Mexican Americans and World War II (review)

The impact of Mexican Americans on the domestic and international events surrounding World War II has been relegated to one of two loci. On the one hand, scholars have focused attention on the racist events surrounding the Zoot Suit Riots. On the other hand, historians have placed an important focus on the military participation of the 750,000 Mexican Americans who fought in the foreign conflict.

Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez's collection of essays, Mexican Americans and World War II is an outstanding work that explores the impact of World War II on Mexican Americans in the United States. The series of essays, written by a diverse array of writers ranging from established scholars like Luis Alvarez, Erasmo Gamboa, Emilio Zamora, David Montejano, and Dionicio Valdés to activists/journalists like Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez and Rita Sánchez, offers an original portrait of Mexican Americans during this important conflict. The anthology examines a number of themes. First, the essays by Sánchez and Montejano offer personal narratives of the local impact of the war. Sánchez begins the collection with an emotional relation of the impact of the war on five of her relatives. In conjunction with Sánchez's rather personal narrative, the esteemed scholar David Montejano offers a delightful Keruoac-ian account of his search for Benigno Aguirre. Second, the essays by Naboa and Getz explore the impact of the war on the discriminatory educational system in San Antonio and New Mexico. Third, the racism and violence that sprang from the war is expertly analyzed by Alvarez and Rivas. Specifically, these essays explore the diverse causes of the social violence stemming from the Zoot Suit Riots (Alvarez) and the Three Rivers Incident. The collection closes with three outstanding essays that analyze the impact of the war on Mexican American labor and gender. Professor Emilio Zamora offers new insight into the impact of the war on governmental relations between Mexico and the United States. In addition, Naomi Quiñonez offers an exceptional account of how gender perceptions changed significantly during the war. Finally, the highly esteemed Erasmo Gamboa tenders a sympathetic account of the bracero program in the northwestern part of the United States.

This collection of essays is an excellent endeavor at bridging the gap between the political and economic works that have dominated this genre. Each individual essay offers both a thematic and individualistic (or personal) hybrid argument. That is, each author has a theoretical perspective, whether economic, political, or cultural. However, the authors also present personalistic narratives that truly make for engaging reading. In addition, each essay offers a new perspective on traditional and important events in Mexican American history. For example, Luis Alvarez's rather engaging piece on the Zoot Suits offers a multidimensional approach to the riots by analyzing how the youth in Los Angeles produced their own racial and gender identities. This paradigm portrays the youth in a more activist fashion than traditional scholarship on this same event. Naomi Quiñonez's integration of the Mexican American laborer during wartime proved to be an exceptional analysis of how women contributed to the war not solely in terms of labor and economics but more important in terms of patriotism and nationalism (a hybrid sense of nationalism).

In general, the essays were exceptional on a number of different levels, making the collection of essays both enjoyable and academic. In conclusion, the work fills a void in the literature on twentieth-century Mexican Americans by exploring the different historiographical themes and arguments that have been sprouting in the literature over the past few years.