About the Book
Runner-up, Ramirez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book, 2021
The first book on the history of escuelitas, Reading, Writing, and Revolution examines the integral role these grassroots community schools played in shaping Mexican American identity.
Language has long functioned as a signifier of power in the United States. In Texas, as elsewhere in the Southwest, ethnic Mexicans' relationship to education-including their enrollment in the Spanish-language community schools called escuelitas-served as a vehicle to negotiate that power. Situating the history of escuelitas within the contexts of modernization, progressivism, public education, the Mexican Revolution, and immigration, Reading, Writing, and Revolution traces how the proliferation and decline of these community schools helped shape Mexican American identity.
Philis M. Barragan Goetz argues that the history of escuelitas is not only a story of resistance in the face of Anglo hegemony but also a complex and nuanced chronicle of ethnic Mexican cultural negotiation. She shows how escuelitas emerged and thrived to meet a diverse set of unfulfilled needs, then dwindled as later generations of Mexican Americans campaigned for educational integration. Drawing on extensive archival, genealogical, and oral history research, Barragan Goetz unravels a forgotten narrative at the crossroads of language and education as well as race and identity.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction. Escuelitas, Literacy, and Imaginary Dual Citizenship
- Chapter 1. Escuelitas and the Expansion of the Texas Public School System, 1865–1910
- Chapter 2. Imaginary Citizens and the Limits of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Educational Exclusion and the Mexican Consulate Investigation of 1910
- Chapter 3. Revolutionary and Refined: Feminism, Early Childhood Education, and the Mexican Consulate in Laredo, Texas, 1910–1920
- Chapter 4. Education in Post–Mexican Revolution Texas, 1920–1950
- Chapter 5. Escuelitas and the Mexican American Generation’s Campaign for Educational Integration
- Conclusion. The Contested Legacy of Escuelitas in American Culture
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the Author :
Philis M. Barragán Goetz is an assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University–San Antonio.
Review :
Reading, Writing, and Revolution is not merely a book about educational history; it is a trailblazing study on how Mexican Americans have relied on any tools available to create a more inclusive educational system for themselves and their community. (New Books in Latino Studies) "BarragÁn Goetz traces an important and complex trajectory of escuelita history in Reading, Writing, and Revolution, making this book an essential read for those interested in Mexican American educational history....BarragÁn Goetz corrects a century of history in this book, in showing that Mexican and Mexican American communities have always valued education and have taken on the necessary actions in sustaining the learning experiences of children." (Pacific Historical Review) A fascinating history...BarragÁn Goetz does an excellent job of documenting the existence of escuelitas in the context of public school development, Mexican nation-building pressures, and Mexican-origin community developments...this book is a major contribution to the historiography of Mexican American education in the United States and lays the groundwork for additional work on the origins and development of community-based schooling in Chicanx history. (Southwestern Historical Quarterly) BarragÁn Goetz's definitive book bridges a major gap in Chicano educational history...Based on excellent and thorough research, BarragÁn Goetz's book provides a sweeping, innovative, and pathbreaking history of the escuelitas in south Texas. (Journal of American History) [Reading, Writing, and Revolution] is groundbreaking...a must-read for those interested in education history, Mexican American history, borderlands history, and the history of civil rights activism...like Jovita González, who as an educator worked endlessly to teach the correct history of ethnic Mexicans in the United States, Barragán Goetz, has provided an essential piece of work also determined to set the record straight, that is, that Mexicans and Mexican Americans were not apathetic toward education but rather were resolute to furnish one that was free from Anglo segregation and other forms of discrimination. (History of Education Quarterly) BarragÁn Goetz presents refreshing historical insights into how Mexican communities organized efforts to create and build institutions focused on the educational well-being of children and youth...BarragÁn Goetz makes critical contributions to scholarship on Chicana/o educational history, educational history for communities of color, and ethnic studies...Reading, Writing, and Revolution will appeal to scholars of social movements, educational history, and ethnic studies. BarragÁn Goetz’s work adds to a growing body of scholarship about the work of Mexican educators and families who collaborated to create new possibilities for all students, including those in succeeding generations. (Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies) Reading, Writing, and Revolution provides ample evidence of how creating an inclusive history for Mexican-origin children in the state of Texas has always been a struggle...Barragán Goetz reminds us of the centrality of women's work in education and their long-lasting impact on the history of Texas. Educators preparing to teach Mexican American history throughout the state, as well as parents wanting their children to learn this more inclusive history can better appreciate these efforts by looking at the escuelita model. They and anyone interested in the complexities and far-reaching legacies of the history of education have much to learn from Reading, Writing, and Revolution. (Journal of Arizona History) BarragÁn Goetz has provided a significant intervention in the robust and well-respected field of Mexican American educational history in Texas...Written in an engaging manner and meticulously researched, this book will become a foundational text for those hoping to understand Mexican American schooling in Texas. (Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth) A well-organized and well-supported body of work about South Texas' escualitas...[Reading, Writing, and Revolution] is a much needed conversation about resistance, self-determination, gender, and power in a time when the denial and erasure of history resonates today. BarragÁn Goetz’ attention to the collected narratives, and skillful presentation of ideas is tribute to the memory of a people – especially Mexican and Mexican American women – whose work benefitted future generations. (Journal of Latinos and Education)
