Mexican Americans in West Texas: The Borderlands of the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecos by Arnoldo De León (review)

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• Mexican Americans in West Texas: The Borderlands of the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecosby Arnoldo De León
• Alex Mendoza

Mexican Americans in West Texas: The Borderlands of the Edwards Plateau and the Trans-Pecos. By Arnoldo De León. (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2023. Pp. 314. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index.)

Preeminent Tejano scholar Arnoldo De León provides a much-needed study that fills a historical gap in the Mexican-American history of Texas with this work. It explores the story of people of Mexican descent from colonial times to the modern era in West Texas, highlighting their contributions to the region and perseverance in the world around them. De León maintains that the story of Mexican Texans in the Edwards Plateau and Trans Pecos regions is just as valuable, if not more so, than that in the cradle of Tejano history along the Texas-Mexico border and in South Texas. This is not new. De León has maintained this premise in articles and edited works during the previous six years. Yet, his study is a culmination of his earlier research and conveys the most thorough account of Tejanos in the western part of the state.

De León traces the history of Tejanos in West Texas chronologically, from the period of the first arrival of Spanish pobladoresin the 1600s to the impact of the twenty-first century. But this is not a standard year-by-year account of Mexican American history in the region. Rather, there is quite a bit to investigate in each chapter. The subjects that readers can explore, arranged thematically with helpful subheadings, range from labor and religion to the significant question of accommodation, a recurring theme of De León’s which maintains that Anglos and ethnic Mexicans found common ground to interact despite disparate cultural and “racial” backgrounds. Through the use of economic alliances, the need for frontier defense, and interethnic marriages, the two groups forged ahead by accommodating to a common purpose of perseverance.

The author argues that West Texas is different from the rest of the Lone Star State, with which most lifelong residents would agree. This influenced how Mexican Americans in West Texas forged their communities For instance, the tensions that came with the spillover of the Mexican Revolution, 1910–1920, did not have as significant an impact on the region, adding to the complexity of Tejano history and reinforcing how it is not as monolithic as people assume. Significantly, De León suggests that even the violence and racism present in the era of lynching in the early 1900s, known as “ la matanza,” was different in West Texas, where the prejudice and discrimination derived from western customs and values, in contrast to those behaviors in South Texas, where violence and racism mirrored that of the American South.

Ultimately the author succeeds in providing readers a thorough examination of how Mexican Americans contributed to the West Texas area since colonization. Mexican Americans in West Texasis exceptionally well-researched and soundly written. De León’s book is a treasure trove for students and scholars interested in the complexity of Tejano history, including culture, religion, economics, demographics, community building, civil rights, biography, geography, labor, and transnational histories, to name a few. The citations alone are a treasure [End Page 469]trove of information worthy of a thorough reading for anyone seeking to explore the histories of Tejanos or West Texas. Students of Mexican Americans or Texas will certainly benefit from this fine work.

Alex Mendoza University of North Texas Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association