River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands by Omar S. Valerio-Jiménez (review)

Joining recent works emphasizing the transborder experience and the concept of “identity” in the Texas region of the U.S.-Mexico border, and referencing twentieth-century scholarship on Mexican-American identity formation, Omar Valerio-Jiménez attempts to explain the origins of a unique identity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. He argues that the cultural, legal, political, commercial, gender, and migration experiences combined to lead “border residents to construct strategic identities that countered each nation-state’s disciplining efforts. Their creative use of the river to resist nationstate control, and their construction of hybrid identities established social and cultural precedents for future generations” (p. 12).

Valerio-Jiménez focuses on the Villas del Norte, the five mid-eighteenth-century settlements founded under the auspices of José Escandón along the lower Rio Grande from Laredo to Reynosa, to which was later added what became the city of Matamoros. In the first three chapters, the author builds the case for the development of a distinctive local identity through the themes of Spanish-Indian interaction, class and gender, and the interrelationship of politics and trade. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these chapters is his explanation of how the region’s vecino society was founded on interactions with Indian peoples, both the indigenous groups that were subjugated and those such as the Comanches who remained a long-term threat to the villas. Chronic warfare with the region’s autonomous native peoples lasted well past Mexican independence and took place largely without the support of the colonial state or its national successor. Nevertheless, both the Spanish and Mexican governments made demands for men and resources. Consequently, vecinos failed to develop a strong sense of nationalism. Holding on to the regional identity that had developed over the course of the previous three-quarters of a century, the vecinos of the Villas del Norte were more than happy to trade with Texas and mostly accepted the change in sovereignty that came with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The second three chapters of the book turn to how vecinos became tejanos (Mexican Texans) as they interacted with the U.S. nation-state, to which they also showed less than perfect attachment as a group. These chapters hinge on the author’s analysis of the racialization of society brought on by the dominance of Anglo Americans. Using examples such as differences in marriage law and wage structures, Valerio-Jiménez asserts that tejanos benefited in some ways from the change in sovereignty. Other examples, for instance those related to land loss and political access, allow him to explain how tejanos suffered from the change. Underlying all of this was the ambivalent status of the Mexican-origin population. In general, they were considered “Mexicans,” their loyalty suspect and their citizenship status often questioned. In effect, the racialized nature of border society meant that the vast majority of tejanos suffered from discrimination and alienation. Not that some, such as the Benavides family of Laredo, could not become part of the regional power structure, but such elite tejanos merely proved the rule.

As it explores the complexity of life along the Lower Rio Grande border region, and offers a number of significant insights, Valerio-Jiménez’s book itself becomes overly complicated and thus problematic in a number of respects. The gender portions of the work seem forced as, when the author attempts to “feminize” the region’s underclass, which in turn requires him to explain masculinity essentially in terms of class. What made Presbyterian but not Catholic educational projects part of an “Americanization” program is not clear. His treatment of Juan Cortina as a disaffected member of the tejano elite who attempted to champion the local mexicano population, but was forced by circumstances into the service of Mexico, is unconvincing. Cortina, who spent the last...