Mexican Chicago Critique - Essay Example

Mexican Chicago Other (s) Mexican Chicago Book Review The book “Mexican Chicago” by Gabriela F. Arredondo is arguably one of the first well documented history monographs on the immigration and experiences of Mexicans in Chicago that offers important historical interpretations of the Latino urban experiences. The book particularly challenges the static definition of “American” as well as the underlying assumption of assimilation as a part of socialization process. Arredondo’s thesis is that the experiences of the Mexicans have enabled them to acquire the necessary tools and qualifications required to be accepted as Americans instead of being marginalized and classified as immigrants and foreigners (Arredondo 7). Gabriela Arredondo is a renowned historian and associate professor of Latino studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The author based her thesis on the revolutionary content of the Mexican ethnic group between 1916 and 1939. In these periods Mexicans were a different ethnic group though it worked to be assimilated into a city that had a renowned history of incorporating the immigrants and the newcomers. For example, based on the revolutionary context of origin of the Mexican in Chicago between 1916 and 1930, Arredondo believes that these Mexicans did not merely form part of the ethnic groups that worked to be assimilated into a city with long history of absorbing newcomers. In addition, supporting and suggesting a new understanding of the identity formation Arredondo argues that Mexicans wielded tools of identification that emerged in the revolutionary Mexico. These avant-garde tools collectively battled the ethnic groups prejudice such as Italians, Poles, African Americans and the Irish communities. Finally, in the direct view of Mexicans, they highlighted tremendous and unique differences among themselves. These differences were based on gender and class. In the discussion of becoming “Mexican” in Chicago during the early 20th century, Arredondo not only explores the identity construction but also comes up with a provision and telling insight of the repercussions of this identity formation process. My Response to the Book In my opinion, although the author’s attention to the homeland circumstances of the Mexicans in Chicago is warranted, her elaboration of the analogy in this context is largely flawed, incomplete and inaccurate. For example, in her attempts to compare Mexican immigrants with the European immigrants, Arrerondo has virtually ignored a number of historical factors that may have contributed to their acceptance status and their continued perceived marginalization as an ethnic group in the United States. For example, according to a primary documented survey, written by Samuel Bryan in 1912, the influx of the Mexicans in the United States was comparatively unimportant previous to 1900. However, although the increasing number in the early 1900s provided an efficient, cheap and elastic labor supply for the industries in the Southwestern United States, the evils of the community such as their low living standards, high illiteracy levels, immorality, little political interest and their large numbers invariably overbalanced their desirable qualities (Bryan 34). On the other hand, another important flaw in the comparability of the early Mexican immigrants with European immigrants is that unlike, the early European communities in the United States, the Mexicans lived in segregated communities where they maintained distinctive cultural, social, language and family customs thereby alienating them from the rest of the American society. Consequently, despite my admiration of the forceful manner in which she reveals the way racialization is gendered, I feel that if Arredondo could lay further emphasis on the perception of the stated scenes, she could have probably turned to be more effective in communicating her message. Whereas her argument concerning gendered racialization becomes more detailed when she presents the basically negative effect of Male Mexican behavior on the Mexican women while tackling gender relations in chapter 4, she increases the chances of promoting gender stereotypes. In referencing the desertion of non-Mexican women by their husbands, she offers no evidence to eliminate the assertion that the idea of Mexican men deserting the Mexican women is higher in comparison with other rates of desertion- employing a simple chart would have sufficed in case the evidence is within reach. Whereas she attaches desertion to male adventurism, her move to relate male adventurism to the intention of men to move to Chicago is not counteracted by an equivalent analysis of male adventurism among the other immigrant lots. Additionally, although she has used statistics to reveal the predominance of Mexican men within Chicago in the initial and subsequent years (Arredondo 137), few chats coupled with data citations would have probably led to more rhetorical satisfaction and visual appeal regarding her arguments centered on the gendered way in which Mexicanidad arose from the Chicagoans. Lacking in her whole discussion on Mexican men and women is the influence of same-sex sexual relations. Considering that the society being dealt with is one in which men greatly exceed women, it is outrageous that Arredondo does not even make a single mention of homosexuality inside the Mexican community within Chicago. However, the author’s arguments compel most when she tracks the manner in which the violence that arose amidst the Mexican men was facilitated by the non-Mexican Chicago society as a way to define famous perception of Mexican character itself. Arredondo cites different breathtaking violent scenes during which the Mexican men were implicated. Examples of the specific scenes of intimidation that she sites were through revolutionary acts plus murders, religious oppression plus reaction bringing about the Cristero revolts, arrests for carrying weapons, and labor unrests along with alleged police brutality. With such a set of publicized scenes, the relationship between Mexican and violence got a chance within the joint consciousness of a community already willing to judge others in a debasing manner based on the skin-tone. Arredondo evades a mere repetition of racist assumption of the non-Mexican society by recognizing the manner in which the absence of the feminine gender sends a meaning on the degree to which these dynamics influenced the gendered-male interactions. In conclusion, Mexican Chicago is a fairly vividly written and deeply researched in wide range of sources. It unearths the unknown facts about the Mexican ethnic group in Chicago. This is evident by the book’s contribution towards the growth of scholarship on Mexican-Americans outside the southwest and brightens the discussion about the race, immigration and identity. The data collection this book is based on provides some of the best and solid modes of data collection. The writer paints a portrait of Mexican-Chicago in the early 20th century with the focus on five zones of contact: housing, politics, work and labour relations, hetero-social relations and commerce. Works Cited Bryan, Samuel. “Mexican Immigrants in the United States.” The Survey, 20, no. 23 (September 1912). Accessed September 2, 2014. Digital ID 597. Gabriela F. Arredondo. Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity, and Nation, 1916-39. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Print. Read More