From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America / Edition 10

by Vicki L. Ruiz

Overview

For centuries, Mexican-American women have been creative, innovative forces shaping the cultural and economic development of what is now the American Southwest. Whether living in a labor camp, a boxcar settlement, or an urban barrio, Mexican women nurtured families, worked for wages, built extended networks, and participated in community associations—efforts that solidified the community and helped Mexican Americans find their own place in America. Now, in From Out of the Shadows, historian Vicki L. Ruiz provides the first full study of Mexican-American women in the 20th century, in a narrative enhanced by interviews and personal stories that capture a vivid sense of the Mexicana experience in the United States.
Beginning with the first wave of women crossing the border early this century, Ruiz reveals the struggles they have faced, the communities they have built, and also highlights the various forms of political protest they have initiated. What emerges from the book is a portrait of a distinctive culture in America that has slowly gathered strength in the last 95 years. From Out of the Shadows is an important addition to the largely undocumented history of Mexican-American women in our century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195374773
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/05/2008
Edition description:	Anniversary
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	479,141
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Vicki L. Ruiz is Professor of History and Chicana-Chicano Studies at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Border Journeys2. Confronting "America"3. The Flapper and the Chaperone4. With Pickets, Baskets, and Ballots5. La Nueva Chicana: Women and the Movement6. Claiming Public SpaceAfterword

Editorial Reviews

"A rich source book and an excellent overview of Mexican American women's crucial contributions to labor organizing, community formation, and social movements in the West and Southwest."—Women's Review of Books

"Not only celebrates the lives of Mexican women in the United States but provides a blueprint for social justice and human dignity."—Journal of American History

"In...a stirring portrayal of women's courage and agency, Ruiz's book epitomizes illuminative scholarship."—Latin American Research Review

From the Publisher