Douglas Monroy. Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. ix + 322 pp. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-21332-6; $25.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-520-21333-3.

Reviewed by Natalia Molina (Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego)
Published on H-California (March, 2001)

Forging New Trajectories in Chicano/a History

Forging New Trajectories in Chicano/a History

Douglas Monroy's second book, Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression, presents five essays examining selected subjects, in an attempt to gain a clearer understanding of how Mexicans experienced early twentieth century Los Angeles. Through his five chapters, each independently written and then brought together in Rebirth, Monroy seeks to tell the stories of Mexican LA in rich and varied ways, and often time, succeeds.

Because the chapters are mainly self-contained, Rebirth does not follow a strict historical trajectory. The opening chapter tackles how Mexicans, a marginalized group in Los Angeles, became visible by building up the cultural landscape in all dimensions of their lives: work, leisure, religion, family, and popular culture. The following chapter explores the reasons for Mexican immigration to the United States. Scholars of Chicano/a Studies are most likely familiar with Monroy's next two chapters which are updated versions of his classic essays "Like Swallows to the Old Mission," and "Our Children Get So Different Here."

"Like Swallows to the Old Mission" examines how Mexicans' roles as marginalized laborers affected their positionality within the city. Monroy argues that Americanization programs were a way of exerting industrial control over workers, as well as means to exercise social control (146). In the following chapter, Monroy moves outside of the arena of work in order to unpack the processes of forming a syncretic culture in his chapter entitled "Our Children Get So Different Here." Monroy discusses how while the home could serve as a refuge from the outside world, it was also a site of generational conflict as younger Mexican Americans delved into popular culture. In his concluding chapter, Monroy discusses how Mexicans attempted to recreate a sense of home, el Mexico de Afuera, in Los Angeles and resisted their marginalized positions by mobilizing as workers.

Monroy offers a gracious nod to the works of Chicana/o historians, both predecessors and colleagues, with whom he is in conversation in Rebirth. However, Monroy employs subtle strategies to depart from a narrative that other historians have argued, a narrative that indicates progress for Chicanos by World War II. By positioning his chapter "El Mexico de Afuera" as his last chapter and in his innovative conclusion (discussed later), Monroy promotes a narrative of reaffirmed nationalist ties to Mexico through the 1930s.

Monroy's writing blends traditional historical methodology and cultural studies analysis. He draws upon ideological and institutional forces in order to shed light on Mexicans' experiences in Los Angeles. In some chapters and sections, Monroy writes more like a social historian, staying very close to his sources, telling the story from the "bottom-up," oftentimes providing new foundations upon which future scholars can build. This methodology can be seen in the discussions of Mexicans' position in the secondary labor market, unionization, responses of parents and children to popular culture, and Mexicans' retorts to Americanization efforts.

Monroy is at his best as a cultural historian, displaying his ability to read events as a text, sometimes juxtaposing one historical moment with another to advance his argument. For example, Monroy posits that in the early twentieth century, city elites strove to project an image of Los Angeles that buried its ethnic roots. This new image erased both Californio history and the horrors of Native American genocide in California, leaving the impression Mexicans had only recently arrived in the United States, while at the same time, inventing a romanticized Spanish past.

Monroy juxtaposes two events, Fiesta Days and the Railroad Workers' Strike to shed light on this process. The Fiesta Days commemorated a romanticized version of LA's history through celebrations and parades, complete with decorated floats. Just prior to this gala event, Mexican railroad construction workers went on strike, demanding a living wage, which their employers refused. Responses to Mexican workers' demands punctuated Mexicans' disenfranchisement. The juxtaposition highlights how ethnicity could play a central part in the projected image of Los Angeles while in reality, ethnic communities remained relegated to the periphery. Monroy returns to the parade float at the end of his book to demonstrate the evolvable meaning of the ethnic label "Mexican" by 1944. The float no longer emphasized a Spanish past, but instead embraced both a Mexican and American fusion. The words "E Pluribus Unum" adorned the front of the float.

