Reading, Writing, and Revolution: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas

The first book on the history of escuelitas, Reading,Writing,and Revolution, examines the integral role these grassroots community schools played in shaping Mexican American identity. It traces how the proliferation and decline of these community schools helped shape Mexican American identity, situating the history of escuelitas within the contexts of modernization, progressivism, public education, the Mexican Revolution, and immigration. Philis M. Barragán Goetz argues that the history of escuelitas is not only a story of resistance in the face of Anglo hegemony but also a complex and nuanced chronicle of ethnic Mexican cultural negotiation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 27 September 2022
Publisher: University of Texas Press

The 2022 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Book Award was presented to Tejas Foco for their non-fiction book, "Reading, Writing, and Revolution: The History of Escuelitas in Mexican American Identity." This award recognizes the significant contributions of the book to the field of Chicana and Chicano studies. The book explores the role of grassroots community schools, known as escuelitas, in shaping Mexican American identity. Language has historically been a powerful tool for negotiating power in the United States, and in Texas, ethnic Mexicans' relationship to education, including their participation in escuelitas, played a crucial role in this process. The book traces the history of escuelitas within the contexts of modernization, progressivism, public education, the Mexican Revolution, and immigration. It argues that the history of escuelitas is not only a story of resistance against Anglo hegemony but also a complex and nuanced chronicle of ethnic Mexican cultural negotiation. The author, Philis M. Barragán Goetz, demonstrates how escuelitas emerged and thrived to meet a diverse set of unfulfilled needs, but later generations of Mexican Americans campaigned for educational integration. The book draws on extensive archival, genealogical, and oral history research to unravel a forgotten narrative at the crossroads of language, education, and race and identity.

Dimension: 229 x 152 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781477320921