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Claiming Citizenship: Mexican Americans in Victoria, Texas (Volume 3)
Claiming Citizenship spotlights a community where Mexican Americans, regardless of social class, embraced a common ideology and worked for access to the full rights of citizenship without confrontation or radicalization. Victoria, Texas, is a small city with a
sizable Mexican-descent population dating to the period before the U.S. annexation of the state. There, a complex and nuanced story of ethnic politics unfolded in the middle of the twentieth century.
Focusing on grassroots, author Anthony Quiroz shows how the experience of the Mexican American citizens of Victoria, who worked within the system, challenges common assumptions about the power of class to inform ideology and demonstrates that embracing ethnic identity does not always mean rejecting Americanism. Quiroz identifies Victoria as a community in which Mexican Americans did not engage in overt resistance, labor organization, demonstrations, or the rejection of capitalism, democracy, or Anglo culture and society.
Victoria's Mexican Americans struggled for equal citizenship as the "loyal opposition," opposing exclusionary practices while embracing many of the values and practices of the dominant society.
Various individuals and groups worked, beginning in the 1940s, to bring about integrated schools, better political representation, and a professional class of Mexican Americans whose respectability would help advance the cause of Mexican equality. Their quest for public legitimacy was undertaken within a framework of a bicultural identity
that was adaptable to the private, Mexican world of home, church, neighborhood, and family, as well as to the public world of school, work, and politics. Coexistence with Anglo American society and sharing the American dream constituted the desired ideal.
Quiroz's study makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Mexican American experience by focusing on groups who chose a more subtle, less confrontational path toward equality. Perhaps, indeed, he describes the more common experience of this ethnic population in twentieth-century America.
sizable Mexican-descent population dating to the period before the U.S. annexation of the state. There, a complex and nuanced story of ethnic politics unfolded in the middle of the twentieth century.
Focusing on grassroots, author Anthony Quiroz shows how the experience of the Mexican American citizens of Victoria, who worked within the system, challenges common assumptions about the power of class to inform ideology and demonstrates that embracing ethnic identity does not always mean rejecting Americanism. Quiroz identifies Victoria as a community in which Mexican Americans did not engage in overt resistance, labor organization, demonstrations, or the rejection of capitalism, democracy, or Anglo culture and society.
Victoria's Mexican Americans struggled for equal citizenship as the "loyal opposition," opposing exclusionary practices while embracing many of the values and practices of the dominant society.
Various individuals and groups worked, beginning in the 1940s, to bring about integrated schools, better political representation, and a professional class of Mexican Americans whose respectability would help advance the cause of Mexican equality. Their quest for public legitimacy was undertaken within a framework of a bicultural identity
that was adaptable to the private, Mexican world of home, church, neighborhood, and family, as well as to the public world of school, work, and politics. Coexistence with Anglo American society and sharing the American dream constituted the desired ideal.
Quiroz's study makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Mexican American experience by focusing on groups who chose a more subtle, less confrontational path toward equality. Perhaps, indeed, he describes the more common experience of this ethnic population in twentieth-century America.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 10, 2017
This book is truly edifying. It explained with extreme precision the relationships between Mexican Americans and European Americans in Victoria. It portrays racism unflinchingly and the ability of Mexican Americans to adapt and overcome without resorting to so-called radical behavior. I think it highlights the many concessions Mexican Americans had to make in order to gain any respectability from their Anglo counterparts who, having control of wealth and politics, had the power to give them that respectability. Even though this book was supposed to be about Mexican Americans, I think it taught me more about white people in Victoria and the lengths to which they went to avoid seeing anyone non-white in a position of power. If you're from Victoria, TX, or live there, or are interested in Mexican American or Texas history, this book is absolutely a must-read.
July 25, 2008
This book offers a history of the political activism of the Mexican American community in Victoria Texas. The book seeks to contribute to Chicano studies by replacing an us-them victiminization-resistance model of Mexican American history with a more nuanced story. The basic argument is that Mexican Americans in Victoria sought inclusion in Anglo American social structures through educational and professional development achieved through claiming citizenship (using courts, etc) rather than being influenced by leftists models of social change. Yet the author encourages the readers not to see this state as one of quiescence bu as a civil rights struggle shaped by local and national forces.
June 20, 2012
Well researched with some really good local history.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews