Books

The Latina/o Midwest Reader challenges the notion that Latinas/os are newcomers to the Midwest by emphasizing that they have resided in the region for over a century, and have contributed to the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of rural and urban Midwestern communities. The volume also makes contemporary research about the region’s Latinos available to a national audience of legislators, policy makers, and educational professionals.

For a companion website with links to articles, videos, and other secondary sources related to each of the Reader’s chapters. Visit Companion Website

My co-edited anthology, Major Problems in Latina/o History (Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014), contains scholarly essays and primary sources for university classroom use. The volume explores topics such as conquest, labor recruitment, and cultural nationalist movements among Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans, and the impact of the Cold War and U.S. intervention on the arrival of immigrants from Cuba, Central America, and the Dominican Republic. This anthology has been adopted in history, ethnic studies, and cultural studies courses at universities across the United States, contributing to the teaching of Latina/o Studies courses.

My first book, River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands (Duke University Press, 2013), explores state formation, cultural change, and the construction of identity in the Spanish borderlands of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas from 1749 to 1900. I published two sole-authored book chapters related to River of Hope. The first chapter, “‘Although We are the Last Soldiers’: Citizenship, Ideology, and Tejano Unionism” which appeared in the anthology Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance: Other Sides of Civil War Texas (2016), demonstrates that Mexican Texans who joined the Union Army did so for various reasons including anti-slavery sentiment, opposition to pro-Confederate local politicians, and expressions of U.S. citizenship. The second chapter, “Contested Citizenship: Border Corridos, Transnational Ties, and Intercultural Conflict” published in the anthology Border Folk Balladeers: Critical Studies on Américo Paredes (2018) explores the historical basis for Mexican folksongs on intercultural conflict and transnational social networks along the U.S.-Mexico border.