Mexican Americans are rapidly becoming the largest minority in the United States, playing a vital role in the culture of the American Southwest and beyond. This A-to-Z guide offers comprehensive coverage of the Mexican American experience, including: Arts Religion Popular culture Science Technology Business Government And more Entries range from figures such as Corky Gonzales, Joan Baez, and Nancy Lopez to general entries on bilingual education, assimilation, border culture, and southwestern agriculture. Court cases, politics, and events such as the Delano Grape Strike all receive full coverage, while the definitions and significance of terms such as coyote and Tejano are provided in shorter entries. Taking a historical approach, this book's topics date back to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a radical turning point for Mexican Americans, as they lost their lands and found themselves thrust into an alien social and legal system. The entries trace Mexican Americans' experience as a small, conquered minority, their growing influence in the 20th century, and the essential roles their culture plays in the borderlands, or the American Southwest, in the 21st century.

Mexican Americans, like many other Americans, have a long history of struggle for equality and civil rights. Yet only in recent decades has that history begun to be included as part of mainstream American history. Bringing together a wealth of information on the Mexican American struggle for civil rights, this authoritative encyclopedia provides factual up-to-date information on the concepts, issues, plans, legislation, court decisions, events, organizations, and people involved in that long fight. It includes such leading figures as Corky Gonzales, Hector Perez GarcIa, Jovita Idar, and Alonso Perales, as well as many secondary leaders, and is rounded out with objective discussions of such topics as leadership, the movimiento, lynching, political exclusion, voting, and stereotyping. Appendices include a chronology and several basic documents critical to an understanding of the Mexican American Civil Rights struggle.

The first comprehensive encyclopedia on this aspect of Mexican American history, the book fills a noticeable gap in the literature. It includes more than 300 entries, six appendices, sources of additional information, cross-referencing, and a detailed index that makes the history readily available. The book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the Mexican American experience."