No separate refuge : culture, class, and gender on an Anglo-Hispanic frontier in the American Southwest, 1880-1940 /

Rarely are regional studies as successful in addressing broader historical questions as Deutsch's examination of the Hispanic community in northern New Mexico and Colorado from 1880 to 1940. When the relative self-sufficiency and autonomy of Hispanic villages was undermined by the arrival of railroads and the Anglo population they brought, the Spanish-Americans adjusted by developing a regional network that eventually extended into northern Colorado. Wages earned by seasonal migrant workers came back to the village base. Missionary educational efforts, regimentation in company towns, and structural discrimination outside them failed to produce the desired ``Americanization.'' Anglo economic and political domination and the effects of the depression, however, did largely break down Hispanic cultural autonomy and transformed most of the former villagers into a marginal and distinct manual-labor class. In the process of describing the dynamics of an evolving strategy of adjustment, Deutsch provides fresh insights and demolishes stereotypes, particularly illuminating the central role of women in Hispanic village life. An innovative and expert blend of social and regional history, the book is solidly based on an unusually broad range of sources. Public and academic libraries.-V.H. Rabe, SUNY College at Geneseo