We Are Aztlán!: Chicanx Histories in the Northern Borderlands by Jerry García

129 Reviews reductive, one-dimensional trope of the Noble Savage, as was done famously for Captain Jack by Dee Brown in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and now again by McNally? Both perspectives are certainly emotionally satisfying to their respective audiences. Neither casts a thoughtful light on the myriad motivations and perspectives of Captain Jack, Riddle, Canby, or any other historical actor, particularly in a historical moment when Americans are confronted by analogously dangerous stereotyping and mythologizing that would have us — seemingly more and more — demonize and demean our very neighbors over structurally similar issues of culture, identity, sovereignty, and moral righteousness. Mark Axel Tveskov Southern Oregon University WE ARE AZTLÁN!: CHICANX HISTORIES IN THE NORTHERN BORDERLANDS by Jerry García Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2017. Illustrations, notes, index. 280 pages. $29.95, paper. In We are Aztlán!: Chicanx Histories in the Northern Borderlands, scholars utilize an array of approaches to better understand and describe Chicanx history in a region that editor Jerry García defines as the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes states of the Midwest. This eclectic volume underscores the diversity of thought in the field, highlighting scholarship that moves, in different directions, beyond traditional narratives of Mexicanancestry people in the Southwest. In the introduction, García provides background on the concept of Aztlán, a symbolic and spiritual homeland for many Mexican Americans. While he makes the case for the ongoing need for more scholarship on Chicanxs outside the Southwest, he does not extend this argument to mention the relative paucity of historical research on Central American Latinxs or highlight the need for future research from states such as Montana and the Dakotas that bridge the regions in focus in this collection. An explanation of the different terms and suffixes used to indicate ethnicity and gender would have helped make this volume more accessible to readers outside academia. In the theory-heavy first section of the book, Dionicio Valdés draws from scholarship on internal colonization to make some exceptionally poignant observations on the changing fortunes and opportunities of the U.S. working classes, the historically shifting relationships between Mexican-ancestry people, and the notion and status of whiteness. Dylan Miner draws interesting comparisons between the Canada–United States and Mexico–United States borders and looks at how government policies at both locations seek to bar the movement of people based on identity and physical appearance.. He rejects the temptation to settle on easy, dogmatic answers, asking readers “how can we think about the intersectionality of our own lives — our various privileges and oppressions — without reducing the potential for everything to be linked in a network of ambiguities?” (p. 60). Leading off the second section of the book, which features articles related to social and political activism, Josué Q. Estrada provides an excellent overview of voter suppression in Yakima County, Washington, in the 1960s and 1970s, and the efforts of local officials to resist state directives and federal laws designed to protect voting rights. It is helpful to reference this article when reading Oscar Rosales Casta- ñeda’s piece that looks at activism in both the Yakima Valley and the Puget Sound regions. Norma L. Cárdenas’ article is an oral history– based profile of María Alanís Ruiz, an activist and instrumental figure in the establishment of a Chicano-Latino studies program at Portland State University. Her story challenges assumptions of equality within academia by highlighting how tenured faculty and administrators are far from immune to racism and sexism. Ernesto Todd Mireles details eight years of struggle and sacrifice to establish a Xicanx Studies program at Michigan State University in the 1990s. I wish he had given more space in his chapter to addressing the needs that Xicanx Studies address (more on how this alternate spelling reflects a commitment to honor 131 Reviews Indigenous needs and heritage). Nevertheless, this article provides a detailed look at certain types of conflicts within academia that rarely get recounted in peer-reviewed articles, with the author unafraid to name names. Mireles suggests on page 128 that I might not be his target audience, and this account should prove useful to those looking to create...

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