Política - by Phillip B Gonzales (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Poltica offers a revisionist history of the early political incorporation of Mexican-origin peoples into the U.S. body politic in the nineteenth century"--

Book Synopsis

Política offers a stunning revisionist understanding of the early political incorporation of Mexican-origin peoples into the U.S. body politic in the nineteenth century. Historical sociologist Phillip B. Gonzales reexamines the fundamental issue in New Mexico's history, namely, the dramatic shift in national identities initiated by Nuevomexicanos when their province became ruled by the United States.

Gonzales provides an insightful, rigorous, and controversial interpretation of how Nuevomexicano political competition was woven into the Democratic and Republican two-party system that emerged in the United States between the 1850s and 1912, when New Mexico became a state. Drawing on newly discovered archival and primary sources, he explores how Nuevomexicanos relied on a long tradition of political engagement and a preexisting republican disposition and practice to elaborate a dual-party political system mirroring the contours of U.S. national politics.

Política is a tour de force of political history in the nineteenth-century U.S.-Mexico borderlands that reinterprets colonization, reconstructs Euro-American and Nuevomexicano relations, and recasts the prevailing historical narrative of territorial expansion and incorporation in North American imperial history. Gonzales provides critical insights into several discrete historical processes, such as U.S. racialization and citizenship, integration and marginalization, accommodation and resistance, internal colonialism, and the long struggle for political inclusion in the borderlands, shedding light on debates taking place today over Latinos and U.S. citizenship.

Review Quotes

"Politica is an extremely valuable book and should be added to the library of any scholar who is serious about studying New Mexican history."--Michael J. Alarid, H-NewMexico

"Gonzales has produced a comprehensive discussion of politics in New Mexico and the linkages between territorial and national politics."--Evan C. Rothera, Civil War Book Review

"Gonzales offers us a fascinating glimpse into the yearnings and actions of New Mexico's politicos in the years following the United States' war with Mexico. Far from being mere victims of conquest, these politicos were astute agents of power who shaped the political system and pioneered Latino politics in the United States."--John Nieto-Phillips, author of The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish-American Identity in New Mexico, 1880s-1930s-- (3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM)

"This groundbreaking study of political activities in New Mexico during two decades before and after the Civil War reexamines the transition from Mexican to U.S. control. The result is a first-rate analysis that reinterprets colonization, reconstructs Euro-American and Nuevomexicano relations, and rewrites the prevailing historical narrative."--David V. Holtby, author of Forty-Seventh Star: New Mexico's Struggle for Statehood
-- (3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM)

"With the knowledge that this book focuses on the first thirty years of the American period of New Mexico history, historians will find Política a detailed and valuable contribution to our understanding of Nuevomexicanos that expands our horizons beyond the previous political histories of Americano leaders in this same era."--Cameron L. Saffell, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

About the Author

Phillip B. Gonzales is a professor of sociology and director of the School of Public Administration at the University of New Mexico. He is the editor and a contributing author of Expressing New Mexico: Nuevomexicano Creativity, Ritual, and Memory and the author of Forced Sacrifice as Ethnic Protest: The Hispano Cause in New Mexico and the Racial Attitude Confrontation of 1933.