Details

ISBN-10: 147732092X
ISBN-13: 9781477320921
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publish Date: 09/06/2022
Dimensions: 8.90" L, 5.91" W, 0.63" H

Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas

Paperback

Price: $29.95

Overview

Runner-up, Ramirez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book, 2021

Language has long functioned as a signifier of power in the United States. In Texas, as elsewhere in the Southwest, ethnic Mexicans’ relationship to education–including their enrollment in the Spanish-language community schools called escuelitas–served as a vehicle to negotiate that power. Situating the history of escuelitas within the contexts of modernization, progressivism, public education, the Mexican Revolution, and immigration, Reading, Writing, and Revolution traces how the proliferation and decline of these community schools helped shape Mexican American identity.

Philis M. Barragán Goetz argues that the history of escuelitas is not only a story of resistance in the face of Anglo hegemony but also a complex and nuanced chronicle of ethnic Mexican cultural negotiation. She shows how escuelitas emerged and thrived to meet a diverse set of unfulfilled needs, then dwindled as later generations of Mexican Americans campaigned for educational integration. Drawing on extensive archival, genealogical, and oral history research, Barragán Goetz unravels a forgotten narrative at the crossroads of language and education as well as race and identity.

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Reviews
Reading, Writing, and Revolution is not merely a book about educational history; it is a trailblazing study on how Mexican Americans have relied on any tools available to create a more inclusive educational system for themselves and their community.– "New Books in Latino Studies" (8/18/2020 12:00:00 AM)
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Details

ISBN-10: 147732092X
ISBN-13: 9781477320921
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publish Date: 09/06/2022
Dimensions: 8.90" L, 5.91" W, 0.63" H
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