She may have married into a family with more esteemed and she didnt deserve this family or they thought he had been trapped into the marriage. There were all kinds of suggestions about that. She suffered and loved her father dearly and could never face that. So you find that rings true forever. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you so much. During booktvs recent visit to Corpus Christi texas may talk with the author claiming citizenship Anthony Caros two recounts mexicanamericans in their fight for civil rights in victoria texas. I think history itself is a story of citizenship. Who is a citizen and who is not and who decides so for mexicanamericans the story of our history has been this ongoing struggle for equality for inclusion. My book looks at the period from 1943 of them mid1980s and examine the different ways that mexicanamericans struggle to become equal citizens. It was their behavior in churches and their activities in Public SchoolPolitical Action and their private organizations and those sorts of things to find examples of ways in which these people try to assist in the title claim citizenship. Victoria texas is a town of 60,000 people located 90 miles north of here between Corpus Christi and houston texas. Today the city is integrating but i will give you some examples. There was an organization in the state called the Good Neighbor investigation. They had a thick file of discriminatory charges from victoria county. And so you still have some discrimination but not the same as she did back then. Laws have changed and the Civil Rights Act of 19644 megabit difference so things have sort of evolved. But 1940 in vitoria texas was very different. It was much more racially segregated, like more racially tense. You could go places but for example you could not date interracial way. Her father was a local policeman whose nickname was nightstick so i never asked her out but that is just kind of a sense of what things were like. To give an example of the institutional discrimination. When i went to high school to Public High School 1974, 75 76 i went to school with 2400 students and i think there were three mexicanamerican teachers. That is more mexicanamerican teachers than id seen in my life. I thought they were pretty progressive. What i learned when i researched this book they have been behind two years previously. There have been none so institutional race and when i was looking at records i found a note from one official to superintendent saying i interviewed this woman. She is hispanic speaks english clearly. Maybe i will write to teach anglo children and heres a note that said this woman is single and maybe shes okay to teach. Mexicans didnt get promoted. They got hired at the plants dupont car by dachau as laborers never got moved in the management or operator positions. Now they do. Thats the kind of institutional racism that they face very a lot of the literature focusing on mexicanamerican history focuses on demonstrations. The Chicana Movement and the antivietnam war demonstrations. He didnt have much of that in victoria. People try to bring about change by voting, by suing by Holding Meetings with local business leaders. It was very much a consensual view of american citizenship. Let me explain it to you for a second. When i first started researching this as a dissertation i was a grad student at the university of iowa that i went to all these classes and i thought now i know to look for. Clearly there must have been a story like victoria. Nothing. A little bitty bit so im finding no evidence of overt resistance. What i found was subtle resistance. Heres the point, these folks were very consensual. They were patriotic americans so they brought into values practices traits and bullies. We talk about citizenship is where you were born and what country you are loyal to but theres a whole list of unwritten rules that defined citizenship. Your race, your gender, your class your level of education, where you live your religion. If you are an atheist you are not getting elected into office. So there is a whole state of qualifications that are never written down and you were never taught this in school but it matters. What i found was these folks are trying to lay claim to the same thing so they brought in values like patriotism catholicism family values all sorts of things that i grew up learning the society claimed as their own invention. Thats not true at all. It cuts across all different groups. That was part of what angered me so much and i was writing the book even though these folks were not as radical as i imagined they might be a boy they were seriously struggling to change that status quo. People disagree with this but there is a segment of historians who think about mexicanamerican history generationally. They look at the 1800s as a comfort generation when mexico became 1900 to 1930 as the immigrant generation. The mexican revolution 1910 to 1920 Million People moved north. Through that time most people lived here saw themselves as mexicans who happen to live in america. In 1920 as to 1960 we have the mexicanamerican charge and now people see themselves as americans who happen to be mexican. Those are the folks that created ideology that i describe in this book. Very american, very patriotic, very much very much buy into traditional values. Chicanos wanted to reject that. To them mexicans were workers. We are brown, we are not white. We want to reject americanism and mexicanamerican not spanishamerican giocondo and they looked at people from this generation are people of these ideas as traders as sellouts. How can you turn your back . One of the audience they said how can you support the military in vietnam killing people who are like you were his people in the military said we are defending freedom and the american way. There are two different people that look to the world very differently. But over time the Chicana Movement left a legacy. We do still have organizations and there is still some of that ideology around but i would make the case that really what you have is you look around the country has some bland of the mexicanamerican generation ideology and the chicano ideology. But what they developed into is more of a rather consensual kind of worldview. Things have changed since then could and we see many more interracial couples. We have somewhat more integrated schools. You do see more elected officials that are mexicanamerican but there is still a long long way to go. First of all i dont think her story is being told at all, not very much. We have had some very acrimonious hearings at the state level here in texas which should go into social studies books. A lot of folks at the state level dont want the curriculum watered down as they might say so they might be okay with the photo in the margin but i think that story needs to be woven into the entire tale. Students are coming to this campus not knowing in many cases who dr. Hector garcia was who in my destination was our Martin Luther king. Seems like we take one or two steps forward and what a step back as a society. In order to continue to make progress when he too continued to struggle and eventually things will change. Ill give you some examples. One of things that happened is we passed, well they got rid of view situation laws. He is to be illegal for blacks to marry whites. Now they can do that. We dont see that everywhere we go these days but i see a lot more interracial couples than i used to when i was in high school. Marriage is about to become legal. Marijuana is changing, those laws. Its just evolutionary. The society just has to organically even subconsciously im guessing decides its time for a change and time to move in a new direction. But you cant legislate that. People often will say you cant legislate morality. You kind of canned because if you couldnt you wouldnt make certain things illegal like murder and rape