Book Reviews by Juan José Peña Biography of Reviewer Juan José Peña
Juan José Peña is presently a candidate for a doctorate in Spanish, Latin American and Chicano Literature. Juan José is descendant of Don Juan de la Peña who came to what is now New Mexico with Don Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540 and Don Baltazar Francisco de la Peña, who came with a later group of soldiers brought by Don Diego de Vargas to Santa Fé in 1693 and settled in New Mexico.
Juan José Peña was a Professor at New Mexico Highlands University in Spanish and Bilingual Education as well as the Coordinator of Ethnic Studies and Director of Chicano Studies from 1972 to 1978. He also taught Court Interpreting courses at the University of New Mexico in 1996 and 1997. He is the Founder of the New Mexico Association for Chicano Studies and was its President from 1972 to 1978. Presently Mr. Juan José Peña holds the position of Interpreter Supervisor for the United States Courts for the District of New Mexico.
Juan José Peña has been very active in La Raza Unida Party. He has held the Presidency of the San Miguel County Partido de la Raza Unida, New Mexico Partido de la Raza Unida and National Partido de la Raza Unida from 1976 to 1981.
He has been the Commander of the American GI Forum de Alburquerque from 1992 to the present and the State Commander of the American GI Forum de Nuevo México from 1999 to 2000.
In addition, Juan José Peña has held the Chairmanship of the Hispanic Round Table of New Mexico in 1995, 1998, and 1999 and the Vice-Chairmanship in 2000.
BOOK REVIEW NUMBER 1
La Raza Unida Party: A Chicano Challenge to the U.S. Two-Party Dictatorship by Armando Navarro
Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122
ISBN #: Cloth: 1-56639-770-7 $83.50
Paper: 1-56639-771-5 $27.95In "La Raza Unida Party: A Chicano Challenge to the U.S. Two-Party Dictatorship," Armando Navarro has completed the third of a four part political study of Chicano alternative political Action to establish political self determination for the Chicano people. His first two studies of the quadrilogy were "Mexican American Youth Organization: Avant-Garde of the Chicano Movement in Texas" and "The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control," a detailed study of the Partido de la Raza Unida takeover of Crystal City, Texas and Zavala County. Both studies are very detailed accounts which dissect the essences and actors of these seminal efforts of the Chicano Movement in Texas. Dr. Navarro is now working on the fourth book in the quadrilogy titled: "What Needs to be Done: The Building of a New Movement."
Dr. Navarro is a native of California who has been a long time activist in the Chicano Movement who attained his Ph.D. in Political Science and has been a professor Political Science and Chicano Studies at varios universities and is now a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Together with this reviewer and others, he was one of the founding members of the National Association for Chicano Studies and he was one of the founders of the Partido de la Raza Unida in California and was a leader both in the Cucamonga chapter and the state organization of the Partido de la Raza Unida. He is well respected among his peers such as Dr. Rodolfo Acuña, the "Father of Chicano Studies," and Dr. Mario T. Barrera, Dr. Francisco Arturo Rosales and others, all recognized scholars in their own right, some of whom favorably reviewed the book.
"La Raza Unida Party: A Chicano Challenge to the U.S. Two-Party Dictatorship takes the same anlytical and surgical approach toward analyzing the gestation, development, growth and decline of the Partido de la Raza Unida. "United We Win" by Ignacio García and "La Raza Unida" by Dr. Ricardo Santillán cover some aspects of the Partido while focusing on their home states of Texas and California. Dr. Navarro covers the Partido in California and Texas, dedicating 2 chapters to each of the largest states for the Partido but also dedicates chapters to the Partido in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and the Midwest, dealing with areas and matters which had not been covered in previous books on the partido. Dr. Navarro discusses the national and international politics of the Partido and profiles its principal leaders and their political philosophies in California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and the Midwest. Dr. Navarro conducted 161 interviews throughout the United States and reviewed countless documents, newspapers, letters, magazines, etc and incorporated the insights and of the leaders and members of the Partido, including his own. Dr. Navarro especially takes pains to analyze the role the Chicanas played in the Partido and their views of their participation and contributions, some of which are critical of the Chicano leadership for its chauvinism, sexism, exclusion of women and relegation of women to traditional supporting roles.
