Review by Choice Review
Menchaca (anthropology, Univ. of Texas, Austin) offers another informative work on Mexicans (e.g., Recovering History, Constructing Race, CH, Jul'02, 39-6646; The Mexican Outsiders, CH, Apr'96, 33-4722). This historical narrative focuses on Texas from the mid-19th century to 1921. The case study is background to chapter 5, which critically examines current national debates on citizenship and the birthright movement's efforts to change the Fourteenth Amendment. Menchaca's main argument in chapters 1-4 is that "voting is the main reason Mexicans have chosen to naturalize." The author chronicles efforts by Anglo Texans to end the franchise for immigrants (legal until 1921), then to obstruct the franchise for Mexican Americans. The book's title does not reflect the study's extensive coverage, which goes beyond laws concerning immigrants to include electoral politics and the political and economic histories of Texas, the US, and Mexico. Menchaca asserts that today's birthers movement is only the latest nativist attack on Mexicans. Effective use of primary and secondary sources, short footnote section, extensive bibliography. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. L. J. Quintanilla Lone Star College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
