Publications

Dr. Samora collaborated on five books and he wrote many journal articles. The books, La Raza, Forgotten Americans (1966), Mexican Americans in the Southwest (Galarza, Gallegos, Samora, 1969), Los Mojados: The Wetback Story (1971), Gunpowder Justice: A Reassessment of the Texas Rangers (Samora, Bernal, Pena, 1979) and A History of the Mexican American People (Samora, Simon, 1993). There is a photo of each of the books and the accompanying text from the flyleaf.

Book reviews from the time period are posted.

Some of Dr. Samora’s journal articles and speeches are posted. More will be posted as they are scanned and become available.

La Raza: Forgotten Americans

Today in five Southwestern states there are more than four million Spanish speaking Americans.

It is the largest ethnic group in the five-state area of California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado and one of the largest minority groups in the United States. The action potential of this group is so great that area politicians refer to it as the “sleeping giant.”

The purpose of this book is to bring together a summary of material about this group on the related subjects of religion, political activity, civil rights, and the emerging middle class. This compilation attempts a general assessment of the current status of the Spanish-speaking people of the South- west and implication of their future growth and development.

The circumstances of history formed this minority. The colonizing efforts of Spain in North and South America, the mission chains, Indian resistance, the assimilation of the conquerors, the open Mexican Border, and the elements of resistance and aggression were so strongly persistent that sixteenth- century Spain and modern Mexico survive today in the Southwest. Isolation was geographic as well as ethnic, and the mainstream of Anglo-American political thought and historical evolution bypasses this part of the world. Through the Mexican War the United States acquired a substantial part of Mexican territory. Although the Spanish- speaking people have gone through a triple integration of Spanish, Mexican, and United States citizenship, they have remained essentially Spanish-Mexican and are still in many instances highly resistant to complete acculturation.

The plan of presentation in this study includes the areas of history, church participation, labor problems, living conditions, education, civil rights status, and the difficulty minority groups encounter in participating in the politics of a dominant society.

In this research on one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States today, past, present, and future are thoroughly examined and the conclusion is one of current activity and future development. The results of this study indicate that the Spanish-speaking people are achieving a new sophistication in terms of education, the labor market, action programs, minority status, and language.

Contributors are Julian Samora, head of the Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, George I. Sanchez, University of Texas, Rev. John A. Wagner, executive secretary of the National Catholic Council for Spanish-Speaking People, John R. Mar- tinez, Arizona State University, Rev. Wil liam E. Scholes, western field director of the National Council of the Churches of Christ, Lawrence B. Click, United States Commission on Civil Rights, Paul M, Sheldon, Occidental College, Donald N. Barrett, University of Notre Dame, Lyle Saunders, associate, population program of the Ford Foundation, and Herman Gallegos, director of the Hunter’s Point Youth Opportunity Center in San Francisco.

Buy Now-La Raza: Forgotten Americans can be ordered from Amazon

MEXICAN-AMERICANS IN THE SOUTHWEST

All of the authors are widely recognized authorities in Mexican-American affairs. They have served as consultants to government and private institutions and are active in Mexican-America community organizations.

Ernesto Galarza is a teacher, editor, university lecturer, and labor organizer. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University, and is the author of several books and reports dealing with Latin- American affairs. His book, Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story, is currently being used in colleges and universities as a required text in Sociology, Economics, History and Mexican-American Studies courses.

Herman Gallegos is executive director of the Southwest Council of La Raza. He has an M.A. degree in social work, and is active in the Mission district Of his home city of San Francisco, where he has been instrumental in forming a coalition of minority groups for political and social action.

Julian Samora is a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He took his Ph.D. degree in Sociology and Anthropology, and has done extensive research on subjects concerning the Spanish-speaking people of the United States. His work has been widely published in scholarly books
and journals.

The result of a two-year study, this book surveys the effects of farm mechanization, urban redevelopment, population squeeze, and other root causes of upheaval on Mexican-American communities in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Tracing the immigration movement from its origins in rural Mexico, the authors assess the current economic, political, cultural, and educational status of the Spanish-speaking people of the Southwest and project the form and direction of growth of the nation’s second- largest minority.

LOS MOJADOS: THE WETBACK STORY

Los Mojados- A Wetback Story Review

Each year a movement of hundreds of thousands of people takes place from Mexico to the United States, a unique phenomenon.

