Julie M. Weise

Corazon de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910 - The David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History Julie M. Weise

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; When Latino migration to the U. S. South became increasingly visible in the 1990s, observers and advocates grasped for ways to analyze new racial dramas in the absence of historical reference points. However, as this book is the first to comprehensively document, Mexicans and Mexican Americans have a long history of migration to the U. S. South. Corazon de Dixie recounts the untold histories of Mexicanos' migrations to New Orleans, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina as far back as 1910. It follows Mexicanos into the heart of Dixie, where they navigated the Jim Crow system, cultivated community in the cotton fields, purposefully appealed for help to the Mexican government, shaped the southern conservative imagination in the wake of the civil rights movement, and embraced their own version of suburban living at the turn of the twenty-first century--; Provided by publisher."Commendation Quotes: "Corazon de Dixie" offers a nuanced understanding of the South, newly illuminating how race worked on the ground from the vantage point of Mexicans and Mexican Americans who labored and lived in the region. Julie Weise successfully makes big claims about the past and its implications for the present and the future.--Laurie Green, University of Texas at Austin Commendation Quotes: Based on extensive research, Julie Weise's book presents compelling new analyses of Mexican immigration and racial formation. "Corazon de Dixie" engages key scholarly debates, and the author's clear, elegant writing style makes the book a pleasure to read for academics and beyond.--Mary Odem, Emory University Commendation Quotes: "By extending borderlands historiography to include the South, Weise sheds light on a little-studied facet of Mexican immigration in the United States., powerfully demonstrating how our concepts of race are inevitably shaped by region, history, and community. "Corazon de Dixie" expands the scope of borderland studies and establishes a foundation that scholars will build upon for years.--Natalia Molina, University of California at San Diego Commendation Quotes: "In this innovative study of five different urban, rural, and exurban regions of the Mexican transnational U. S. South, Weise explores how "southern distinctiveness," viewed from the Mexican perspective, offered opportunities locally for Mexicans to negotiate their racial place and space in a region where, in contrast to Texas and the Southwest, racial notions of Mexicans were less entrenched. Based on numerous interviews and a broad range of primary documents, Corazon de Dixie tells the stories of Mexicans in the Deep South in a compelling and deeply engaging narrative of this newest immigrant group to states like Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.--Neil Foley, author of Mexicans in the Making of America Publisher Marketing: When Latino migration to the U. S. South became increasingly visible in the 1990s, observers and advocates grasped for ways to analyze "new" racial dramas in the absence of historical reference points. However, as this book is the first to comprehensively document, Mexicans and Mexican Americans have a long history of migration to the U. S. South. "Corazon de Dixie" recounts the untold histories of Mexicanos' migrations to New Orleans, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina as far back as 1910. It follows Mexicanos into the heart of Dixie, where they navigated the Jim Crow system, cultivated community in the cotton fields, purposefully appealed for help to the Mexican government, shaped the southern conservative imagination in the wake of the civil rights movement, and embraced their own version of suburban living at the turn of the twenty-first century. Rooted in U. S. and Mexican archival research, oral history interviews, and family photographs, "Corazon de Dixie" unearths not just the facts of Mexicanos' long-standing presence in the U. S. South but also their own expectations, strategies, and dreams.