Dr. Navarro identifies the major players in each state or region and their roles as well as the critical events which accompanied the rise and fall of the Partido in each state. The chapter on New Mexico will be particularly illuminating and perhaps shocking for those who only followed the Movimiento piecemeal in the newspaper accounts of the Albuquerque Journal, the Santa Fé New Mexican, the Taos News, the Las Vegas Daily Optic, the Río Grande Sun or the Alamogordo Daily News. He does a brutally frank, take no prisoners, anlysis of the successes and failures of the movimiento and the who's, whys and wherefores of these successes and failures. This book is a must read for serious students of the Chicano Movement and an interesting read for those who want to know more about the struggle of the Chicano (also called "Mexican American" or "Hispanic") people for equality and self determination under the largest and broadest organization of the Chicano Movement. Some will take issue with or be shocked by Dr. Navarro's political philosophy and ideology, and this reviewer as a participant in the Chicano Movement at all levels, had his points of difference with the author. But, as Dr. Rodolfo Acuña once told this reviewer, "Armando is a builder," and he is indeed trying to build a better future, not only for Chicanos, but for all of "los de abajo" and for everyone, because as the reknown Brazilian educator Paulo Freire once said, "in order to liberate the oppressed, you must also liberate his oppressor."
BOOK REVIEW NUMBER 2
"The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico"
Edited by Dr. Erlinda Gonzales Berry and Dr. David R.Maciel.
University of New Mexico Press, Alburquerque, New Mexico
ISBN #: 0-8263-2199-2"The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico" presents a different portrait of New Mexico, its people and its history from what Anglo historians, political scientists, sociologists and commentators have depicted over the 152 years plus that Anglos have had contact with the native and indigenous Indohispano population of New Mexico. On occasion, of course, we have written our own version of events in New Mexico in works such as Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá's epic poem "Historia de la Nueva México" (1610) and Don Benjamín Read's "Guerra Mexico Americana" (1910) and "Historia Ilustrada de Nuevo México" (1911), and more recently, focus books have been written by Neomexicanos on the Penitentes (Dr. Marta Weigle), The land grants (Dr.Anselmo Arellano), New Mexican Hispano Newspapers and personalities (Dr. Anselmo Arellano & Dr. A. Gabriel Meléndez) or fictionalized History (Dr. Daniel Ulibarrí) and various others. Previously, the field had been dominated by the likes of Ralph Emerson Twitchell, Thomas C. Donneley, Calvin Horn, Mark Simmons, and other Anglo historians who have interpreted our history for us.
":The Contested Homeland" is an effort to provide an alternative history of New Mexico's Indohispanos from the time of United State's invasion of New Mexico in 1845 until the present. This is achieved through a series of chapters by a number of Chicano scholars starting with Carlos R. Herrera, a lecturer in the Department of History at San Diego State University relating the Neomexicano perspective of the US/Mexico War and the not so bloodless conquest of New Mexico. Dr. Martín Gonzales de la Vara, an Assistant Professor at Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez and Research Professor at Colegio de la Frontera Norte provides a study of the Neomexico who relocated or attempted relocate to what was left of Mexico after the United States severed it northern territories from it.
Dr. Anselmo Arellano, a native of Springer and former Professor of History and Chicano Studies at New Mexico Highlands University and current Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Luna Vocational Technical Institute at Las Vegas, New Mexico reviews the "People's Movement," the first multifaceted "Movimiento" in New Mexico for justice and equality for the Neomexicanos which had an armed resistance aspect, "Las Gorras Blancas," a political aspect, the "Partido del Pueblo Unido," a labor movement, the Mexican chapters of the "Knights of Labor" and a newspaper, "La Voz del Pueblo." It was head by an intelligentsia such as Don Félix Martínez, Don Ezequiel C'de Baca, later to be governor, Don Octaviano Larrazolo, also later a governor and politicos, land grant heirs, penitentes, and even Anglos made up part of the "Movimiento."
Dr. John Nieto Phillips, an Assistant Professor of History at New Mexico State University begins the Neomexicano's status in the 20th Century when he covers the issues of the "Spanish American Ethnic Identity and New Mexico's Statehood Struggle" by reviewing the Anglo prejudice against the Neomexicano and how it affected the loss of the land grants and New Mexico's denial of statehood for many years. He covers the Neomexicanos' response to defend their honor and their ability to be equal to the Anglo in all aspects of U.S. citizenship and institutional participation despite the racism and disposession encountered by the Neomexicanos in their attempt to fully exercise their rights as citizens as guaranteed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Dr. Gabriel Meléndez, a native of Mora Interim Chairman of the Department of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, subtitles his article "Creating a State from an Ancestral Homeland" and discusses how Neomexicanos had solidified New Mexico's "old" idenity even after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and how Neomexicanos, because we held power from the very beginning of the Anglo colonization, worked to mold New Mexico in our own image despite hostile attempts by the Anglo community to wrest our homelands from us.
