The Emergence of Mexican America: Recovering Stories of Mexican Peoplehood in U.S. Culture (Critical America)

223 Pages·2006·1.23 MB·English

by  John-Michael Rivera

The Emergence
of Mexican America
c r i t i c a l a m e r i c a
General Editors: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
Recent titles in the Critical America series include:
Legal Education and the Rethinking Commodification: Cases and
Reproduction of Hierarchy: Readings in Law and Culture
A Polemic against the System, Edited by Martha M. Ertman
A Critical Edition and Joan C. Williams
Duncan Kennedy,
The Derrick Bell Reader
with commentaries by Paul Carrington,
Edited by Richard Delgado
Peter Gabel, Angela Harris and
and Jean Stefancic
Donna Maeda, and Janet Halley
Science for Segregation:Race, Law,
America’s Colony:
and the Case against Brown v. Board
The Political and Cultural Conflict
of Education
between the United States and
John P. Jackson Jr.
Puerto Rico
Pedro A. Malavet Discrimination by Default:
How Racism Becomes Routine
Alienated: Immigrant Rights,
Lu-in Wang
the Constitution, and
Equality in America The First Amendment in Cross-Cultural
Victor C. Romero Perspective: A Comparative Legal
Analysis of the Freedom of Speech
The Disability Pendulum:
Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr.
The First Decade of the Americans
with Disabilities Act Feminist Legal Theory:A Primer
Ruth Colker Nancy Levit and Robert R. M. Verchick
Lawyers’ Ethics and the Pursuit For a complete list of titles in the series,
of Social Justice:A Critical Reader please visit the New York University Press
Edited by Susan D. Carle website at www.nyupress.org.
The Emergence of
Mexican America
Recovering Stories of Mexican Peoplehood
in U.S. Culture
John-Michael Rivera
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
new york university press
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2006 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rivera, John-Michael, 1969–
The emergence of Mexican America : recovering stories of Mexican
peoplehood in U.S. culture / John-Michael Rivera.
p. cm. — (Critical America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–7557–8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–8147–7557–8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–7558–5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–8147–7558–6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mexican Americans—Ethnic identity. 2. Mexican Americans—
History. 3. Mexican Americans—Cultural assimilation. I. Title.
II. Series.
E184.M5R58 2006
305.868'72073—dc22 2005035676
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction “How Do You Make the
Invisible, Visible?”: Locating Stories of
Mexican Peoplehood 1
1 Don Zavala Goes to Washington:
Translating U.S. Democracy 24
2 Constituting Terra Incognita:
The “Mexican Question” in U.S. Print Culture 51
3 Embodying Manifest Destiny:
María Amparo Ruiz de Burton and the
Color of Mexican Womanhood 82
4 ClaimingLos Bilitos: Miguel Antonio Otero
and the Fight for New Mexican Manhood 110
5 “Con su pluma en su mano”: Américo Paredes and
the Poetics of “Mexican American” Peoplehood 135
Conclusion: Recovering La memoria:
Locating the Recent Past 165
Notes 177
Bibliography 189
Index 205
About the Author 211
v

Acknowledgments
This book began and ended with people in mind. Within and
outside the margins, the people I have met cast their influence upon every
thought and inspired me over the years to complete what I thought would
never end. Ten years ago Nicolas Kanellos guided me to a life of thinking.
For his caring, his wisdom, and mentorship, I will be forever grateful. In
Houston, I also began what has become a wonderful friendship with José
Aranda. In periods when I thought I would never continue, his belief in
this project over the years has been helpful beyond words. I also thank
my dissertation advisors and especially Shelley Fisher Fishkin, an erudite
scholar who amazes me with every conversation. I offer a very special
thanks to my mentor and dear friend José Limon. I would not be a pro-
fessor if it were not for him, and I aspire to become a person of his kind-
ness and merit. In the last few years, the University of Colorado at Boul-
der has giving me the support and time to finish this project. At CU, Patty
Limerick has been a great friend and introduced me to Jean Stefancic and
Richard Delgado. All of these people believed in this project in its early
stages, and I thank them for their help over the past five years. I also
thank Eric Zinner and Emily Park at New York University Press for giv-
ing me the opportunity to publish this work.
Thanks also to my chair John Stevenson for having a wonderful vision
and being very supportive. To my compadres Adélékè Adéèkó, Fred Al-
dama, Cheryl and Dan Higashida, and Will West, all of whom have
helped me through their friendship. I offer my gratitude to my dear
friends Anna Brickhouse and Vincent Woodard : Anna read every page of
this manuscript a number of times with care and a critical eye; Vincent,
whom I have known since graduate school, read with skepticism and
helped me fine-tune ideas in this book and in my life. To my tia, Emma
Perez, who inspired me twenty years ago to go to Berkeley and later to get
a Ph.D. To my dad John Rivera and my mother Yolanda Perez: in their
vii
viii | Acknowledgments
own ways both of them have given me the ability to write these pages; I
love them dearly. And finally, to the two people who guide my every
word, my every thought: my wife Rhonda and my daughter Elyse. With
laughter and love you have both helped me write this book but, most im-
portant, filled my life with story. This project found its voice two weeks
after my daughter was born. This book and Elyse grew together over the
last five years, most of the times she growing faster than the amount of
pages I managed to write during her naps. I dedicate this book to them.
The Emergence
of Mexican America