The emergence, maturity, and decline of the southern California citrus industry is seen here through the network of citrus worker villages that dotted part of the state's landscape from 1910 to 1960. Labor and Community shows how Mexican immigrants shaped a partially independent existence within a fiercely hierarchical framework of economic and political relationships. Gonzalez relies on a variety of published sources and interviews with longtime residents to detail the education of village children; the Americanization of village adults; unionization and strikes; and the decline of the citrus picker village and rise of the urban barrio. His insightful study of the rural dimensions of Mexican-American life prior to World War II adds balance to a long-standing urban bias in Chicano historiography.

Reviews
"Forcefully argued, and interesting to read." -- Southwestern Historical Quarterly. "The social history of "la raza" in twentieth-century rural southern California has been enriched." -- Journal of American History



Book Information
ISBN 9780252063886
Author Gilbert G. Gonzalez
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Weight(grams) 426g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 23mm