In Mexico, the participation of intellectuals in public life has always been extraordinary, and for many the price can be high. Highlighting prominent figures that have made incursions into issues such as elections, human rights, foreign policy, and the drug war, this volume paints a picture of the ever-changing context of Mexican intellectualism.

Written by one of the most promising young scholars on the Mexican intellectual scene, The Shadow of Ulysses attempts to reconnect the American and Mexican intellectual experiences by exploring historical as well as contemporary issues in both countries. The book's first chapters discuss the relationship between American and Mexican intellectuals in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution and offer a sociological comparison of the 1960s intellectual generations in the United States and Mexico. Later chapters provide a critical assessment of two prominent Mexican public intellectuals well known to the American reader: Carlos Fuentes and Jorge Castaneda. The Shadow of Ulysses, the Mexican edition of which was awarded the Alfonso Reyes National Prize, offers a rare glimpse into the development of contemporary Mexican thought and reveals the under-recognized intellectual ties that existed between our two countries in the first half of the twentieth century.

In developing countries, the extent to which intellectuals disengage themselves in state activities has widespread consequences for the social, political, and economic development of those societies. Roderic Camps’ examination of intellectuals in Mexico is the first study of a Latin American country to detail the structure of intellectual life, rather than merely considering intellectual ideas. Camp has used original sources, including extensive interviews, to provide new data about the evolution of leading Mexican intellectuals and their relationship to politics and politicians since 1920.

One of the most influential Mexican Americans of his time, Alonso S. Perales (1898-1960) is the subject of this engrossing collection of scholarly essays. A graduate of George Washington University School of Law, he was one of the earliest Mexican-American attorneys to practice law in Texas and was sworn into the bar in 1926. Perales helped found the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), served his country in several diplomatic capacities and was a prolific writer.In Defense of My People sheds light on Perales' activism and the history of Mexican-American and Latino civil rights movements. The essays, written by scholars representing a number of disciplines from the U.S. and Mexico, touch on a variety of topics, including the impact of religion on Latinos, the concept of "race" and individual versus community action to bring about social and political change.Edited and with an introduction and chapter by law scholar Michael A. Olivas, In Defense of My People is the first full-length book available on this trailblazing Mexican-American leader. Scholars were able to take advantage of Perales' never-before-accessible personal archive, which his family donated to the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project and is now housed at the University of Houston's Special Collections Department of the M.D. Anderson Library. Originally presented at a conference on Alonso S. Perales at the University of Houston in 2012, this volume is required reading for anyone interested in the history of civil rights organizations, public intellectuals of the early 20th century and Mexican-American political development in Texas.

One of the most influential Mexican Americans of his time, Alonso S. Perales (1898-1960) is the subject of this engrossing collection of scholarly essays. A graduate of George Washington University School of Law, he was one of the earliest Mexican-American attorneys to practice law in Texas and was sworn into the bar in 1926. Perales helped found the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), served his country in several diplomatic capacities and was a prolific writer. In Defense of My People sheds light on Perales' activism and the history of Mexican-American and Latino civil rights movements. The essays, written by scholars representing a number of disciplines from the U.S. and Mexico, touch on a variety of topics, including the impact of religion on Latinos, the concept of "race" and individual versus community action to bring about social and political change. Edited and with an introduction and chapter by law scholar Michael A. Olivas, In Defense of My People is the first full-length book available on this trailblazing Mexican-American leader. Scholars were able to take advantage of Perales' never-before-accessible personal archive, which his family donated to the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project and is now housed at the University of Houston's Special Collections Department of the M.D. Anderson Library. Originally presented at a conference on Alonso S. Perales at the University of Houston in 2012, this volume is required reading for anyone interested in the history of civil rights organizations, public intellectuals of the early 20th century and Mexican-American political development in Texas.

In the last couple of decades there has been a surge of interest in Octavio Paz's life and work, and a number of important books have been published on Paz. However, most of these books are of a biographical nature, or they examine Paz's role in the various intellectual initiatives he headed in Mexico, specifically the journals he founded. Reality in Movement looks at a wide range of topics of interest in Paz's career, including his engagement with the subversive, adversary strain in Western culture; his meditations on questions of cultural identity and intercultural contact; his dialogue with both leftist and conservative ideological traditions; his interest in feminism and psychoanalysis, and his theory of poetry. It concludes with a chapter on Octavio Paz as a literary character—a kind of reception study. Offering a complex and nuanced portrait of Paz as a writer and thinker—as well as an understanding of the era in which he lived—Reality in Movement will appeal to students of Octavio Paz and of Mexican literature more generally, and to readers with an interest in the many significant literary, cultural, political, and historical topics Paz wrote about over the course of his long career.