 4. Internal colonial perspective. This emphasizes the initial conquest and colonization of Mexican Americans and the development and imposition of internal colonialization within which Mexican communities are subordinate enclaves with inferior status. The internal colonial perspective is too static and does not account for post-1970 demographic and political change and the rise of a Mexican-American middle class and brokers. 5. Resistance, persistence, and accommodation model. This integrates elements of the other models with an emphasis on the persistence of the Mexican community. It allows for a more complex dynamic process, which can be defined as postcolonial rather than internal colonial. 6. Social change and world systems perspective. Historical sociologists Mario Barrera, David Montejano, and Tomas Almaguer have developed critiques of race and class within larger and smaller systems, such as the world economy or the state of Texas. Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes The Mexican Americans as twentieth-century immigrants perspective often denies continuity with the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and holds that no significant influence survived except in New Mexico. The immigrant perspective includes the following submodels: 1. Assimilation perspective. Mexican Americans are an immigrant community, and despite unique features, can be understood within the immigration historiographic perspective developed for European immigrant groups. 2. Cultural persistence/racial exclusion perspective. Mexican Americans are immigrants, but because most are viewed as nonwhite by society, they face racial discrimination. 3. Immigration labor perspective. Within the process of labor immigration Mexican immigrants assimilate over time through formal and informal Americanization. Mario T. Garcia's Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880Ð1920 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University, 1981) is viewed as a classic statement of this approach as applied to Mexican Americans. 4. Ethnic assimilation perspective. George J. Sanchez (Becoming Mexican American [New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) views Mexican Americans as assimilating as working ethnics in a similar manner to Central Europeans in the upper Midwest.
Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Chicana scholars were stimulated by advances in European, American, and Latin American women's history. Nonhistorians took the lead because there were few historians researching Chicana history. An early history was Martha P. Cotera's Diosa y Hembra: The History and Heritage of Chicanas in the U.S. (Austin, Tex.: Information and Development, 1976). Early collections of essays included Rosaura Sanchez, ed., Essays on La Mujer (1977), and Adelaida del Castillo, ed., Between Borders: Essays on Mexicana/Chicana History (1990).32 A primary concern of Chicana history is the centrality of women in the reproduction of culture and society. Major themes include the role of women in the reproduction of culture; changing female-male relationships; women's work and labor organization; changing female and male gender roles and images; biographical studies; Chicana literary history; politics, culture, and ideology in Mexican American history. Important works include Rosaura Sanchez's The History of Chicanas: Proposal for a Materialist Perspective (1990); Ramon A. Gutierrez's Marriage and Seduction in Colonial New Mexico(1990); Antonia Casta-eda's The Political Economy of Nineteenth Century Stereotypes of Californianas (1990) and Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History: The Discourse, Politics, and Decolonization of History (1992); Cynthia E. Orozco's Sexism in Chicano Studies and the Community (1986) and Beyond Machismo, La Familia, and Ladies Auxiliaries: A Historiography of Mexican Origin Women's Participation in Voluntary Associations and Politics in the United States, 1870Ð1990 (1995); Alma Garcia's The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse, 1970Ð1980 (1990); and Vicki L. Ruiz's Cannery Women/Cannery Lives (1987) and From Out of the Shadows Mexican American Women in the Twentieth Century (1998).33 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Postmodernist and cultural studies reexamine gender, patriarchal, and national components of the first phase of Chicano historiography. Gender analysis and postmodern theories of despair and social decomposition are critical of earlier historiography. Major perspectives, especially the critique of patriarchy, can be integrated into a new synthesis for Chicano/a historiography. Ramon A. Gutierrez may be viewed as a precursor of Chicano/a postmodernist historiography. Major works include Ramon A. Gutierrez's Community, Patriarchy and Individualism: The Politics of Chicano History and the Dream of Equality (1993); Richard Garcia's Turning Points: Mexican Americans in California History (1995) and The Origins of Chicano Cultural Thought: Visions and Paradigms Romano's Culturalism, Alurista's Aesthetics, and Acu-a's Communalism (1995); and Jose David Saldivar's The Limits of Chicano Cultural Studies (1990). 34 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Comprehensive general histories, as opposed to regional works, begin with Carey McWilliams's North from Mexico (1949). In 1990, a revised version appeared with an update by Matt S. Meier. The master text remains Rodolfo Acu-a's seminal Occupied America: The Chicanos Struggle Toward Liberation (1972), which has gone through two complete rewrites: Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, second edition (1981) and third edition (1988). Occupied America reflects changes in the various subperspectives of the natives of the land model. The other major general works are Matt S. Meier and Feliciano Rivera's The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans (1972) and F. Arturo Rosales's Chicano: The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (1996). Other works are more general, less comprehensive, or written as secondary-school survey texts.35 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Development of a Historiographic Literature Key contributors to Chicano(a) historiography include Servin, Paredes, Acu–a, G—mez-Qui–ones, Luis Leobardo Arroyo, Mario Garcia, Camarillo, Griswold del Castillo, Vicki Ruiz, Carlos E. Cortez, Kerr, Weber, Orozco, Alex Saragoza, Gutierrez, Jorge Klor de Alva, and Richard Garcia.36 Journals publishing major historiographic essays have included The Journal of Mexican-American History; Aztlan; Pacific Historical Review; Western Historical Review; Ethnic Affairs; Journal of Ethnic Studies; Journal of American Studies; Fronteras/ Frontiers; American Quarterly; Latin American Studies Perspectives; Annals of the Association of American Geographers; and The New Scholar.37 Important centers for research and graduate training include or have included the University of California (Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara campuses); Stanford University; the University of Southern California; the University of Texas at Austin; Michigan State University; the University of Michigan; the University of New Mexico; the University of Arizona; and Arizona State University. Many other universities offer graduate courses but have produced few Ph.D's in Chicano(a) history.
