Robert Segovia (left) instructing class. Emerito Torres and Agapito Cruz (at chalkboard).

The Machiavelli of the Mexican American People

How Robert Segovia used steelworkers and the Catholic Church to build a political machine in Chicago.
Mexican American men standing near a mural and a low rider car in Chicago in 1987.

The Past and Future of Mexican Chicago

From the machine politicians in La Villita to the radicals in Pilsen, Mexican Chicagoans have played a central role in defining their city. 
Employees of print shop

Who Owns the Narrative? Texas Law Enforcement Versus Tejano Journalists

At the turn of the century, Mexican American publications paid a price for challenging the local sheriff and elements of the Texas Rangers.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) listens to former president Donald Trump as they speak during a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Pharr, Tex. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
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The New Threat to Good Schooling for Minority Americans

The right might be targeting a seminal Supreme Court case that protects educational fairness.
Ballet Folklorico de la Tierra del Encanto dancers entertain attendees during the Cinco De Mayo Fiesta on the plaza in Mesilla, N.M., on May 6, 2017.
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There’s More to Cinco de Mayo Than You Might Think

Cinco de Mayo has deep roots in Mexican American history.
Cover of "Making Mexican Chicago", featuring a photo of a protest march.

"Making Mexican Chicago"

How the Windy City became a Latinx metropolis in the second half of the twentieth century.
International Women's Day marchers in San Antonio hold signs celebrating Emma Tenayuca.

The Militant Passion of Emma Tenayuca

84 years ago this week, this Mexican American labor organizer led one of the largest strikes in Texas history—and was arrested and blacklisted for her trouble.
Drawing of Speedy Gonzales

Why Do So Many Mexican Americans Defend Speedy Gonzales?

A stereotype? Definitely. Problematic? You bet. But many Mexican Americans still love the cartoon character.
Walkout participants in East LA in 1968.

The Long History of Mexican-American Radicalism

Mexican-American workers have a long tradition of radical organizing, stretching back to the days of the IWW and the mid-century Communist Party.
Migrants holding their shoes, being inspected.

America's Forgotten History Of Mexican-American 'Repatriation'

During the Depression, more than a million people of Mexican descent were deported. Author Francisco Balderrama says that most were American citizens.

The Hispanic Challenge

The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the US into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages.
The United Farm Worker’s 1,000 Mile March, 1975.

How Unions Are Made

A new history of labor organizing in Coachella tells us the story of the United Farm Workers and how its rank-and-file members drove the union to success.
A small farmworker house in Ventura with children playing outside.

Reimagining Resistance, Reconstructing Community

Farmworker housing cooperatives in Ventura County, California.
QR code on a historical monument.

In San Antonio, Remembering More Than the Alamo

Innovators are using digital tools to tell stories of the city’s Black and Latinx history.
Barack Obama presents Sylvia Mendez with the Medal of Freedom in 2010.

How an 8-Year-Old Hispanic Girl Paved the Way for Desegregation

Sylvia Mendez’s role in setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education has been forgotten and overlooked.
A walkway with walls covered in graffiti.

Graffiti Has Undergone a Massive Shift in a Few Quick Decades as Street Art Gains Social Acceptance

In the last decade, some graffiti writers have moved from outlaw taggers to sought-after artists.
Student protestor speaking at a microphone.
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How a 1968 Student Protest Fueled a Chicano Rights Movement

A massive protest by Mexican American high school students was a milestone in a movement for Chicano rights.
Soldiers, sailors and marines in Los Angeles, June 7, 1943, stopping a street car looking for zoot suits.

Where and How the Zoot Suit Riots Swept Across L.A.

A location-based timeline and interactive map of the L.A. Zoot Suit Riots.
Protesters at a police brutality rally at the Texas State Capitol in 1977.

The Killing of José Campos Torres

Decades before the recent police violence in Memphis, a brutally beaten Latino man was tossed by officers into a Houston bayou and drowned.
Image of the 1970 protest against an unfair dismissal of a teacher in Uvalde.

The Uvalde Student Walkout and the Texas Rangers

Uvalde's current protests against gun control mirror those of student protests in the early 1970s.