Synopses & Reviews
"A thorough treatment of Tejano ethnic identity and race relations. . . . A great aid for those teaching histories of the American south-west, and a good fit as a required text for upper division and graduate seminars in Chicana/o history and the history of the West."
--Social History "Ramos deserves commendation for simplifying a complicated tale."
-- Pacific Historical Review "Clearly written and thoroughly researched . . . not only a significant addition to scholarship on Chicano/a history, immigration, and nationalism, but also a work accessible to academics and students alike."
-- Canadian Journal of History "Contribute[s] significantly to Mexican-American history, by providing a fuller understanding of the important transition from the Spanish to American periods."
-- Southwestern Historical Quarterly "An interesting and readable contribution to the discussion of identity formation in borderlands and Texas history from a Tejano point of view."
--East Texas Historical Journal "Engaging and compelling. . . . A significant contribution to the study of race, ethnicity, and nation and deepen[s] our understanding of how Tejanos met the incredible challenges posed by manifest destiny and American economic transnationalism."
-The Journal of Southern History "Ramos perceptively notes that despite their subordinate status, Tejanos resisted the status quo and sustained a measure of political influence through the century."
--Journal of American History "Succeeds in 'bringing contemporary insight and relevance to the study of the past' and Texas history. . . . Recommended."
-Choice "Not only an argument for the transnational paradigm in identity studies but a sophisticated example of its use...[Ramos] succeeds in creating a new perspective of the Tejano identity."
-- The Western Historical Quarterly "Raúl Ramos makes an important contribution to the growing body of historical studies concerned with how the Mexican heritage population of the American Southwest met the challenges of Anglo-American ascendancy in the decades before the American Civil War."--Jesús F. de la Teja, State Historian of Texas, author of San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier "Ramos's approach to the histories of Texas, Mexico, the Borderlands, and the United States, as well as his ability to engage with, speak to, and cross between these fields, is refreshing and thought provoking. He uses the tools of these varying fields to recast the origins of Texas and bring to light the importance and intersection of race, nation, identity, and ethnicity, rendering them fluid categories rather than impenetrable, set notions that are fixed in time and space."--Ernesto Chávez, University of Texas at El Paso
Review
"Ral Ramos makes an important contribution to the growing body of historical studies concerned with how the Mexican heritage population of the American Southwest met the challenges of Anglo-American ascendancy in the decades before the American Civil War."--Jess F. de la Teja, State Historian of Texas, author of San Antonio de Bxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier
Review
"Succeeds in 'bringing contemporary insight and relevance to the study of the past' and Texas history. . . . Recommended."
-Choice
Review
"Ramos perceptively notes that despite their subordinate status, Tejanos resisted the status quo and sustained a measure of political influence through the century."
--Journal of American History
Review
"Not only an argument for the transnational paradigm in identity studies but a sophisticated example of its use...[Ramos] succeeds in creating a new perspective of the Tejano identity."
-- The Western Historical Quarterly
Review
"Ramos's approach to the histories of Texas, Mexico, the Borderlands, and the United States, as well as his ability to engage with, speak to, and cross between these fields, is refreshing and thought provoking. He uses the tools of these varying fields to recast the origins of Texas and bring to light the importance and intersection of race, nation, identity, and ethnicity, rendering them fluid categories rather than impenetrable, set notions that are fixed in time and space."--Ernesto Chvez, University of Texas at El Paso
Review
"Ramos's account of Bexareño society fits well with recent movements in historiography . . . .
Beyond the Alamo can help graduate and undergraduate students understand numerous historical topics and nuances of life in between two nations: the borderlands."
-H-Net Reviews
Synopsis
Introducing a new model for the transnational history of the United States, Ramos places Mexican Americans at the center of the Texas creation story. He focuses on Mexican-Texan, or Tejano, society in a period of political transition beginning with the year of Mexican independence. Ramos explores the factors that helped shape the ethnic identity of the Tejano population, including cross-cultural contacts between Bexareños, indigenous groups, and Anglo-Americans, as they negotiated the contingencies and pressures on the frontier of competing empires.
About the Author
Raul A. Ramos is assistant professor of history at the University of Houston.