Monroy also sheds light upon the processes of ethnic formation, but before turning to the subject of becoming Mexican-American, Monroy reminds us that for immigrants, regional identity first had to be transcended in order to become Mexican. Utilizing sports as a means to understand national identity formation, Monroy argues that by cheering and supporting pan-Mexican boxers, for example, Mexican men identified with the boxers, despite regional differences, and transcended their regional identities and "[saw] themselves more and more as Mexicans" (59). Monroy identifies similar processes at play in the sport of baseball. Mexicans played on teams whose names emphasized national identity, not regional. They competed against other teams whose names also reflected their country of origin and thus, much of the loyalty to a team and competition between teams inscribed feelings of nationalism.

While Monroy paints a vibrant picture of Chicano/a Los Angeles, he often folds together historical analysis with sweeping cultural theory. For example, in his examination of acculturation, he focuses on generational conflict. Monroy examines how immigrant families had to cope with many changes, underscored by their marginalized positions in the work force. He argues that in Los Angeles, "Individualized wage labor replaced the family economy and broke connections between production and family. This dynamic delegitimized patriarchal authority and individualized wages, [encouraging] the desire and ability of young people to make their own choice about such matters" (184). Monroy's well-researched study of Mexican men's positions as laborers, as well as his extensive documentation regarding how younger Mexicans experienced their entrance into the public sphere as workers and consumers supports his argument.

Less persuasive is Monroy's argument that to better understand these generational conflicts within immigrant families, we should turn to a psychological profile of Mexican fathers. He posits that parents, but particularly fathers, carried emotional baggage stemming from their childhood when their parents repressed their aspirations, and thus fathers repeat the cycle with their children. While Monroy attributes his theory to a Mexican ideology of honor and respect in the family, the psychoanalytic reading appears forced upon his historical subjects. In another example, specifically focusing on the Virgin of Guadalupe as a symbol of Mexican nationalism, Monroy discusses the Catholic Church to demonstrate how Mexicans established their mark upon LA's cultural landscape though institutions. He uses a rich example of a procession in honor of the Virgin Mary, skillfully revealing the politics behind the procession by examining the different interests and players involved, from exiled Mexican Catholics to gringo foreign investors.

In his analysis, Monroy clearly illustrates the intersections of politics, religion, and culture. But at other times, the analysis of the Virgin Mary seems more psychoanalytic and does not further our understanding of the historical time period. For example, Monroy discusses the Virgin Mary as a national symbol associated with people's emotional yearnings, which he "suspects" men and women related to differently (55). According to Monroy, men associated the Virgin Mary with their own mother, which they found comforting, especially after they "[lost] the love of their mothers once they had to join the macho world of male society" (55). Women, in turn, sought comfort in the Virgin Mary, with whom they could identify, as they were all women, and thus nurturers. Clearly, Monroy is attempting to paint a vivid picture of how religion could have comforted marginalized immigrants in a new city, but his analysis reduces motive to static gendered desires.

I am not criticizing Monroy for his use of interdisciplinary methodology. Certainly, more discipline-bounded historians could learn from Monroy. But, we also need to be cautious in how we apply theory to interpret the lives of historical subjects.

Indeed, Monroy does provide a very interesting approach to thinking about historical subjects and agency in his final chapter. Monroy concludes his narrative by writing two competing historical trajectories. His conclusion is not like those novels where one chooses his/her own adventure, but much more sophisticated and post modern. This approach undermines the need to provide an encompassing meta-narrative and therefore allows more room for different historical interpretations. Ultimately, strategies such as this, weaved in throughout Monroy's rich narrative, provide new directions for scholars and students alike to understand, re-envision, and imagine early twentieth century Chicano/a Los Angeles.

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Citation: Natalia Molina. Review of Monroy, Douglas, Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression. H-California, H-Net Reviews. March, 2001.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5027

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