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The Resource Mexican Americans : the ambivalent minority, Peter Skerry

Mexican Americans : the ambivalent minority, Peter Skerry

Creator
Summary
  • "Some of us have been here for three hundred years, some for three days." This comment, often repeated by Mexican Americans, affirms their status as one of America's oldest ethnic groups, as well as one of its newest and fastest growing. Not surprisingly, many observers (including some Mexican Americans) are concerned about the impact of the burgeoning number of Mexican immigrants on our society - anxieties exacerbated by leaders whose demands for bilingual schools and ballots challenge the goal of assimilation. Yet for Skerry the critical question is not whether Mexican immigrants will join the American mainstream, but how - on what terms. Those terms, he argues, will be forged in the political arena, where enormous changes have been wrought during the past twenty-five years. Gone are the strong local party organizations that once helped newcomers adapt. In their stead are nationalized parties with weak local roots, and civil rights efforts such as the Voting Rights Act, which offer Mexican Americans powerful incentives to define themselves not as an aspiring immigrant ethnic group but as a racially oppressed minority
  • These divergent political styles emerge from Skerry's comparison of the two American cities with the most visible Mexican American communities, San Antonio and Los Angeles. In Texas, where Mexican Americans have indeed been racially subjugated, traditional political institutions and effective community organizing have afforded them much political success, and moderated their deep-seated resentments. Paradoxicallyin California, where Mexican Americans have enjoyed considerable social and economic mobility, their political efforts have been much less successful and characterized by angry protest and racial claims. Noting that the California model of politics, detached from local communities and propelled by money and media, is setting the national norm. Skerry warns that Mexican Americans are being encouraged to dwell on the undeniable injustices of the past rather than to seize the opportunities of the present. If left unchallenged, the temptation of race politics threatens to fulfill the prophecy of those who insist that Mexican Americans cannot make it into the mainstream
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
ix, 463 pages
Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: Primacy of politics
  • San Antonio: getting ahead and getting even
  • Los Angeles: moving in, out, and up
  • Paradoxical political outcomes
  • PART TWO: FOUR STYLES OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN POLITICS: Friends-and-neighbors politics and the need for organization
  • Obstacles to organizational politics
  • Elite-network politics: the clique and its challengers
  • Protest politics: symbolism and symbiosis
  • PART THREE: The state of Mexican-American opinion
  • Assimilation and its discontents
  • Newcomers in a new nation
Isbn
9780029291320
Instance
Label
Mexican Americans : the ambivalent minority
Title
Mexican Americans
Title remainder
the ambivalent minority
Statement of responsibility
Peter Skerry
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
  • "Some of us have been here for three hundred years, some for three days." This comment, often repeated by Mexican Americans, affirms their status as one of America's oldest ethnic groups, as well as one of its newest and fastest growing. Not surprisingly, many observers (including some Mexican Americans) are concerned about the impact of the burgeoning number of Mexican immigrants on our society - anxieties exacerbated by leaders whose demands for bilingual schools and ballots challenge the goal of assimilation. Yet for Skerry the critical question is not whether Mexican immigrants will join the American mainstream, but how - on what terms. Those terms, he argues, will be forged in the political arena, where enormous changes have been wrought during the past twenty-five years. Gone are the strong local party organizations that once helped newcomers adapt. In their stead are nationalized parties with weak local roots, and civil rights efforts such as the Voting Rights Act, which offer Mexican Americans powerful incentives to define themselves not as an aspiring immigrant ethnic group but as a racially oppressed minority
  • These divergent political styles emerge from Skerry's comparison of the two American cities with the most visible Mexican American communities, San Antonio and Los Angeles. In Texas, where Mexican Americans have indeed been racially subjugated, traditional political institutions and effective community organizing have afforded them much political success, and moderated their deep-seated resentments. Paradoxicallyin California, where Mexican Americans have enjoyed considerable social and economic mobility, their political efforts have been much less successful and characterized by angry protest and racial claims. Noting that the California model of politics, detached from local communities and propelled by money and media, is setting the national norm. Skerry warns that Mexican Americans are being encouraged to dwell on the undeniable injustices of the past rather than to seize the opportunities of the present. If left unchallenged, the temptation of race politics threatens to fulfill the prophecy of those who insist that Mexican Americans cannot make it into the mainstream
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Skerry, Peter
Dewey number
323.1/16872073
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
E184.M5
LC item number
S57 1993
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Mexican Americans
  • Mexican Americans
  • Mexican Americans
  • Mexicano-americanos
  • Mexicano-americanos
  • United States
  • United States
  • San Antonio (Tex.)
  • Los Angeles (Calif.)
  • United States
  • San Antonio (Tex.)
  • Los Angeles (Calif.)
  • Estados Unidos
Label
Mexican Americans : the ambivalent minority, Peter Skerry
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-445) and index
Contents
Acknowledgments -- PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: Primacy of politics -- San Antonio: getting ahead and getting even -- Los Angeles: moving in, out, and up -- Paradoxical political outcomes -- PART TWO: FOUR STYLES OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN POLITICS: Friends-and-neighbors politics and the need for organization -- Obstacles to organizational politics -- Elite-network politics: the clique and its challengers -- Protest politics: symbolism and symbiosis -- PART THREE: The state of Mexican-American opinion -- Assimilation and its discontents -- Newcomers in a new nation
Control code
ocm27266821
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
ix, 463 pages
Isbn
9780029291320
Lccn
92046317
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(Sirsi) i0029291321
Label
Mexican Americans : the ambivalent minority, Peter Skerry
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-445) and index
Contents
Acknowledgments -- PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: Primacy of politics -- San Antonio: getting ahead and getting even -- Los Angeles: moving in, out, and up -- Paradoxical political outcomes -- PART TWO: FOUR STYLES OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN POLITICS: Friends-and-neighbors politics and the need for organization -- Obstacles to organizational politics -- Elite-network politics: the clique and its challengers -- Protest politics: symbolism and symbiosis -- PART THREE: The state of Mexican-American opinion -- Assimilation and its discontents -- Newcomers in a new nation
Control code
ocm27266821
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
ix, 463 pages
Isbn
9780029291320
Lccn
92046317
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(Sirsi) i0029291321

Subject

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