Race and Class in the Southwest and Other Essays
Studies in Political Economy
Mario Barrera author William I Robinson editor Rodolfo Torres editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:24th Sep '25
£38.99
This title is due to be published on 24th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
In Race and Class in the Southwest and Other Essays, Mario Barrera puts forth his seminal theory of racial inequality based on a synthesis of class and colonial analysis together with several essays and selections from Barrera’s memoir that show how his thinking developed throughout his work.
Reprinted here for the first time after becoming a modern classic of Chicano studies, Race and Class in the Southwest focuses on the economic foundations of inequality as they have affected Chicanos in the Southwest from the Mexican-American War to the present. Barrera reviews the economic history of Chicanos, their relegation to a subordinate position in the labor force segmented along racial lines, their displacement from the land, the effects of waves of immigration from Mexico, the role of an emerging Chicano middle class, and state policies designed to reproduce the subordinate status of Chicanos. He reviews competing theories of racial inequality and concludes that an “internal colonialism” model that focuses on the institutional subordination of Chicanos offers the greatest explanatory value for understanding the political economy of Chicanos in the Southwest.
The Editors, Rodolfo Torres and William I. Robinson, provide both an important historical and contextual introduction to the work, as well as thorough annotation that brings the scholarship into contemporary conversation with further theoretical development and highlights Barrera's significant contribution to recent and new debates that reflect his legacy at a time of rising social inequalities, political conflict and mass migration into the United States from Latin America.
Praise for the first edition for Race And Class In The Southwest: Theories In Racial Inequality (1979)
“A path-breaking book and the first attempt at a political economy approach to Mexican American history. A work that hasn’t been as intelligently executed since Carey McWilliams’ North from Mexico. This is masterwork! Pues, I’m only a filmmaker, ese!”
Salvador Trevino, Award-winning Filmmaker
For the 2025 edition
“In this new and expanded edition of Race and Class in the Southwest and Other Essays: Studies in Political Economy,Torres and Robinson offer a new occasion and a timely set of reasons for us to return to Barrera’s seminal critique of political economy at a time when such intervention can raise questions about how democracy might go beyond the limits imposed on it by capitalism. An engagement more timely than ever.”
Antonia Darder, Professor Emerita, Loyola Marymount University , USA
"In this timely re-edition of Mario Barrera’s classic, Race and Class in the Southwest, Rodolfo D. Torres and William I. Robinson secure the author’s legacy by pairing his original book with other of the author’s representative pieces, including excerpts of his unpublished memoir. Couched in the history of Chicanes and Chicana/o Studies in the United States, Barrera’s expansive comparative historical rigor urgently calls on scholars of racial inequality to turn their analytical lens to class, capitalism, and labor to better understand twenty-first century fascism. The work’s prescient lessons about class segmentation and rageful racialization will inform a new generation of students and activists in our global contemporary moment."
Leisy J. Abrego, Professor at the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
"Now more than ever, Mario Barrera’s work is essential reading as the fault lines between race and class deepen, threatening to undo the gains Chicanos have made since the Civil Rights Movement. A pioneer in Chicano/a Studies, he worked to establish academic rigor in the discipline, always striving to understand the Chicano condition. This book stands as a testament to his work, his vision, and his hope that Chicanos would find their rightful place in the nation."
Enrique M. Buelna, author of Chicano Communists and The Struggle for Social Justice
ISBN: 9781032982878
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
432 pages