Mexican Inclusion and Exclusion in Houston, Texas from 1900-1940

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dc.contributor.advisorSan Miguel, Guadalupe, Jr.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberZarnow, Leandra R.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberYoung, Nancy B.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberOrozco, Cynthia E.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberGoldberg, Mark Allan
dc.creatorContreras, Ramiro
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-15T22:33:30Z
dc.date.available2022-06-15T22:33:30Z
dc.date.createdDecember 2021
dc.date.issued2021-12
dc.date.submittedDecember 2021
dc.date.updated2022-06-15T22:33:31Z
dc.description.abstractInitial works on Houston provided homogenized interpretations of early twentieth century Mexicans as a monolithic, shared experience, grouping the entire population under a colonia label in a concentrated geographical area (Second Ward and Magnolia Park). These studies generalized the Mexican experience through a framework of exclusion from Anglo spaces between 1900-1940. Exclusion refers to the purposeful acts by Anglos designed to prohibit or limit individuals from participating in a targeted space through tactics of racism, discrimination, isolation, criminalization, exploitation, and/or marginalization. Later writings in the twenty-first century nuanced the historiography by examining the inclusion of Mexicans in social spaces by Anglos. Inclusion refers to instances when Mexicans participated, integrated, or were accepted into Anglo spaces. My study seeks to provide the first Houston monograph juxtaposing both inclusion and exclusion during these first four decades, demonstrating that experiences of Mexicans were heterogeneous. My study analyzes three spaces in Houston’s Progressive and Depression-eras: economic, learning, and social-cultural. In these spaces, I argue that intersecting dynamics shaped Mexican inclusion and exclusion. These dynamics include occupation, gender, class, language, nationality, citizenship, health, morality, residence, music, talent, race, and marital status. My dissertation demonstrates that the lived experiences of Mexicans were diverse. The varying degree of access and level of participation Mexicans faced makes clear that we cannot apply homogenizing generalizations or view the Mexican experience solely through racial exclusion. In this study, I made use of the latest digital technologies to reconstruct narratives. Using this technology, I searched online repositories such as The Portal to Texas History and GenealogyBank. Genealogical databases like Ancestry.com also provided extensive amounts of data. Cross-referencing keywords in such digital sources recovers previously unconsidered evidence. Because of this, my work has reconstructed messy and intricate accounts not previously studied. Filling this gulf, this dissertation reflects and contributes to the digital turn, particularly the recovery project Latino/a and Mexican American scholars are engaged in to tell local histories.
dc.description.departmentHistory, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10657/9193
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectHouston
dc.subjectMexican-American
dc.subjectChicano
dc.subjectChicana
dc.subjectHistory
dc.titleMexican Inclusion and Exclusion in Houston, Texas from 1900-1940
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentHistory, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplineHistory
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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