Race and Class in the Southwest and Other Essays: Studies in Political Economy

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 D. 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.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Race and Class in the Southwest and the Development of Chicano/a Studies Rodolfo D. Torres and William I. Robinson 1. Introduction 2. The Nineteenth Century, Part I: Conquest and Dispossession 3. The Nineteenth Century, Part II: The Establishment of a Colonial Labor System 4. From the Turn of the Century to the Great Depression 5. The Contemporary Period 6. The Role of the State 7. A Theory of Racial Inequality Chicano Class Structure Are Latinos a Racialized Minority? Global Capitalism and Twenty-First Fascism: A U.S. Case Study (with William I. Robinson) Annotated extracts from Mario Barrera’s Unpublished Memoir The Barrio as an Internal Colony The National Association for Chicano Studies Chicano Park Beyond Aztlan Neo-Fascism Bibliography

About the Author :
Mario Barrera was professor emeritus of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the author of Beyond Aztlan: Ethnic Autonomy in Comparative Perspective (1990) and the first edition of Race and Class in the Southwest (1989), as well as coproducer of the documentary film Chicano Park. Rodolfo D. Torres is emeritus research professor of urban planning at the University of California, Irvine. He is author and coauthor of 10 books, most notably the American Political Science Association award-winning Latino best book of the year, The Latino Question: Politics, Labouring Classes and the Next Left (2018), coauthored with Armando Ibarra and Alfredo Carlos, and Latino Metropolis with Victor Valle (2000). Torres is also coauthor with Edward Martin of Capitalism and Critique (2019). Torres assisted Professor Barrera in the final stages of Race and Class in the Southwest with his analysis of labor market segmentation theory and Marxist theories of the state. William I. Robinson is a distinguished professor of Sociology, Global and International Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also an affiliated professor with the Chicano/a Studies Department. He is the author of many award-winning books, among them The Global Police State (2020) and Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism (2025).

Review :
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 Praise for the new edition “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. An engagement more timely than ever.” Antonia Darder, Author of Reinventing Paulo Freire “Mario Barrera was a towering researcher, mentor, and intellectual. This reissue of his monumental Race and Class in the Southwest is right on time. The essays that accompany this reissue illustrate Barrera’s commitment to a rigorous Marxist method that emphasizes rather than obscures the class dimensions of our society and the class struggles that shape it.” Steven Osuna, Professor of Sociology, California State University-Long Beach “Barrera’s Race and Class in the Southwest was one of the most formative texts in my intellectual development. In this volume Torres and Robinson not only make available this classic for new generations, but they have included essays that contextualize Barrera’s life and work, including his later thinking. Both the introduction and writings on fascism illustrate the full arc of Barrera’s thinking and have never been more relevant. This volume helps cement Race and Class as a foundational text within the history of ethnic studies.” Laura Pulido, Professor of Indigenous, Race & Ethnic Studies and Geography, University of Oregon “The late political scientist Mario Barrera pioneered his work in Chicano social science quite singularly, rigorously theorizing about Mexican American social conditions from the standpoint of their largely working-class positioning under U.S. capitalism. In this volume, Rodolfo Torres and William I. Robinson, each a distinguished scholar of domestic and global capitalism, partner to republish Barrera’s classic monograph, Race and Cass in the Southwest and his critical essay ‘Are Latinos a Racialized Minority?,’ as well as a piece (with Robinson) on the conditions underlying the prospective rise of fascism in the United States. In doing this while framing Barrera’s life and analytical contributions, they quite fortunately offer the opportunity to reinvigorate the political economy of Mexican Americans while adding to the analysis of general race/ethnic conflict in terms of class conflict.” Phillip B. Gonzales, author, Política: Nuevomexicanos and American Political Incorporation 1821-1910 “In this timely second 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, 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 “Race and Class in the Southwest is the book that keeps on giving scholars, intellectuals, activists and resistors alike a vanguard look at the material reality of an often-neglected origins story central to the making of the US—at its imperial move West and beyond. Powered by the Third World intellectual movement Race and Class illuminates the dynamic tension between the colonial violence of racial oppression and capitalism’s never-ending work of extraction. Barrera provides us our first mapping of race and class as a wholly integrated instrument of control and exploitation, one with great relevance to our most pressing issues today. It is hard to imagine a more necessary intellectual revival and acknowledgement of the lasting importance of Barrera’s groundbreaking and enduring work.” Ofelia Ortiz Cuevas, Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies, University of California at Davis “Mario Barrera followed in the footsteps of Ernesto Galarza in asserting in his later years that occupation was more meaningful than race. He towered as a significant and prolific Mexican American and social critic, researcher, university professor and public intellectual of the past century.” Raul Fernandez, Professor Emeritus, Chicano and Latino Studies, UC Irvine “Mario Barrera’s Race and Class in the Southwest is a classic work of the Chicano movement. It offered a critical analytical framework for examining the Mexican American experience. It is a must read for understanding our current situation.” David Montejano, Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies and History, University of California, Berkeley