Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910

David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History

by Julie M. Weise

When Latino migration to the U.S. South became increasingly visible in the 1990s, observers and advocates grasped for ways to analyze "new" racial dramas in the absence of historical reference points. However, as this book is the first to comprehensively document, Mexicans and Mexican Americans have a long history of migration to the U.S. South. Corazon de Dixie recounts the untold histories of Mexicanos' migrations to New Orleans, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina as far back as 1910. It follows Mexicanos into the heart of Dixie, where they navigated the Jim Crow system, cultivated community in the cotton fields, purposefully appealed for help to the Mexican government, shaped the southern conservative imagination in the wake of the civil rights movement, and embraced their own version of suburban living at the turn of the twenty-first century.Rooted in U.S. and Mexican archival research, oral history interviews, and family photographs, Corazon de Dixie unearths not just the facts of Mexicanos' long-standing presence in the U.S. South but also their own expectations, strategies, and dreams.

Genres: History, Grad School

360 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jonah James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weise does well when describing past attitudes towards Mexican immigrants and the book looks at a period and place in history that is seldom written about. That is pretty much the only good thing I can say about the book. Where it falls apart is the logical leaps it makes to color any view of race that is not progressive as motivated by racism. The author often attributes bad motives to people with little to no evidence to back it up. Weise's attempts to explain the shifting relationship between Mexico and America are singular in focus on the vague specter of neoliberalism and globalization.

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on Mexicanos in the South.

[Mike Emett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Required reading for the "Latin American History" graduate seminar.