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About this item
Highlights
- Company town.
- About the Author: Monica Perales is associate professor of history at the University of Houston.
- 352 Pages
- History, United States
Description
About the Book
Traces the history of Smeltertown, Texas, a city located on the banks of the Rio Grande that was home to generations of ethnic Mexicans who worked at the American Smelting and Refining Company in El Paso, Texas, with information from newspapers, personal archives, photographs, employee records, parish newsletters, and interviews.Book Synopsis
Company town. Blighted community. Beloved home. Nestled on the banks of the Rio Grande, at the heart of a railroad, mining, and smelting empire, Smeltertown -- La Esmelda, as its residents called it -- was home to generations of ethnic Mexicans who labored at the American Smelting and Refining Company in El Paso, Texas.Using newspapers, personal archives, photographs, employee records, parish newsletters, and interviews with former residents, including her own relatives, Monica Perales unearths the history of this forgotten community. Spanning almost a century, Smeltertown traces the birth, growth, and ultimate demise of a working class community in the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border and places ethnic Mexicans at the center of transnational capitalism and the making of the urban West. Perales shows that Smeltertown was composed of multiple real and imagined social worlds created by the company, the church, the schools, and the residents themselves. Within these dynamic social worlds, residents forged permanence and meaning in the shadow of the smelter's giant smokestacks. Smeltertown provides insight into how people and places invent and reinvent themselves and illuminates a vibrant community grappling with its own sense of itself and its place in history and collective memory.
Review Quotes
"Smeltertown is an engaging exploration of the intersections of globalization and transnationalism." -- The Journal of American History
"Smeltertown is an important contribution to the growing body of research in Mexican American, gender, and social history." -- Journal of Southern History
"A significant contribution to our understanding of Chicana/o and labor history. . . . Aside from being thoroughly researched, Perales's book is excellently composed. . . . It will be of use to labor, gender, environmental, and social historians." -- Southwestern Historical Quarterly
"Highly recommended." -- Southern Historian
"Historian [Perales] chronicles [the] birth, growth, and death of her family's neighborhood. . . . [in] the first in-depth book about Smeltertown." -- El Paso Times
"In addition to telling the story of the birth, life, and demise of a vibrant community, Smeltertown provides valuable insights." -- Humanities Texas
"Not just a narrative history . . . but also a look at how the community was created by Anglos and Hispanics, citizens and immigrants, rich and poor. . . . This well-researched and well-documented work would be a good addition for academic libraries, especially collections related to borderlands studies or labor issues." -- Library Journal
"Perales chronicle[s] the journey of Mexican-Americans and their role in the industrialization and globalization of a small community near El Paso. Her book . . . tells their story where families thrived and business excelled." -- Houston Chronicle
About the Author
Monica Perales is associate professor of history at the University of Houston.Dimensions (Overall): 9.22 Inches (H) x 6.18 Inches (W) x .83 Inches (D)
Weight: 1.15 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 352
Genre: History
Sub-Genre: United States
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Theme: State & Local, West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
Format: Paperback
Author: Monica Perales
Language: English
Street Date: September 13, 2010
TCIN: 1001921460
UPC: 9780807871461
Item Number (DPCI): 247-17-7411
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 0.83 inches length x 6.18 inches width x 9.22 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 1.15 pounds
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