Desert Dreams - (Politics and Culture in Modern America) by Laura K Muñoz (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Desert Dreams offers a dynamic history of Mexican Americans in Arizona who demanded education as a civil right before and after statehood. From founding territorial schools to pursuing higher education, to suing to end "Mexican school" segregation, Mexican Americans integrated themselves into the civic polity by embracing a consciousness of equality and engagement"--

Book Synopsis

Desert Dreams chronicles seventy-five years of Mexican American efforts to attain educational equality in Arizona, from its territorial period in the nineteenth century to the post-World War II era. Laura K. Muñoz reveals how Arizona Mexicans, or Arizonenses, embraced the United States expecting that they would be treated as American citizens. Instead, Anglo Arizonans wrote laws and designed schools to transform Mexicans from "unassimilable immigrants" into "American workers" by restricting their education to the acquisition of fluency in English and mastery of basic domestic and industrial skills.

Arizonenses confronted these anti-Mexican attitudes by developing their own politics of educational equality. They founded public schools, served as school leaders, promoted Spanish and English bilingualism, and encouraged their children to pursue high school and college. From these efforts, a small cadre of Arizonenses obtained enough education to sustain a successful middle class, comprised of students, teachers, lawyers, and politicians who fought for Arizonense civil rights, especially the right to a good education. These efforts culminated in Romo v. Laird (1925), the earliest known school desegregation case filed in the state. Arizonenses also developed regional networks that brought them into conversation with Mexican Americans and allies in Southern California and across the borderlands.

As the first comprehensive social history of Mexican Americans in Arizona before 1960, Desert Dreams demonstrates that Arizonenses across generations engaged in vital political, legal, and educational debates about civil rights and subsequently gave rise to a national Mexican American political consciousness.

Review Quotes

"Focusing on Arizona from 1870 to 1940, Desert Dreams is a welcomed addition to foundational texts on Chicana/o education and more recent books on Latina/o teachers. . . .As such, it provides important correctives to an overlooked history of Mexican Americans' enduring struggles for quality education-making it a must-read for scholars of education, Chicana/o studies, Arizona, and the borderlands."-- "Western Historical Quarterly"

"An elegant, deeply researched narrative that places Mexican American educators, families, and local leaders at the forefront of efforts challenging segregated schooling. Across generations, they sought civic integration through education, not just as individuals, but as Arizonenses. Desert Dreams is the first monograph to address the lives and legacies of Mexican American teachers whose classrooms ranged from one-room shacks to imposing brick structures. With nuance, respect, y corazón, Laura K. Muñoz has crafted a milestone contribution in the history of education, Chicano/a history, and the borderlands."-- "Vicki L. Ruiz, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America"

About the Author

Laura K. Muñoz is Assistant Professor of History and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.