Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890 (Histories of the American Frontier) |
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Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890 (Histories of the American Frontier)
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by Arnoldo De León, William Cronon, Howard R. Lamar, and Martin Ridge
Sales Rank: 853063
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List Price: $21.95
$21.95
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on 8-2-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 160 pages
Published by: University of New Mexico Press September 18, 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0826322727
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0826322722
Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
Weighs: 11 ounces
Product Review
"A solid synthesis of the secondary literature and an great supplemental undergraduate text. (Western Historical Quarterly )
Product Description
Once neglected, racial minorities are now the focus of intense interest among historians of the American West, who have come to recognize the roles of African American, Chinese, and Mexican people in shaping the frontier. Racial Frontiers is both a highly original work, particularly in its emphasis on racial minority women, and a masterful synthesis of the literature in this young field.
De León depicts a U.S. West populated by settlers anticipating opportunities for upward mobility, jockeying for position as they adapted to new surroundings, and adjusting to new political and economic systems. Minority groups discarded unworkable political traditions that had followed them from their homelands and sought to participate in a democracy that they trusted would see to their well-being. Many embraced capitalism in preference to the economic systems they had left behind but refused to give up their cultural traditions. The result was a U.S. West of many colors.
Known as a skilled writer, De León tells countless stories of the lives of men and women to guide the readers through his narrative. Personal histories and revealing quotations illustrate the struggles and victories of the newcomers, enriching our understanding of the settlement of the trans-Mississippi West since the middle of the nineteenth century.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890 (Histories of the American Frontier) (Hardcover)
Arnoldo De Leon's book Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890 is yet another academic book dealing with minority groups and their role in the history of the western United States. The "races" De Leon chooses to concentrate on consist of Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans. His primary thesis: These three minority "races" either adapted or were pushed aside by white prejudices and institutions in the burgeoning American west. In what De Leon sees as an openly hostile and often violent environment, these "races" competed with whites and each other while doing their best to cling to their traditional values and cultures. Under De Leon's model, the American West is not only viewed as an actual frontier, but a "racial frontier" as well. De Leon's racial frontier is a place where races and cultures meet. More importantly, it is a place where his three target "races" interact with each other and what he generally presents as the homogenous white race. De Leon sees this interaction in political, social, and economic terms. Definitions aside, the American West offered many minorities the opportunity to start their lives anew. African-Americans, Chinese, and Mexicans all sought out the dream of the new frontier. In the face of racism and a general distrust from the dominant culture, even disadvantaged groups found advantages in the American West. In place of celebrating obvious successes in early race relations in the American West, De Leon attempts to place the square pegs of history in his round multicultural holes. One of many glaring instances occurs in his description of 1880's Presidio County in Texas. He describes a community made up of whites, blacks, and Mexicans centered around the military installation of Fort Davis. This community lived as one, and intermarriage was not unheard of. De Leon's explanation is presumptuous beyond belief: "Thus all three races had to modify their imported identities to exist as part of a tricultural community" (p. 100). What? How does De Leon know what their "imported identities" were? Could it possibly be that these people were united by a commonality beyond their nationalities and the color of their skin? Could it be that some "Anglo" community leaders were not knuckle-dragging racist thugs? He even goes on to admit that there is no historical evidence whatsoever to back up his claim, but this seems to matter little to De Leon. In referring to whites, or "Anglos" as Dr. De Leon sometimes calls them, he shamelessly baits the reader into inferring that all whites held racist attitudes: "...whites had constructed attitudes toward people of mixed ancestry that argued unluckily for Mexicans" (p. 31). Really? Whites also "...meant to keep the oppressed some distance from one another, lest they question white dictates over jobs and wages" (p. 51). All whites? Additionally, whites "...saw little of redeemable quality in the ways of Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans." (p. 68) If not all whites, which whites is De Leon referring to? On nearly every page, De Leon uses his broad brush to vilify and misrepresent an entire group. Isolated acts of violence become the rule and successful interactions between groups are downplayed by De Leon. Is he referring to native born American whites? Mexican whites of Castilian or other European decent? Protestant or Catholic whites? Pale, olive, or brown skinned whites? Or is it just anyone who qualifies as a white oppressor in De Leon's scheme of things? The author scornfully refers to Gaudalupe Vallejo as having tried to "pass herself off" as white, but was she not? A cursory inspection of the globe reveals that Spain is indeed located on the European continent and Spaniards are indeed Europeans. Subtle differences in Mediterranean and Latin skin tones aside, for the author to refer to Mexicans as a separate "race" is historically inaccurate on nearly every level. The author makes much of the frontier lynching of minorities and does his best to emphasize the racist motivations behind them. Sing Lee, Chepita Rodriguez and the legendary hanging in Downieville California are all cited as examples of "...the victimization of helpless minorities" (p. 33). What De Leon fails to mention is that racially motivated lynching was a relatively infrequent occurrence in the American West, and that most of those found dangling at the end of ropes were Caucasians. Considering that the most violent areas of the West were populated by a generally young, male, and heavily armed population, it is near miraculous that violence of this sort was not even more prevalent. Regardless, as the population increased, collective violence declined markedly, most notably because it was considered the lowest form of barbarism by the dominant "Anglo" culture. De Leon concentrates on the extremes in a turbulent and violent period of American history. Rather than research the obvious unifying social factors and cultural tolerance of millions of white Americans in the nineteenth century, De Leon prefers to use a broad (and highly biased) brush to concretize his own divisive and separatist views. Racial Frontiers is an unfortunate book. In the books introduction, De Leon makes a strange disclaimer as to the accuracy of his blanket statements regarding race: "As a matter of convenience, I have gone with current trends..." (p. 3). But, if the current trends are wrong enough to merit such a disclaimer, why write in such an obviously misleading fashion? While solid in its thesis, Racial Frontiers descends into the modern politics of collective guilt and blame.
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Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America, 1848-1890 (Histories of the American Frontier)
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