Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression / Edition 1

by Douglas Monroy

Overview

This sweeping, vibrant narrative chronicles the history of the Mexican community in Los Angeles. Douglas Monroy unravels the dramatic, complex story of Mexican immigration to Los Angeles during the early decades of the twentieth century and shows how Mexican immigrants re-created their lives and their communities. Against the backdrop of this newly created cityscape, Rebirth explores pivotal aspects of Mexican Los Angeles during this time—its history, political economy, popular culture—and depicts the creation of a time and place unique in Californian and American history.

Mexican boxers, movie stars, politicians, workers, parents, and children, American popular culture and schools, and historical fervor on both sides of the border all come alive in this literary, jargon-free chronicle. In addition to the colorful unfolding of the social and cultural life of Mexican Los Angeles, Monroy tells a story of first-generation immigrants that provides important points of comparison for understanding other immigrant groups in the United States.

Monroy shows how the transmigration of space, culture, and reality from Mexico to Los Angeles became neither wholly American nor Mexican, but México de afuera, "Mexico outside," a place where new concerns and new lives emerged from what was both old and familiar. This extremely accessible work uncovers the human stories of a dynamic immigrant population and shows the emergence of a truly transnational history and culture. Rebirth provides an integral piece of Chicano history, as well as an important element of California urban history, with the rich, synthetic portrait it gives of Mexican Los Angeles.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520213333
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/01/1999
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	331
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Douglas Monroy is Professor of History and Director of Southwest Studies at The Colorado College. He is the author of Thrown among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California (California, 1990).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Introduction

1. The Making of Mexico de Afuera
2. Born by the River: The Great Migration from
   Mexico to Southern California
3· "Like Swallows at the Old Mission":
   Mexicans and the Politics of the Labor Market
4· "Our Children Get So Different Here":
   Parents and Children in Mexico de Afuera
5. The Political Passions of Mexico de Afuera
   En Fin: The Trajectories of Mexican History
   in Los Angeles
   
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index