Northern Mexico on the Eve of the United States Invasion:
Rare Imprints Concerning California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, 1821-1846.
Edited by David J. Weber. New York: Arno Press, 1976. Mexicans in
California afteer the U.S. Conquest. Introduction by Carlos Cortés. New
York: Arno Press, 1976. Aspects of the Mexican American Experience.
Introduction by Carlos Cortés. New York: Arno Press, 1976, $37.00. These are
three volumes in the Arno Press' reprint series entitled The Chicano
Heritage.
Reviewed by Matt S. Meier, Chairman of the History
Department, University of Santa Clara, co-author of The Chicanos and
Bibliography For Chicano History.
These anthologies are among the latest publications in the
Arno Press' collection, The Chicano Heritage, which serves to make
available to scholars and students materials for the study of Chicano
history—materials which are no longer widely available because of age and some
of which are quite rare. The three collections bring together a total of
twenty-five publications of various lengths and kinds ranging from full-length
books like The Vaquero by Arnold Rojas, published in 1964, to Juan
Seguín's brief and fascinating Personal Memoirs, published more than one
hundred years earlier in 1858. Some are general accounts, like Juan N. Almonte's
pamphlet, Noticia estadística sobre Tejas (1835); while others describe
very specific topics, e.g. John Scotford's Within These Borders, a
description of Protestant missionary work among the Spanish-speaking in the
United States at the middle of the twentieth century. Perhaps the most
interesting of all is the reproduction of volume 66, number 3 (May 1, 1931) of
The Survey Graphic; the entire issue is devoted to "Mexicans in our
Midst". The articles by Paul Taylor, Mary Austin, Manuel Gamio, Ernesto Galarza,
J. Frank Dobie, Max Handman, etc. are invaluable for the historian;
unfortunately the reduction of The Survey page size to fit the format of
The Chicano Heritage makes reading somewhat difficult and eye-straining.
Northern Mexico on the Eve of the United States Invasion
contains eleven imprints, all in Spanish except the very rare Personal
Memoirs of Juan Seguín. These eleven documents do the valuable service of
describing from a Mexican point of view geographically, politically, and
economically what is today the United States Southwest in the 1820s and 30s. For
example the Zúñiga imprint gives an explanation for independent Mexico's
abandonment of her northern frontier with a resulting decline there in loyalty
to the Mexican government and eventual takeover by the United States. The reader
will be made aware of conditions in central Mexico (notably political dissension
and lack of governmental funds) that negatively affected the frontier and will
see how the representative from the two Californias to the Mexican Congress
warned that body of the possible loss of his area. Overall the selections give
an excellent general picture of the northern frontier. It is unfortunate that a
good map showing the places referred to was not included, especially for
Zúñiga's work, and that the condition of the Vallejo document makes it
difficult to read in spots.
Mexicans in California after the U. S. Conquest comprises eight reprints
that include descriptions of the serious problems of the Californios as seen by
two Anglo veterans of the American conquest, John S. Griffin, M.D., and Stephen
Clark Foster; the difficulties of Californios in obtaining justice in a biased
anti-Mexican society; two modern historical interpretations of the Californio
experience in San Diego; a report on a flood of the Santa Ana River; and the
life of Bernardo Yorba. Together these serve to illustrate and to provide
insight into the many problems faced by Californios as a conquered
people—problems of economic, social, political, and cultural survival. However,
it is again unfortunate that the two articles on San Diego, from The
Journal of San Diego History, were necessarily reduced to a type size that
strains the eyesight. The inclusion of Agua Mansa and the Flood of
January 22, 1862 is a bit puzzling since it is largely a technical
description by the San Bernardino Flood Control District to show the need for
flood control on the Santa Ana River and refers to Californios only by
implication.
The last of the three works, Aspects of the Mexican
American Experience brings together six works from fields as varied as
economics, education, and religion in order to cover the Mexican American
experience from the end of the last century down to the 1960 census. The May 1,
1931 issue of The Survey Graphic brought together an outstanding
collection of articles, paintings and drawings which were done by eminent
authorities on Mexico and the Mexican American and which delineate an historical
picture of the Chicano as he was viewed by sympathetic Anglos, Mexicans, and
Mexican Americans at the beginning of the Great Depression. Equally as
interesting is Arnold Rojas' The Vaquero, filled with vaquero lore and
delightful vignettes of old California. More important, it sheds some light on
Anglo-Mexican and cowboy-vaquero relations.
Because of the scarcity of materials dealing with Chicano
history these three volumes of reprints are especially welcome to students of
the Chicano experience and give an indication of the continuing interest in and
need for materials that will enable us to better understand the varied aspects
of the Mexican experience in the United States.
