Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America

by: Gregory Rodriguez

Published by: Vintage Books

Reviewed by Paul Markowitz

Almost from the very beginning, the United States has exhibited a schizophrenic attitude toward Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants living in the United States. On one hand we have often been desirous of the advantages they have offered, be it as agricultural migrant workers, inexpensive alternatives for domestic tasks, or a host of other job-related activities that our society demands but has trouble filling. Balancing these favorables are at least an intermittent fear of a quickly growing minority, if not a downright xenophobia about our neighbors to the south, especially during economic downturns.

What Gregory Rodriguez has offered us is a nicely written history of Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants from the arrival of Hernando Cortes in 1519 to the present day as seen through the filter of mestizaje–the racial and cultural synthesis of Mexican descendants into larger cultures.

In his political and cultural account of over five hundred years of Mexican/American relationships, Rodriguez covers many of the main historical elements of this time period: Indian-Spanish interaction, the Spanish racial system, Mexican independence, the western expansion of the United States, Texas independence, and the Mexican-American War.

In his concluding chapters, Rodriguez goes on to cover key elements of the past hundred years and their impact on our history: the Nativist movements, WWII, the bracero program, the Chicano movement, multi-culturalism, Cesar Chavez, bi-lingual education, and the rapid growth of Spanish language media.

Despite the periods of anti-immigrant fervor that tends to re-emerge on a regular basis in the United States, especially during difficult economic times, Rodriguez has a decidedly optimistic outlook. He feels quite strongly that just like the Spanish racial system was undermined by the assimilation of Mexicans into the larger Spanish culture in colonial Mexico, that Mexican-Americans are well on the way to usurping and eventually destroying the more pernicious parts of the Anglo-American racial system as well.

Armchair Interviews says: An important read to understand the change in America.