Professor Samora presents an outline of this problem as he approaches it from many angles.
The experience of a researcher in crossing the United States border as a
“wetback” highlights the human dimensions involved and verifies the
conditions and feelings of thousands in this traffic of humans. In “Through
the Eyes of a Wetback-A Personal Experience” the swim across the Rio
Grande, capture by ranchers and the Border Patrol, and detention and return to Mexico are related along with the comradeship found with other wetbacks and the situations encountered. It becomes quickly apparent that this movement of people is a problem as its various and far-reaching
implications are explored. It is costly to the American taxpayer, as a vast array of officials and officers of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, together with the necessary support equipment and facilities, try to cope with the tide of wetbacks. These illegal aliens create a series of problems in communities where they live, involving housing, public health,
welfare, delinquency and crime among others. They are a threat to American labor, especially in agriculture, and are an obstacle to unionization and collective bargaining.

Yet the wetbacks are a source of enormous profit to those who employ them and exploit them for their labor. And the smugglers enjoy a most lucrative business.

In his examination of the many factors involved, Professor Samora first
provides the reader with the historical background of the region, including
the bracero program and the commuter situation, in order to place the
wetback story in its proper perspective.

A profile of the wetback is given, along with the reasons why he plays the
game. The range and extent of this illegal traffic in human beings, the
type of work wetbacks perform, and their living conditions while being
outside of a society they work within are revealed against the grandiose
expectations of the wetbacks.

Julian Samora is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and he is director of the US-Mexico Border Studies Project at the University of Notre Dame. He is the editor of La Raza, Forgotten Americans.

GUNPOWDER JUSTICE: A REASSESSMENT OF THE TEXAS RANGERS

Julian Samora, Joe Bernal, and Albert Pena

Gunpowder_Balderrama

Gunpowder_Bodenhamer

Gunpowder Justice- A Reassessment of the Texas Rangers

Gunpowder Justice Review

Since their establishment over a century and a half ago the Texas Rangers have been portrayed as heroic figures in American folklore, yet the myths and legends of the Rangers mask historical facts, generally unpublicized outside of Texas, that tarnish their popular image as defenders of law and order.
This reassessment of the Rangers attempts to separate fact from fiction and update their history in light of their recent activities.

The authors show how the Rangers, originally assigned to protect the frontier from Indian and Mexican raiders, lost their rationale for existence by 1881. They then became a statewide law enforcement agency whose ruthlessness, corruption, and political patronage led to their reorganization in 1935 and the sharing of their police powers with the Texas Highway Patrol. The Rangers have continued as a conservative and elite group, interfering with the rights of Mexican-American voters and picketing farm workers in the 1960s and 70s. In light of the Rangers’ frequent violations of civil liberties and because their powers are duplicated by other law enforcement agencies, the authors recommend that the Texas Rangers be abolished, made more accountable for their actions, or limited to ceremonial functions.

Julian Samora is a professor of sociology and anthropology and director of the Mexican-American studies program at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Los Mojados: The Wetback Story, co-author of A History of the Mexican -American People, and editor of La Raza: Forgotten Americans. Joe Bernal is a regional director of Action. He is a former Texas state senator who authored the first minimum wage law in that state. Albert Pena, a political activist who has held public office for many years, is now a municipal judge in San Antonio.

A HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN PEOPLE

Julian Samora and Patricia Vandel Simon

History Of Mexican American People Review

When A History of the Mexican-American People was first published in 1977 it was greeted with enthusiasm for its straightforward objective account of the Mexican-American role in U.S. history. Since that time the text has been used with great success in high school and university courses such as United States History, Chicano History, and the history of the American southwest.
The opening section covers the years of exploration and northward expansion into what is the present-day United States. The book then scans the North American continent in the 19th century, highlighting Mexico’s achievement of independence from Spain and consequent loss of its northernmost territories to the United States. Samora examines the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War, U.S. violations of the treaty, and contemporary repercussions. The third part of the book evaluates the impact of the Mexican Revolution on both sides of the border and the effect of mass migrations from Mexico.
Samora then tackles the complex and decisive events from the mid-1950s through the present such as the problems of transition from rural to urban life, the question of discrimination, and the search for civil rights. This new edition contains a revised chapter on Chicano contributions to art, literature, music, and theater, and a completely new chapter on the religious life of Mexican-Americans. An extensive bibliography of Chicano literature covering the past 50 years is also included.

Most of these books are currently out of print, but can be purchased through Alibris