Title The borderlands of race : Mexican segregation in a South Texas town / Jennifer R. Nájera

Edition First edition Published Austin : University of Texas Press, 2015 ©2015

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Description 1 online resource Contents Introduction: Mexican inflections of ethnography and history -- Part 1. The culture of Mexican segregation -- The borderlands of race and rights -- Establishing a culture of segregation -- Formal and informal Mexican education within the context of segregation -- An accommodated form of segregation -- Part 2. Processes of racial integration -- Troubling the culture of school segregation : Mexican American teachers and the path to desegregation -- Surgiendo de la base : community movement and the desegregation of the Catholic Church -- Epilogue Summary Throughout much of the twentieth century, Mexican Americans experienced segregation in many areas of public life, but the structure of Mexican segregation differed from the strict racial divides of the Jim Crow South. Factors such as higher socioeconomic status, lighter skin color, and Anglo cultural fluency allowed some Mexican Americans to gain limited access to the Anglo power structure. Paradoxically, however, this partial assimilation made full desegregation more difficult for the rest of the Mexican American community, which continued to experience informal segregation long after federal and state laws officially ended the practice. In this historical ethnography, Jennifer R. Njera offers a layered rendering and analysis of Mexican segregation in a South Texas community in the first half of the twentieth century. Using oral histories and local archives, she brings to life Mexican origin peoples' experiences with segregation. Through their stories and supporting documentary evidence, Njera shows how the ambiguous racial status of Mexican origin people allowed some of them to be exceptions to the rule of Anglo racial dominance. She demonstrates that while such exceptionality might suggest the permeability of the color line, in fact the selective and limited incorporation of Mexicans into Anglo society actually reinforced segregation by creating an illusion that the community had been integrated and no further changes were needed. Njera also reveals how the actions of everyday people ultimately challenged racial/racist ideologies and created meaningful spaces for Mexicans in spheres historically dominated by Anglos Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Mexican Americans -- Segregation -- Texas -- La Feria -- History -- 20th century Mexican Americans -- Civil rights -- Texas -- La Feria -- History -- 20th century Mexican Americans -- Texas -- La Feria -- Biography Race discrimination -- Texas -- La Feria -- History -- 20th century Social movements -- Texas -- La Feria -- History -- 20th century Oral history -- Texas -- La Feria SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies. HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX) Mexican Americans Mexican Americans -- Civil rights Mexican Americans -- Segregation Oral history Race discrimination Race relations Social movements SUBJECT La Feria (Tex.) -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century Texas, South -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century Subject Texas -- La Feria South Texas Genre/Form Biographies History Biographies. Biographies. Form Electronic book ISBN 9780292767560 0292767560

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