A firsthand account of the immigrant experience in America Frank Mendez, a child of Mexican immigrants begins his memoir with the story of his father's harrowing migration from Mexico to Texas in 1920 as he escaped from Zapata's guerrrillos and continues with his story of growing up in northeast Ohio. He recounts the Mendez family's experience with the Depression, living in the Lorain, Ohio barrio, labor issues, racism, and World War II. Mendez dropped out of high school in 1943 and enlisted in the Marine Corps where he served twenty-two months in the Pacific theatre. When he returned to Lorain, he received his high school diploma, bachelor's and master's degrees, and a professional engineering license. With an easy, engaging style, Mendez deals directly with the matter of personal identity, addressing the issues that confronted him as he tried to sort out his sometimes conflicting Mexican and American heritage. You Can't Be Mexican comments on the social and political issues of the twentieth century and will appeal to those interested in immigrant studies and ethnicity studies and modern social history. " Every immigrant group which has ever come to this country has its own story to tell. Many of the stories have common threads, however, and Mendez's detailed recollection of the personalities, the emotions, the disappointments and joys relate to the understanding that this is a country of immigrants, whose experience is woven into a shared culture. I know others will enjoy this book as much as I did."--Ambler H. Moss Jr., Professor of International Studies, University of Miami (former U.S. Ambassador to Panama, 1978- 1982)

We Heard It When We Were Young tells the story of a young boy, first-generation Mexican American, who is torn between cultures: between immigrant parents trying to acclimate to midwestern life and a town that is, by turns, supportive and disturbingly antagonistic.

“Olivarez steps into the ‘inbetween’ standing between Mexico and America in these compelling, emotional poems. Written with humor and sincerity” (Newsweek). Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek and NPR. In this “devastating debut” (Publishers Weekly), poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in, with a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch. “The son of Mexican immigrants, Olivarez celebrates his Mexican-American identity and examines how those two sides conflict in a striking collection of poems.” —USA Today

As Juan Sintierra grows up amid poverty in Sinaloa, Mexico, he dreams of one day traveling to America to visit his imaginary friend, Barack. Influenced by his cousin, Miguel Meromero, Juan carries out horrific crimes that lead him to be pursued by everyone including the police and powerful capos from the drug cartels. Determined to report the truth about forty-three students killed in Iguala to Barack with hopes he can fix everything, Juan and Miguel decide to escape their enemies and flee to the United States. Although they are both determined to survive, they first must endure great tragedies along the way on both sides of the border. As Juans journey leads him to uncover dark truths about gringo-land that lead to murder and a series of life-shattering decisions, he discovers a new side of himself as he learns to embrace his identity and find hope among the ashes. In this compelling novel, two Mexican kids escape the dark and violent world of the drug cartels and flee to the United States where they must face the truth, choices, and the reality about themselves.

This critical case study exposes the educational realities of Latinos in K-12 public schools in the Western United States from the students’ own perspectives. Issues that are often over simplified and commonly misunderstood are brought to life. Their accounts are then compared with the viewpoints of a range of K-12 teachers on matters of community, learning, race, culture, and school politics.

The host of the popular PBS show "Pati's Mexican Table" shares everyday Mexican dishes, from the traditional to creative twists.

Winner of the 2000 Outstanding Book Award presented by the American Educational Research Association Winner of the 2001 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award Honorable Mention, 2000 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards Subtractive Schooling provides a framework for understanding the patterns of immigrant achievement and U.S.-born underachievement frequently noted in the literature and observed by the author in her ethnographic account of regular-track youth attending a comprehensive, virtually all-Mexican, inner-city high school in Houston. Valenzuela argues that schools subtract resources from youth in two major ways: firstly by dismissing their definition of education and secondly, through assimilationist policies and practices that minimize their culture and language. A key consequence is the erosion of students' social capital evident in the absence of academically oriented networks among acculturated, U.S.-born youth.