Mexican Americans and Sports: A Reader on Athletics and Barrio Life (review)

364Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary dian 9.1 million third-plus-generation Latinos in 2002, nearly 7 million were Mexican Americans, and they may have called themselves variously by any number of self-referents, among them Hispanic, Latina/o, Mexican, Mexican American, and Chicana/o. The continued legacy of the Chicanismo ethos is alive and well among thirdplus -generation Mexicans in the United States, Macias notes, making it acceptable to claim one's ethnicity and still consider oneselfthoroughly American, a trait shared by many other groups since die ethnic-identity social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Continued Mexican immigration combines to make social integration for U.S. Mexicans distinct and affords reinforcement for the third-plus generations to acquire "a positive sense of Mexican etiinicity through both the consumption of edinic culture and participation in die edinic community" (p. 93). In 2002, 72 percent of all U.S. Mexicans were either first or second generation, and first-generation Mexicans comprised fully 41 percent of die total of more than 25 million counted. Macias concludes that "Mexican etiinicity, and by extension mestizaje [mixing ofraces] , is still a highly contested area ofself- and group identitywidiin the United States" (p. 115). The audior believes the day mestizaje will be accepted in the U.S. approaches. Accepting it means we acknowledge our long shared history of racial and cultural mixing with the Americas. Macias's Mestizo in America is a poignant volume. Its splendid demographic data and stimulating ideas will find use among a wide range of historical fields. University ofNorth TexasRoberto R. Calderón Mexican Americans and Sports: A Reader on Athletics and Barrio Life. Edited byJorge Iber and Samuel O. Regalado. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007. Pp. 272. Notes, index. ISBN 1585445225. $18.95, paper.) While sports history has gained a measure of acceptance by mainstream scholars and even has its own scholarly venue, theJournal ofSport Hutory, Mexican Americanists have largely ignored the role of sports in barrio history. Now comes a new book designed to challenge that status. In their new book coeditors Jorge Iber and Samuel O. Regalado have produced an important compilation of essays. Presented in chronological fashion, the essays are well written and focus on two central organizing principles: how Mexican Americans used sport to strengthen their communities; and the interpretive value of studying sport history. By studying athletic groups and events from the 1920s to the present across various sports involving bodi sexes, these authors collectively offer the reader a clear, coherent sense of the ways in which participation in organized forms of physical activity have helped empower Mexican Americans to see themselves as citizens capable of participation in mainstream life, even against steep odds. This level of cohesion is often lacking from such assemblages of essays, but the editors managed to identify works by people whose collective research addresses similar issues and questions, while not necessarily duplicating each other in topic, theory, 2??8Book Reviews365 or methodology. Andwhile culture and identity are at the heart ofeach piece, some rely more on oral interviews; others rely more heavily on documentary records. Some are driven by a clearly materialistic perspective, while others are strongly cultural in their interpretations. All diese varying perspectives offer a rich interpretive tapestry diat demonstrates die ways in which sports can raise interesting historical questions. One of the problems in pioneering a new field of research is creating useful , contributory interpretation as opposed to bland superficial stories, or overly theoretical, jargon-driven pieces. This work, despite contributions from nine authors, holds together well. Each article looks at a very different topic, such as Mexican long-distance runners and their impact on Mexican identity and Anglo stereotypes of them; coverage of Hispanic athletes by the mainstream press in Los Angeles; female softball players and their personal as well as on-field obstacles; and many others. Another major contribution of diis work is the rich historiographical discussions that appear in the introduction, conclusion, and several of the essays. Such coverage helps the uninitiated reader understand the nascent field and its contemporary directions. Those who teach sports history, Mexican American history, or edinic history will find the book a useful teaching tool at all levels. The general...