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Twentieth-century Los Angeles has been the locus of one of the most profound and complex interactions between variant cultures in American history. Yet this study is among the first to examine the relationship between ethnicity and identity among the largest immigrant group to that city. By focusing ...

Twentieth-century Los Angeles has been the locus of one of the most profound and complex interactions between variant cultures in American history. Yet this study is among the first to examine the relationship between ethnicity and identity among the largest immigrant group to that city. By focusing on Mexican immigrants to Los Angeles from 1900 to 1945, George J. Sanchez explores the process by which temporary sojourners altered their orientation to that of permanent residents, thereby laying the foundation for a new Mexican-American culture. Analyzing not only formal programs aimed at these newcomers by the United States and Mexico, but also the world created by these immigrants through family networks, religious practice, musical entertainment, and work and consumption patterns, Sanchez uncovers the creative ways Mexicans adapted their culture to life in the United States. When a formal repatriation campaign pushed thousands to return to Mexico, those remaining in Los Angeles launched new campaigns to gain civil rights as ethnic Americans through labor unions and New Deal politics. The immigrant generation, therefore, laid the groundwork for the emerging Mexican-American identity of their children.

"Masterful scholarship--detailed, insightful, and original. Dohan investigates the role that immigration plays in understanding Latino poverty in the United States. He also provides a nuanced and detailed analysis of neighborhood factors that help us better understand Latino poverty and how Latino ...

"Masterful scholarship--detailed, insightful, and original. Dohan investigates the role that immigration plays in understanding Latino poverty in the United States. He also provides a nuanced and detailed analysis of neighborhood factors that help us better understand Latino poverty and how Latino residents navigate the world of low-skill work, resources, and life in the barrio."--Abel Valenzuela Jr., co-editor of "Prismatic Metropolis: Inequality in Los Angeles

"A very timely study. At a time when the Latino population is rapidly growing in the U.S., Dohan provides us with one of the best and most poignant studies of the Mexican American Barrio. Based on rich data collected in two poor Mexican-American neighborhoods, this thoughtful and interesting book will draw a lot of attention both inside and outside of academia."--William Julius Wilson, author of "When Work Disappears

"With Dohan's book, we finally receive an in-depth understanding of the nuances of life inside the urban, often poor and working-class, Mexican-American communities. Urban ethnographic scholarship on the poor, dominated too long by the African-American experience for its questions, concerns and voices, now finally has a corrective and a complementary text."--Sudhir Venkatesh, author of "American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto

Although brickmaking was one of the first nonagricultural manufacturing industries in the lower Rio Grande region, this is the first ethnographic study of the industry. The important connections between brickmaking in Mexico and Texas lead author Scott Cook to consider many core issues in the ...

Although brickmaking was one of the first nonagricultural manufacturing industries in the lower Rio Grande region, this is the first ethnographic study of the industry. The important connections between brickmaking in Mexico and Texas lead author Scott Cook to consider many core issues in the interdisciplinary field of border cultural studies, even as he gives a clear picture of the development and decline of this binational industry.

Drawing largely on oral testimonies from living informants and from ten years of fieldwork in surviving brickyards, Cook explores the organization, development, and techniques of the border brick industry, cataloging the range of organizational forms of brick manufacturing from household-based petty commodity units to wage-labor-based petty capitalist units. He also highlights a series of linkages between production, labor markets, and commodity markets. Finally, he focuses on how and why handmade brick production disappeared in Texas just as it grew explosively in Mexico, roughly in the period from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Cook necessarily deals with both sides of the border. Historically, the circular flow of people, materials, and culture in the brick industry has defied the River as any sort of formidable barrier to movement. Yet this study documents that, especially in this century, the "Border" cannot be romantically dismissed as a fiction which has no commonplace effect on the movement of people, commodities, and culture.

Major themes include the development of Mexican brick culture in Texas, the Mexican brick export industry and the role of joint capital, the impact of intercultural relations on cross-border business, and issues of citizenshipand identity in the histories of border brickmaking families.