Challenging Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Textbook Reforms, and Archive Preservation

FAIN: HB-289300-23

Omar Santiago Valerio-Jimenez
University of Texas, San Antonio (San Antonio, TX 78249-1644)

Research and writing leading to a book on Mexican American educational reform efforts in New Mexico and Texas between 1880 and 1940.

This project explores challenges to the omissions and negative characterizations of Mexican Americans in public school textbooks of New Mexico and Texas between 1880 and 1940. Mexican Americans fought discrimination by voting, asserting their right to jury service, and challenging segregated schools. They sought to revise public school textbooks to be more inclusive, challenge racist notions about Mexican Americans’ educational abilities, and preserve archives related to Mexican American history. Activists and scholars believed textbooks did not reflect Mexican Americans’ cultural legacies, and justified their second-class citizenship because the general public was unaware of their participation in formative events in the region’s and nation’s history. As they engaged in civic action for access to education, Mexican Americans strengthened U.S. democracy, reminded the nation to respect their citizenship rights, and created new historical narratives that included their contributions.