War along the Border: The Mexican Revolution and Tejano Communities ed. by Arnold De León (review)

War along the Border: The Mexican Revolution and Tejano Communities had its origins in a symposium sponsored by the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston in September 2010 commemorating the centenary of the Mexican Revolution, an epic struggle that not only convulsed that nation for more than a decade but also transcended the international line and affected the lives, communities, and culture of Tejanos from El Paso to Brownsville. While numerous studies treat aspects of revolutionary activities conducted in the United States that affected events in Mexico, remarkably little work focuses on the impact of the revolution on the Tejano communities across the border. Participants in the symposium sought to address such issues as how the revolution affected Tejano communities and whether it was relevant to the Mexican American experience. Their papers and other studies related to these questions are published here in an effort to demonstrate the clear relationship between the revolution and the Mexican American experience in Texas and draw attention to potential themes for further research on this long-neglected subject.

Paul Hart's cogent discussion of the causes and consequences of the Revolution and its impact in Texas provides a valuable historical context and framework for subsequent contributions, while Arnoldo de León's review of the literature identifies immigration, the Plan de San Diego, violence upon border communities, and identity as areas receiving the greatest coverage among modern-day studies of Tejano history. Three essays reflecting the violence Tejanos suffered during this era include Richard Ribb's "La Rinchada: Revolution, Revenge, and the Rangers, 1910-1920"; Trinidad Gonzales's "The Mexican Revolution, Revolución de Texas, and Matanza de 1915"; and Miguel A. Levario's "The El Paso Race Riot of 1916." The role of women receives attention in Juanita Luna Lawhn's essay, "The Mexican Revolution and the Women of El México de Afuera, the Pan American Round Table, and the Cruz Azul Mexicana," and Sonia Hernández's "Women's Labor and Activism in the Greater Mexican Borderlands, 1910-1930." Immigration is the focus of Roberto R. Treviño's poignant biography of his working class grandfather, "Salt of the Earth: The Immigrant Experience of Gerónimo Treviño," and Thomas H. Kreneck's piece on Houston's first Mexican American millionaire, "Sleuthing Immigrant Origins: Felix Tijerina and His Mexican Revolution Roots."

Mexican military operations along border and the involvement of Tejano communities in those affairs are the subjects of John Eusebio Klingemann's "'The Population is Overwhelmingly Mexican; Most of It Is in Sympathy with the Revolution': Mexico's Revolution of 1910 and the Tejano Community in the Big Bend" and George T. Díaz's "Smugglers in Dangerous Times: Revolution and Communities in the Tejano Borderlands." Though less directly related to the central themes, Gerald Horne and Margaret Stevens's "Eureka! The Mexican Revolution in the African American Context, 1910-1920" posits that the revolution inspired, even abetted, African Americans in their efforts to challenge the constraints of Jim Crow laws and overturn the American empire.

Finally, Raúl A. Ramos's "Understanding Greater Revolutionary Mexico: The Case for a Transnational Border History" emphasizes the necessity of viewing Tejano history through a transnational prism and taking into account events that occur south of the border. The essays in this anthology typically reflect careful scholarship, thoughtful analysis, and skillful exposition. Furthermore, they convincingly demonstrate the value of viewing Tejano history from an international perspective and suggest the rich variety of themes that this potentially fertile field of investigation offers for future studies of the Tejano experience.