The Centennial article by Ruben Donato and Jarrod Hanson demonstrates the critical importance of writing the history of America's variegated ethnicity not only for a comprehensive understanding of the past but also to inform future struggles to overturn segregation and inequality in America's schools (see e.g., Ball, 2006). Donato and Hanson…

This essay examines the working-class Mexican experience as represented in Jorge Ulica's "Cronicas Diabolicas," which he published between 1916 and 1926. What unites the wide-ranging subject matter of the chronicles is the author's resolute interest in maintaining his working-class compatriots' cultural and ideological ties to Mexico.…

This article analyzes the legal classification of Mexican Americans as "other white" as argued in a number of critical court cases that beginning in the 1930s up to the 1970s attempted to desegregate public schools in Texas. Since the Texas constitution declared school segregation as being only for "colored children," Mexican…

Discusses the current "Simpson-Mazzoli" Immigration Reform and Control Act, previous immigration legislation, current counter-proposals for U.S. immigration policy, and the political realities of immigration reform. Also addresses the pressures for outmigration in the Third World, American public opinion on immigration reform, and…

The search for presuppositions of a people's thought is not new. Octavio Paz and Samuel Ramos have both attempted to describe the assumptions underlying the Mexican character. Paz described Mexicans as private, defensive, and stoic, characteristics taken to the extreme in the "pachuco." Ramos, on the other hand, described Mexicans as…

Discusses how Scott O'Dell's books that deal with pre-Columbian Hispanic cultures reveal his limited views of those cultures and his use of stereotypes in describing the pre-Columbian, Mexican, and Spanish people.

Acculturation will work in the same way for legal and illegal immigrants as it has for other ethnic groups in the past, given comparable levels of education and length of family residence in this country. The long-term impact of illegal migration will be insignificant provided it is reduced substantially in the future. (RDN)

To facilitate comparisons between studies of those who have ancestral ties to Mexico and to aid in accumulation of knowledge, some agreement must be reached among social scientists and a common terminology be adopted. A proposed terminology differentiates between Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Mexicanos, Chicanos, Latinos, Latin Americans, and…

Two strikingly contrasting culture groups, Latin Americans and Anglo Americans, overlap in a Borderlands that straddles the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. This overlap began with the Aztec conquest by Cortes which triggered the intermixing and miscegenation between Spaniards and Indians that produced a mestizo people…

Reviews and evaluates a case which arose over an attempt to deny undocumented immigrant children access to public education. Social, political, and educational issues pertinent to the case are considered. Provides social and demographic data from a sample of parents of undocumented children while analyzing the international ramifications of the…

Passed in November 1994, California's Proposition 187 was intended to deny public school education and health care to undocumented immigrants and their children. The rhetoric of current anti-immigrant hysteria has shifted from that of recent decades and relies on both racist and sexist imagery. This narrative shift, with its emphasis on women and…

This resource for teachers and librarians who seek to use literature to expose students in grades K-12 to Mexican and Mexican American culture is organized in five major theme areas: customs, lifestyles, heroes, folklore, and key historical developments. Within each major area is a 4-part learning plan for each of three grade levels: K-2, 3-6, and…

Although often considered to be homogeneous, the Hispanic community contains many culturally diverse groups. In the United States today, those of Mexican heritage--by far the largest subgroup within the Hispanic community--can be further classified as Mexicano (undocumented resident), Mexican American, or Chicano. This classification system…

The Chicano culture has been ill-treated and misunderstood in studies that utilize concepts of culture derived from dominant group values and norms. Historical approaches to the study of cultures like the normative approach, taxonomic concept, componential concept, and existential approach have all had impacts upon concepts of Chicano culture.…

Mexicans are the largest group of immigrants to the United States, and approximately 60-70 percent of this group comes from rural areas. This book challenges Anglo professionals in health care, education, and child care to learn more about families from rural Mexico and to incorporate this knowledge into their work. The book's content is based…