Dr. Elinda Gonzales Berry, from Roy New Mexico and former Chairwoman of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of New Mexico, writes about the issue of language and public education in her chapter titled "Which Language Will Our Children Speak?: The Spanish Language and Public Education Policy in New Mexico." She reviews the struggle to maintain the Spanish language despite the Anglos' efforts to attain cultural hegemony. She discusses how New Mexico's Hispano leaders and delegates to the Constitutional Convention included Spanish and how New Mexico's rural character and it Hispano and Hispana teachers helped to preserve the Spanish language. Later however, the predominance of Anglo teachers and administrators caused English to be force fed to New Mexico's youth and punishment for speaking Spanish in school.
Dr. Maurilio Vigil, Professor Emeritus from New Mexico Highlands University discusses the ever increasing role in New Mexico politics as they fought and finessed their way into positions of power because they had in fact had rights equal to men under the Spanish and Mexican government. When confronted with the exclusion and hostility of the Anglos, they reacted and acted to defend their rights by running for elected and appointed office, by being active in the suffrage movement and organizing in clubs and organizations as well as distributing literature. Dr. Vigil highlights Aurora Lucero and Adelina Otero-Warren and Soledad Chávez Chacón as three of the early Hispanas who broke ground for their sisters who came after them, such as Rebecca Vigil Girón, Petra Jiménez Maes, Gloria Tristani and Debbie Jaramillo. María Rosa García Acevedo, Assistant Professor of Political Science in the History Department at Imperial Valley Junior College reviews the entry of the Mexicanos from present day Mexico into New Mexico, especially into the southern part of the state, but also into northern New Mexico, "Little Texas" and northwestern New Mexico. She discusses their difficult conditions and their "invisibility" among New Mexico's nativos. She discusses their role in the labor unions, such as "La Liga Obrera de Habla Española," and the Mexican culture they brought to New Mexico such as holidays, traditions and foods and the leadership they have provided (i.e. Governor Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo was born in Sonora, Mexico and brought to New Mexico by Father Salpointe).
Benny J. Andrés, Assistant Professor in the History Department at Imperial Valley Junior College, reviews "The Transformation of A(n) Hispano Village from the 1880's to the 1950's and describes the changes "La Plaza Vieja," the original Villa de Alburquerque was transformed over the years via the migrations and comings and goings of the different groups who frequented and lived in "Old Town." He describes the Hispano landscape of commerce, people, establishments and organizations and how they interacted with "New Town," the Anglo sector which followed the railroad. He describes the San Felipe de Neri Church and its fiestas, the Prohibition era, gambling, feuds, the great depression and the politics and politicos which made up Alburquerque. Andrés reviews Alburquerque's explosive growth as the economic center of the state and the role of the Hispanos in the growth and leadership in the city.
The last chapter, "La Reconquista" was written by Dr. David Maciel, former Professor of History at the University of New Mexico and now Professor of History and Chairman of Chicano Studies at California State University at Dominguez Hills and the reviewer. The chapter reviews the rise of the Chicano Movement in New Mexico after the time the Chicano fraternity AZI and its concommitant sororities took control of student government at New Mexico Highlands University in the 1940's, 50's and early 60's. It starts with Reies López Tijerina and the Alianza Federal de Mercedes and progresses to the formation, rise and decline of the Partido de la Raza Unida and its organizing activities in New Mexico. Maciel and the reviwer discuss founding United Mexican American Students at the University of New Mexico and the Black Berets in Alburquerque. The article discusses the aspects organizations of the Movimiento all around New Mexico, such as the community organizations in Río Arriba, Santa Fé, Portales, Roswell, Silver City and the role of the "Movimiento" in labor organizing, the anti Viêtnam war movement and street theater. Chicano Studies at UNM, Highlands, ENMU and WNMU came about because of the lack of Chicano courses and content at the universities and these were promoted by the Chicano Student Organizations and the few Chicano faculty on the campuses. While the "Movimiento" in New Mexico declined, the ideas were sustained by the Chicano writers, and because of the discrimination taking place in public and private institutions, the "Movimiento" is on the rise again, and the Chicano activists are now in the "mainstream" trying to bring to fruition the aspirations and goals of the Chicano Movement for parity and self determination.
The prologue and intermediate narratives by the editors, Dr. Gonzales Berry and Dr. Maciel, link together the "phases" or "aspects" of New Mexico's Chicano history and give the text continuity and cohesion which makes the history flow and connect to Neomexicano's experience since before the U.S./Mexico War to the present. For the student of New Mexico's Indohispano history, this is an invaluable addition to their collection of "topical texts" by New Mexico's Indohispano/Chicano Historians and provides a great deal of "I did not know that" and "Aha" information about New Mexico's Chicano history, because there is a great deal of new information and research here not found in most other histories of New Mexico, especially those written by Anglo Historians.
