Publisher's Synopsis
This is remarkable classic and unsurpassed monograph of original research and interpretive essays on the history of the Mexicana/Chicana. Collected here are twenty-five essays by an international group of scholars . who discuss methods, content and critical theoretical concerns of Chicana historiography to date. Together these writings comprise an unprecedented collection of studies on Mexican women in the United States. Part I of this book examines theoretical approaches useful to Chicana history and argues important distinctions between Chicana and women's history in general. Part II follows with a discussion on method and sources for Chicana historiography and draws on colonial census data such as marriage, baptismal and burial records, as well as archival material, oral history, and literature as historical sources. The working class experiences and labor activism of Mexican women before and during this country's Great Depression begin the discussion in Part III which then turns to the question of undocumented female labor in the United States and clandestine garment work in Mexico City today. An overview of Mexico's working class women's movement, its advances and setbacks over the century, closes this section. Part IV examines the impact of gender ideology, patriarchal structures, and feminist activism on male/female relations and social structure for Mexico and the southwest of the United States. The bibliography cites over 500 interdisciplinary items important to Mexicana/Chicana studies. Adelaida R. Del Castillo has researched the daily survival strategies of female-headed households in squatter settlements in Mexico City. She is co-editor with Magdalena Mora of Mexican women in the United States: Struggles Past and Present.
