Publications

CMAS Publication Series in History,
Culture, and Society with the University of Texas Press

CMAS actively produces scholarly work in Mexican-American Studies through a book series, History, Culture, and Society, published with the University of Texas Press. These cutting-edge disciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiries now include:

Felix Longoria's Wake
by Patrick Carroll
Private First Class Felix Longoria earned a Bronze Service Star, a Purple Heart, a Good Conduct Medal, and a Combat Infantryman's badge for service in the Philippines during World War II. Yet the only funeral parlor in his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas, refused to hold a wake for the slain soldier because "the whites would not like it." Almost overnight, this act of discrimination became a defining moment in the rise of Mexican American activism. It launched Dr. Héctor P. García and his newly formed American G.I. Forum into the vanguard of the Mexican civil rights movement, while simultaneously endangering and advancing the career of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who arranged for Longoria's burial with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

In this book, Patrick Carroll provides the first fully researched account of the Longoria controversy and its far-reaching consequences. Drawing on extensive documentary evidence and interviews with many key figures, including Dr. García and Mrs. Longoria, Carroll convincingly explains why the Longoria incident, though less severe than other acts of discrimination against Mexican Americans, ignited the activism of a whole range of interest groups from Argentina to Minneapolis. By putting Longoria's wake in a national and international context, he also clarifies why it became such a flash point for conflicting understandings of bereavement, nationalism, reason, and emotion between two powerful cultures—Mexicanidad and Americanism.

Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity and the Master Symbol
by Richard Flores
"Remember the Alamo!" reverberates through Texas history and culture, but what exactly are we remembering? Over nearly two centuries, the Mexican victory over an outnumbered band of Alamo defenders has been transformed into an American victory for the love of liberty. Why did the historical battle of 1836 undergo this metamorphosis in memory and mythology to become such a potent master symbol in Texan and American culture?

In this probing book, Richard Flores seeks to answer that question by examining how the Alamo's transformation into an American cultural icon helped to shape social, economic, and political relations between Anglo and Mexican Texans from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. In the first part of the book, he looks at how the attempts of heritage society members and political leaders to define the Alamo as a place have reflected struggles within Texas society over the place and status of Anglos and Mexicans. In the second part, he explores how Alamo movies and the transformation of Davy Crockett into an Alamo hero/martyr have advanced deeply racialized, ambiguous, and even invented understandings of the past.

The Illusion of Inclusion: The Untold Political Story of San Antonio
by Rodolfo Rosales
To many observers, the 1981 election of Henry Cisneros as mayor of San Antonio represented the culminating victory in the Chicano community's decades long struggle for inclusion in the city's political life. Yet, nearly twenty years later, inclusion is still largely an illusion for many working-class and poor Chicanos, since business interests continue to set the city's political and economic priorities.

In The Illusion of Inclusion, Rodolfo Rosales offers the first in-depth history of the Chicano community's struggle for inclusion in the political life of San Antonio during the years 1951 to 1991. Drawing from interviews with key participants as well as archival research, he focuses on the political and organizational activities of the Chicano middle class in the context of post-World War II municipal reform and how this led to independent political representation for the Chicano community. Of special interest is his extended discussion of the role of middle-class Chicano women as they gained greater political visibility in the 1980s.

Barrio-Logos: Space and Place in Urban Chicano Literature and Culture
by Raúl Homero Villa
Struggles over space and resistance to geographic displacement gave birth to much of Chicano history and culture. In Barrio-Logos: Space and Place in Urban Chicano Literature and Culture, Raúl Villa explores the use of expressive culture by Chicano activists, journalists, writers, Barrio Logosartists, and musicians in California to oppose the community-destroying forces of urban-renewal programs and massive freeway development, and to create and defend a sense of Chicano place-identity.

Villa opens with a historical overview of Mexican American communities and culture, tracing their growth in response to conflicts over space since the U.S. annexation of Mexican territory in the 1840s. Then, turning to the work of contemporary members of the Chicano intelligentsia such as Helena María Viramontes, Ron Arias, and Lorna Dee Cervantes, he demonstrates how their expressive practices re-imagine and re-create the dominant urban space as a community-enabling place. In doing so, Villa illuminates the endless interplay in which cultural texts and practices are shaped by and act upon their social and political contexts.

A series of previously published CMAS Books distributed through the University of Texas Press. They include:

Puro Conjunto, An Album in Words and Pictures: Writings, Posters, and Photographs from the Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio,1982-1998
edited by Juan Tejeda and AveIardo Valdez
co-published by CMAS Books and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center

From the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas to East L.A., to the barrios of Chicago and beyond, people are listening to the heartfelt, accordion-driven sounds of Conjunto. Conjunto--Chicano roots music--was born in South Texas in the 1920s. Its popularity has spread far and wide since then, but Texas remains the heart of Conjunto music making. So it comes as no surprise that the largest and most widely recognized Conjunto festival in the world is the Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio, founded in 1982. Every May it draws thousands of people, who come to polka and cumbia the night away and catch their favorite Conjunto artists.

Puro Conjunto, An Album in Words and Pictures is a vibrant, wide-ranging collection of writings and images taken from the festival's program-magazine, Tonantzin, and spanning the period 1982-1998. The writings include essays by scholars in cultural studies, articles by journalists and music critics, interviews with legendary performers, autobiographical accounts, short stories, and poetry. Subjects include the history of Conjunto music, conjunto's signature instruments (accordion, bajo sexto, and saxophone), the social context and functions of Conjunto, and personal histories of Conjunto-music giants. The book also in cludes an "Imágenes del Festival" section, which comprises twenty-two striking black-and-white photos from the festival, all by A1 Rendón, and seventeen full color reproductions of the historic festival posters.

The diversity of this collection gives it a unique character and popular appeal. It should interest Conjunto fans and folk-music enthusiasts as well as students and scholars. Like the music itself, thisunique book can be used in a variety of ways: as an entertaining survey of the genre, a valuable supplement to college textbooks, or a handy resource for research.

Juan Tejeda was director of the Xicano Music Program of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio from 1980 to 1998. In that capacity, he founded the Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio and directed it for seventeen years. Avelardo Valdez is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He was a member of the board of directors of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in 1982-1987 and 1989-1996.

Reflexiones 1999: New Directions in Mexican American Studies
edited by Richard R. Flores

Consistent with the rich tradition of Mexican-American studies, the contributors to Refiexiones 1999 hail from a variety of disciplines. Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez (journalism) discusses the accomplishments and legacy of the pioneering Chicano journalist Rubén Salazar. Lisa Montoya (government) examines the media's depiction of Latinos as a "sleeping giant" in U.S. electoral politics. Douglas Foley (anthropology) reflects upon the political pressures and ethical challenges of researching and writing an ethnography about the Raza Unida Party. Bárbara Robles (public affairs) analyzes the status of Latina scholars and graduate students in the academy. Jacqueline Toribio (linguistics) offers an analysis of Spanish-English code-switching among U.S. Latinos. Other contributions include a corrido by Raúl Salinas, stories by Américo Paredes and Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, and artwork by Liliana Wilson-Grez. Together, these works amply illustrate the depth and breadth of current endeavors in Mexican American and Latino studies.

Reflexiones 1998: New Directions in Mexican American Studies
Edited by Yolanda C. Padilla

Reflexiones 1997: New Directions in Mexican American Studies
Edited by Neil Foley