Essays by Cortez, Camarillo, Arroyo, Saragoza, Griswold del Castillo, and David G. Gutierrez provide critical snapshot assessments of each of the three decades of ongoing development of the field: Camarillo, The ÔNew' Chicano History: Historiography of Chicanos of the 1970's (1983); Arroyo, Notes on Past, Present and Future Directions of Chicano Labor Studies (1975); Cortez, Mexicans (1980); Saragoza, The Significance of Recent Chicano-Related Historical Writings: An Appraisal and Recent Chicano Historiography: An Interpretive Essay; David Gutierrez, The Third Generation: Recent Trends in Chicano/Mexican-American Historiography (1989); and Griswold del Castillo, Chicano Historical Discourse in the 1980's: An Overview and Evaluation (1993).39 The essays of Vicki Ruiz and Orozco are critical in developing Chicana historiography. These include Ruiz's Mascaras y Muros Chicana Feminism and the Teaching of U.S. Women's History (1994) and Star Struck: Acculturation, Adolescence, and Mexican-American Women, 1920-1940 (1992) and Orozco's Beyond Machismo, La Familia, and Ladies Auxiliaries: A Historiography of Mexican Origin Women's Participation in Voluntary Associations and Politics in the United States, 1870-1990 (1995).40 Important for regional historiography are the essays of Griswold del Castillo and de Leon: Griswold del Castillo, Southern California's Chicano History: Regional Origins and National Critique (1988-1990) and Tejanos and California Chicanos: Regional Variations in Mexican-American History (1985); de Leon, Tejano History Scholarship: A Review of the Recent Literature (1985) and Texas Mexicans: Twentieth Century Interpretations (1991).41 Reflecting the shift from internal colonial to postmodern and postcolonial
perspectives are the essays of Almaguer: Interpreting Chicano History:
The World System Approach to 19th Century California (1977) and Ideological
Distortions in Recent Chicano Historiography: The Internal Colonial Model
and the Chicano Historical Interpretation (1989).42 Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | Mexicana/Chicana Paradigms | Postmodernist Paradigm | General Histories | Development of a Historiographic Literature | Future Complexity of Chicano/a History | Notes Future Complexity of Chicano/a History The Chicano history field is part of the great wave of social and ethnic history that impacted the U.S. historical profession beginning in the late 1960's. The establishment of social, women's, and ethnic histories occurred in the face of skepticism, inertia, and resistance. Despite the difficulties, women's history and ethnic histories, including Chicano/a, achieved formal professional recognition in the 1990's. The field of Chicano/a history was established, underwent, and is undergoing great intellectual change. An academic cadre of Chicano/a historians can be found in many American universities and colleges; courses in Chicano/a history now exist; and undergraduate and graduate degrees are being granted. The development of Chicana history, Chicana historiography, and a Chicana critique of patriarchy mark a fundamental change in the field. Today much more remains to be accomplished in introducing new historiographic interpretations where teaching occurs, not only in the universities and community colleges but especially in the secondary and elementary schools.44 The increasing size and complexity of Mexican-American/ Chicano/a history
reflects the intellectual vitality of the field. Multiple perspectives,
theories, periodizations, methodologies, and proliferating texts contribute
to a richer dialogue and promise exciting Chicano(a) Identity and Nomenclature | Pre-Chicano Historiography of Mexicans in the United States | Mexican Perspectives of Mexican-Americans | Mexicans in Western and Borderlands History | Rise of Chicano History and Historiography | Theoretical and Philosophical Influences | Theoretical and Philosophical Developments | Historiographic Issues | Periodization | Issues of Periodization and Complexity | Theoretical and Thematic Approaches | Chicano Historiographic Paradigms | Native of the Land Paradigm | Immigrant Paradigms | |