Los Dos Mundos: Rural Mexican Americans, Another America

603 Pages·1995·1.65 MB·English

by  Richard Baker

Los Dos Mundos : Rural Mexican
title:
Americans, Another America
author: Baker, Richard.
publisher: Utah State University Press
isbn10 | asin:
print isbn13: 9780874211849
ebook isbn13: 9780585024288
language: English
Mexican Americans--Idaho--Social
subject
conditions, Idaho--Social conditions.
publication date: 1995
lcc: F755.M5B34 1995eb
ddc: 305.868720796
Mexican Americans--Idaho--Social
subject: conditions, Idaho--Social conditions.
Los Dos Mundos
Rural Mexican Americans,
Another America
Page ii
Photo by Richard Baker
Ninety-three-year-old Jesuscita Salazar enjoying a Cinco
de Mayo celebration.
Page iii
Los Dos Mundos
Rural Mexican Americans, Another America
Richard Baker
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Logan, Utah
1995
Page iv
To Estella Zamora, a quintessential grass roots leader who
works tirelessly on behalf of the Mexican American community.
Her commitment and dedication redefined the concept of
citizenship for me.
Copyright © 1995 Utah State University Press
All rights reserved
Utah State University Press
Logan, Utah 84322-7800
1098765432 97989900
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, Richard, 1941 Nov. 27-
Los dos mundos: rural Mexican Americans, another America / by
Richard Baker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87421-184-0
1. Mexican AmericansIdahoSocial conditions. 2. IdahoSocial
conditions. I. Title.
F755.M5B34 1994
305.868720796dc20 94-28073
CIP

Page v
CONTENTS
Preface vii
1.Overview of Field Research and Theoretical Models 1
2.The Anglo Community of Middlewest 23
3.Mexican American Culture and Daily Life 57
4.Mexican American Leaders Defend Their Culture and 93
People
5.The Anglo Working Class and Anglo Farmers 119
6.Permanent Working Class Mexican Americans 143
7.Mexican American Migrant Workers 161
8.Institutionalized Racism as Part of the Exploitive Model193
9.The Education Institution 235
10.Conclusions and Recommendations 263
Bibliography 273
Index 283
Photo courtesy Boise State University News Service
A folk dance as performed by Maria Elena Pantoja.
Page vii
PREFACE
In Small Town in Mass Society (1968), Vidich and Bensman advanced
the thesis that industrialism had progressed to the point where beliefs
and ways of life in the United States are becoming homogeneous
regardless of region or size of community. Therefore, since racial
attitudes may be quite similar in Middlewest, Boise, and elsewhere in
America, it is my view that this community study may be able to
inform the reader about the state of race relations in America. The
small-town setting of this study allows the reader to listen, as it were,
to how Anglos talk about a racial minority. Most Americans publicly
censor and monitor their thoughts on racial minorities, but Anglos in
Middlewest expressed openly what many Anglo Americans think.
Anglo administrators did not conceal their thoughts or hide behind the
cloak of "client confidentiality," but instead they candidly shared their
views and allowed me to examine and observe how the local social
institutions functioned. This study, then, allows for a comprehensive
examination of how institutionalized racism operates in American
society.
The essence of my discipline was revealed as I observed Anglos
invariably explain that they were not prejudiced; to them it was just a
plain and simple fact that Mexican Americans were consistently
abusing the welfare system and represented the criminal element in
their community. Through their social interaction with one another
and through the functioning of their social institutions, the Anglos had
created and were sustaining a social system that implied that Mexican
Americans are inferior to Anglos. This belief system had become a
self-fulfilling prophecy that relegated and maintained Mexican
Americans in a subordinate position in the community.
The Anglos of the study, for the most part, did not believe that their