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  • Public Intellectuals and Historical Memory
  • Priscilla Falcon
Michael A. Olivas. ed. In Defense of My People. Alonso S. Perales and the Development of Mexican American Public Intellectuals. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2012. Pp. 343. ISBN 978-1-55885-760-0.

In Defense of My People. Alonso S. Perales and the Development of Mexican-American Public Intellectuals is a collection of scholarly essays describing the public life of Alonso Perales. The strength of the collection is the discovery process, research and narration of the lived experiences not only of the individual, but also of public intellectuals and their respective organizations that developed during the period 1900–1960. The telling of the story of Alonso Perales with its complexities and contradictions is an essential read for understanding the transition to an ideology of assimilation during the early nineteen hundreds. This collection of essays opens the door to discussions concerning public collective consciousness and public collective leadership.

Philosophically, Perales evolved and embraced assimilation and promoted an anti-communist, anti-unionism stance for the Mexican origin working class. Perales advocated Mexican-Americans were Caucasians and rejected political alliances with African Americans, which he felt would lead to institutionalization of a second-class status in the United States. (Marquez, 30) The racial ordering of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century became a reality with the exclusion of the Chinese, Japanese and southern Europeans. The immigration laws of l921 and l924 preserved U.S. racial composition. Whiteness was a prerequisite for citizenship. According to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexican origin people who elected to stay within the boundaries of the United States were awarded citizenship. Perales, LULAC, and other advocates would seize on the concept that Mexican origin people were U.S. citizens but were treated as second-class citizens. In 1954, Gus Garcia led a legal team, which argued before the United States Supreme Court in the case of Hernandez v. State of Texas. On May 3, 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous decision banned discrimination in juries.

“When Alonso Perales, Jose Tomas Canales, Eduardo Idar, Sr. and several other Mexican American leaders founded the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC in 1929 they consolidated elite and middle class power that would dominate the organizational landscape for the next two decades.” (Orbock Medina, 51) According [End Page 190] to Orbock Medina, in the early 1920s, Perales and others helped evolve the LULAC philosophy of assimilation, 100% Americanism, alliances with mainstream Anglos and respect for Latino culture. Claiming U.S. citizenship to dismantle segregation became the centerpiece of the work carried on by public intellectuals like Perales and public organizations such as LULAC. Inside the LULAC organization there were growing tensions over citizenship, identity, leadership and loyalty. Within a few years, Perales became disillusioned with LULAC’s leadership and by 1939 formed his own group called the ‘League of Loyal Americans’, whose goal was to “to develop within the members of the Hispanic American Race loyal and progressive citizens of the United States and to uphold and defend the American form of government.” (Orozco, 17)

Perales was openly anti-communist / anti-union and expressed his views in writing and on talk radio. If he suspected an individual, a policy, politician or organization was promoting a socialist or communist agenda he would vigorously protest through letters, request of loyalty oaths and other forms of public pressure. (Marquez, 31) Perales who had a weekly radio program publically denounced union leaders such as Emma Tenayuca an organizer for pecan sheller’s in San Antonio, Texas. Perales did not believe nor support the organization of unions to improve economic conditions for working class Mexican origin people. Perales represented a generation of Mexican origin intellectuals who found themselves born into the age of imperialism. This generation was born just sixty years after the Texas Revolt and just fifty years after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgobut the essays are silent on these circumstances. This generation was born into United States practices of gunboat diplomacy throughout the Caribbean and Central America. Perales was a contemporary of both Somoza and Sandino, but he chose to ally with Somoza. According to research by Benjamin Marquez...

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