In The Other American Dilemma, Rubén Donato and Jarrod Hanson examine the experiences of Mexican immigrants, Mexican Americans, and Hispanos/as in their schools and communities between 1912 and 1953. Drawing from the Mexican Archives located in Mexico City and by venturing outside of the Southwest, their examinations of specific communities in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, and Texas shed new light on Mexicans' social and educational experiences. Donato and Hanson maintain that Mexicans—whether recent immigrants, American citizens, or Hispanos/as with deep roots in the United States—were not seen as true Americans and were subject to unofficial school segregation and Jim Crow. The book highlights similarities and differences between the ways the Mexican-origin population and African Americans were treated. Because of their mestizo heritage, the Mexican-origin population was seen as racially mixed and kept on the margins of community and school life by people in power.

Examines how Mexican Americans experienced "unofficial" Jim Crow inside and outside the American education system, and how they used the courts, Mexican Consul, and other resources to challenge that discrimination.

Critical Race Theory and Qualitative Methods provides insights and examples of why and how Critical Race Theory (CRT) serves and makes a powerful connection to qualitative study in education. The chapters in this volume speak to the ways that validate CRT as a methodological framework to understand and strategize against racialized neglect, political attacks, and building community. The volume builds and extends upon previous CRT qualitative methodological foundations research with the goal of continuing to center the experiences and voices of those historically shut out of education narratives. Chapters represent a wide swath of qualitative methodologies that illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of CRT and display both the utility and the broad scope of CRT research being conducted in the field of Education. Furthermore, the historical perspectives provided in the book allow for an understanding of where CRT methodologies have been and where scholars may take them into the future. This book will be a key resource for researchers and scholars of educational research, educational leadership and policy, educational studies, sociology, ethnic and racial studies, and research methods. This book was originally published as a special issue of International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Contrary to popular belief that the struggle for educational opportunity during the civil rights era was waged exclusively by African Americans, this fascinating book shows that the Mexican American population challenged discriminatory educational practice more than was portrayed by the media.

Examining the Mexican American struggle for equal education during the 1960s and 1970s in the Southwest in general and in a California community in particular, Donato challenges conventional wisdom that Mexican Americans were passive victims, accepting their educational fates. He looks at how Mexican American parents confronted the relative tranquility of school governance, how educators responded to increasing numbers of Mexican Americans in schools, how school officials viewed problems faced by Mexican American children, and why educators chose specific remedies. Finally, he examines how federal, state, and local educational policies corresponded with the desires of the Mexican American community.

Winner of the 2007 Critics' Choice Award presented by the American Educational Studies Association Until now, much of what has been written about Mexican American educational history has focused on California and Texas, while Colorado's story has remained largely untold. Rubén Donato recounts the social and educational history of Mexicans and Hispanos (descendents of Spanish troops who came to the region in the late 1500s) in Colorado from 1920 to 1960. He examines both groups' experiences in sugar beet towns, the experiences of Hispanos in Anglo American–controlled towns, and the Hispano experience in a historically Hispano-controlled town. Donato argues that whoever possessed power at the local level determined who ran the schools, who administered them, who taught in them, who succeeded in them, and what sorts of social and academic environments were created.