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Essay on David Montejano
Abstract
Montejano explores the implications of the United States' declining place in the capitalist world-system for the recently achieved political accommodation between Chicano middle class politicians and the Anglo business and political establishment in the Southwest. Will a possible future of economic stagnation bring with it a renewal of the ethnic/class conflict and repression that characterized Anglo-Mexican relations in the decades before WWII? Or will enlightened leadership from the Anglo and Mexican American communities work out mutually beneficial policies to prevent the growth of a Chicano underclass? These two scenarios are discussed by Dr. Montejano.
About the Author
David Montejano is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously he was an Associate Professor of History and Sociology and Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies (1996-2000) at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Montejano is the author of the prizewinning historical overview, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836- 1986 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987; 7th Printing, 1999). The book also has been translated and published in Mexico (Mexico City: Editorial Alianza, 1991). He has authored numerous scholarly articles and book chapters, including “On the Future of Anglo-Mexican Relations in the United States,” in his recently edited book, Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century (Austin University of Texas Press, 1999).
Dr. Montejano’s major areas of interest include Comparative and Historical Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Change, Race and Ethnic Relations, and Community Studies.
On the Demise of Segregation
While the segregation of Mexican American communities was most apparent in the urban centers of the Southwest --Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, not to mention countless other cities-- its rationale and political orientation was grounded in the agricultural developments of the region. Even in California where the ethnic farm labor force varied according to changing immigration law and grower preference....
