Mexican American Experience

Mexican Americans are rapidly becoming the largest minority in the United States, playing a vital role in the culture of the American Southwest and beyond. This A-to-Z guide offers comprehensive coverage of the Mexican American experience. Entries range from figures such as Corky Gonzales, Joan Baez, and Nancy Lopez to general entries on bilingual education, assimilation, border culture, and southwestern agriculture. Court cases, politics, and events such as the Delano Grape Strike all receive full coverage, while the definitions and significance of terms such as coyote and Tejano are provided in shorter entries.Taking a historical approach, this book's topics date back to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a radical turning point for Mexican Americans, as they lost their lands and found themselves thrust into an alien social and legal system. The entries trace Mexican Americans' experience as a small, conquered minority, their growing influence in the 20th century, and the essential roles their culture plays in the borderlands, or the American Southwest, in the 21st century.

?[A] valuable addition to public and academic libraries.?-Multicultural Review, ?[T]his book provides a well-produced, fascinating and serious resource on the Mexican American experience.?-Reference Reviews, ?Because of pertinence to the Southwest, this source would be recommended for inclusion in collections in public libraries and high schools in that region. Public and school libraries in other regions might consider it if there are strong curricular needs.?-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin, ?Meier, one of the founders of the Chicano studies movement, again collaborates with Gutierrez, on a superb resource focused on the fastest growing population group in the US. Building on a long history of related scholarship, this well-organized work attempts a basic yet comprehensive coverage of the history of Mexican Americans....The work focuses on the Southwest, which points up the need for future reference works and scholarship on the significant history of Mexican Americans in the rest of the country. Highly recommended. All libraries.?-Choice, ?This reference offers reliable, accesible, and exlemplary broad coverage. A single alphabet presents persons, places, events, movements, and concepts that have formed and informed on the title topic....This resource belongs in every secondary school and public library, whether the subject matter is covered with more depth in other resources or appears to have little local interest. Students can use the information as it is presented readily and will realize how thorough is the effect of the ethnic group's experiences on the American way of life--from dining table (migratory labor) to curriculum design (the English-only movement). Here is a title whose relative value cannot be judged merely by its size, but also for its eloquence and long-term usefulness.?-VOYA

MATT S. MEIER (deceased) was Patrick A. Donohoe, S.J. Professor Emeritus at Santa Clara University. He was a pioneer in researching and teaching the history of Mexican Americans. His most recent books include the Encyclopedia of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (2000, with Margo Gutiérrez) and Notable Latino Americans: A Biographical Dictionary (1997).MARGO GUTIÉRREZ is Assistant Head Librarian at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the coauthor of the Encyclopedia of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (with Matt Meier, 2000) and The Border Guide (1992).