Múliples Moradas: Ensayo de literatura camparada (review)

302 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies of Mexico's vulnerable migiant kboieis in the United States instead routinely threw their authority and influence behind the same corrupt lawmen, drunken vigilantes, and various othet ruffians engaged at preventing any successful attempt at "wetback" collectivization. Like most U.S. federal officials and local media occupied with observing and commenting on the illegal and outrageous conduct ofthe Califoinian growers and their thuggish lackeys, the Mexican consuls diiecdy involved in these conflicts only encouiaged efforts to crush all manifestations of "Communist " subversion among migrant laborers. Thus, while ACLU activists and other so-called subversives were commonly beaten, shot at, or held without charge in jail by supposedly impartial U.S. legal authorities, outright murder and othet acts of violence by strikebreakers went unpunished. The author's implication is that this process was supported officially by Mexican consuls in order to ensure the maintenance ofthe political "safety valve" represented by the U.S., enabling Mexico to "export" its poorest and most desperate people. González maintains diat this airangement was (and still is) considered fai more important for the wellbeing ofthe neo-Porfirian Mexican corporate state than was ensuring the just tieatment of pitilessly exploited Mexican citizens laboring abioad. If nothing else, the mosdy elite social origins of most consuls compelled them to seek common cause with their fellow plutocrats rather than with their fellow citizens, and theii peisonal allegiance to the polÃ-ticos who appointed them to their lucrative positions seem to have overridden any concerns they petsonally may have held for their fellow Mexicans. Undoubtedly, some readers will be uncomfortable with Piofessoi Gonzalez's analysis. His use of terms such as "exploitation" and "imperialism" harkens back to an age not so long ago when some scholars were not afraid to couch their arguments in "Marxist" terminology. Nevertheless, Gonzalez's deft use of material gathered from both U.S. and Mexican archival collections makes most of his argument difficult to refute. While othei scholars may have determined that Mexican consuls in die U.S. commonly served the inteiests of many individual Mexicans, it seems as though they did very little to defend the right of migiant laborers to batgain collectively with the uncompassionate and exploitative U.S. business interests who were only too willing to use and abuse them. This book is a fine addition not only to Chicano/Chicana historiography , but also to the ongoing debate concerning the questionable ideological credentials of the long-lived political structure spawned by the Mexican Revolution. Sadly, veiy little seems to have changed since the yeais examined by Piofessoi González, and so this book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the contemporary situation facing Mexican migiant workers living in the American Southwest. Gilbert G. González teaches at the Univeisity of California, Irvine, in the School of Social Sciences, where he is also the Diiectoi ofthe Focused Research Program in Laboi Studies. Shawn L. England Arizona State University MÃ-diples Moradas: Ensayo de literatura comparada Tusquets Editores, 1998 By Claudio Guiüen Ofthe many books recently published on literature and culture, this one is a rarity. Guillen possesses an incredibly vast knowledge of literature , history, social science, philosophy, and culture , supported by many years of research, which enables him to study the multiplicity of a myriad of subjects and to present his arguments persuasively and cogently. Part One contains essays on literature and exile, landscape, obscenity, and epistolary literature ; Part Two includes pieces on the beginnings of national literatures, cultural stereotypes, and the complexities and juxtapositions of Europe. Because ofthe vastness of die topics treated in die book (more than 400 entries in the bibliography and 1,000 in the onomastic index), it is not a woik meant foi reductionists. On die odier hand, those readers with broad interests, especially comparatists and Hispanists will find it both challenging and enlightening. Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 303 With meticulously scholaily acumen, Guillen guides the teadei through avast maze of topics, always demonstrating the multiplicity and complexities inherent in literatures, societies, and the human being, homo multiplex. As a compatatist, he utilizes a variety of theories to study literature, which he believes to be a...