Review by Choice Review
Recently translated for the first time, and with a foreword by historian Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, historian Alanís Enciso's 2007 monograph offers a fresh (Mexico-centric) perspective of the historiography of a period that saw the mass Mexican reverse migration from the US back to Mexico during the Great Depression. In the period before this reverse migration, many hoped that the Mexican Revolution would correct the stifling economic disparities brought about for the vast majority of the population by the Porfiriato. But by the 1930s, it had become clear that "El Norte" offered better economic opportunity. The movement of migratory workers into the US had been massive, albeit more fluid than scholars have previously recognized. Alanís Enciso (El Colegio de San Luis, Mexico) describes how the Great Depression ushered in a new era of US immigration enforcement laws that ultimately forced more than 350,000 Mexicans living in the US (along with their family members) back to Mexico. The work provides an ironic contextualization of modern-day US immigration policies and adds a Mexican point of view into the historiography on this timely topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Melisa C. Galván, California State University, Northridge
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
