Congratulation to our members and their publications
Pioneer of Mexican-American Civil Rights: Alonso S. Perales (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2022) by Cynthia E. Orozco
Professor Cynthia E. Orozco’s new book has been published: Pioneer of Mexican-American Civil Rights: Alonso S. Perales (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2022). Orozco, Professor of History & Humanities, was also recently nominated and elected to the Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians.
In this wide-ranging biography, historian Cynthia Orozco examines the life and work of one of the most influential Mexican Americans of the twentieth century. Alonso S. Perales was born in Alice, Texas, in 1898; he became an attorney, leading civil rights activist, author and US diplomat.
Perales was active in promoting and seeking equality for “La Raza” in numerous arenas. In 1929, he founded the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the most important Latino civil rights organization in the United States. He encouraged the empowerment of Latinos at the voting box and sought to pass state and federal legislation banning racial discrimination. He fought for school desegregation in Texas and initiated a movement for more and better public schools for Mexican-descent people in San Antonio.
In this wide-ranging biography, historian Cynthia Orozco examines the life and work of one of the most influential Mexican Americans of the twentieth century. Alonso S. Perales was born in Alice, Texas, in 1898; he became an attorney, leading civil rights activist, author and US diplomat.
Perales was active in promoting and seeking equality for “La Raza” in numerous arenas. In 1929, he founded the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the most important Latino civil rights organization in the United States. He encouraged the empowerment of Latinos at the voting box and sought to pass state and federal legislation banning racial discrimination. He fought for school desegregation in Texas and initiated a movement for more and better public schools for Mexican-descent people in San Antonio.
Mario Barradas and Son Jarocho: The Journey of a Mexican Regional Music (Austin, University of Texas Press, 2022) by by Yolanda Broyles-González Contributions by Francisco González and Rafael Figueroa Hernández
Son Jarocho was born as the regional sound of Veracruz but over time became a Mexican national genre, even transnational, genre—a touchstone of Chicano identity in the United States. Mario Barradas and Son Jarocho traces a musical journey from the Gulf Coast to interior Mexico and across the border, describing the transformations of Son Jarocho along the way.
This comprehensive cultural study pairs ethnographic and musicological insights with an oral history of the late Mario Barradas, one of Son Jarocho’s preeminent modern musicians. Chicano musician Francisco González offers an insider’s account of Barradas’s influence and Son Jarocho’s musical qualities, while Rafael Figueroa Hernández delves into Barradas’s recordings and films. Yolanda Broyles-González examines the interplay between Son Jarocho’s indigenous roots and contemporary role in Mexican and US society. The result is a nuanced portrait of a vital and evolving musical tradition.
Yolanda Broyles-González is a University Distinguished Professor and chair of the American Ethnic Studies Department at Kansas State. She is the author of El Teatro Campesino: Theater in the Chicano Movement, among other books.
Francisco González is a multi-instrument musician and a former member of the seminal folk-rock music group Los Lobos.
Rafael Figueroa Hernández is a cultural historian specializing in the study of Son Jarocho and other regional musical styles specific to the state of Veracruz and the Antilles at the Universidad Veracruzana.
Day of the Dead in the USA, The Migration and Transformation of a Cultural Phenomenon, 2nd Edition (New Burnswick, Rutgers University Press, 2022) by Regina M Marchi
Honoring relatives by tending graves, building altars, and cooking festive meals has been a major tradition among Latin Americans for centuries. The tribute, “El Día de los Muertos,” has enjoyed renewed popularity since the 1970s when Latinx activists and artists in the United States began expanding “Day of the Dead” north of the border with celebrations of performance art, Aztec danza, art exhibits, and other public expressions.
Focusing on the power of public ritual to serve as a communication medium, this revised and updated edition combines a mix of ethnography, historical research, oral history, and critical cultural analysis to explore the manifold and unexpected transformations that occur when the tradition is embraced by the mainstream. A testament to the complex role of media and commercial forces in constructions of ethnic identity, Day of the Dead in the USA provides insight into the power of art and ritual to create community, transmit oppositional messages, and advance educational, political, and economic goals.
Regina Marchi is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University—New Brunswick in New Jersey. She co-authored, with Lynn Schofield Clark, Young People and the Future of News, which won the 2018 Nancy Baym top book award from the Association of Internet Researchers and the 2018 James W. Carey Media Research Award.
Fall 2022 – Vol. 48. No. 1