Book ID: CBB319505005

Blood Oranges: Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands (2016)

unapi

Bowman, Timothy P. (Author)


Texas A&M University Press


Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: 412
Language: English

Blood Oranges traces the origins and legacy of racial differences between Anglo Americans and ethnic Mexicans (Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans) in the South Texas borderlands in the twentieth century. Author Tim Bowman uncovers a complex web of historical circumstances that caused ethnic Mexicans in the region to rank among the poorest, least educated, and unhealthiest demographic in the country. The key to this development, Bowman finds, was a “modern colonization movement,” a process that had its roots in the Mexican-American war of the nineteenth century but reached its culmination in the twentieth century. South Texas, in Bowman’s words, became an “internal economy just inside of the US-Mexico border.” Beginning in the twentieth century, Anglo Americans consciously transformed the region from that of a culturally “Mexican” space, with an economy based on cattle, into one dominated by commercial agriculture focused on citrus and winter vegetables. As Anglos gained political and economic control in the region, they also consolidated their power along racial lines with laws and customs not unlike the “Jim Crow” system of southern segregation. Bowman argues that the Mexican labor class was thus transformed into a marginalized racial caste, the legacy of which remained in place even as large-scale agribusiness cemented its hold on the regional economy later in the century.Blood Oranges stands to be a major contribution to the history of South Texas and borderland studies alike.

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Reviewed By

Review Linda B. Hall (2017) Review of "Blood Oranges: Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands". American Historical Review (pp. 1618-1619). unapi

Review Oliver A. Rosales (2017) Review of "Blood Oranges: Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands". Journal of Southern History (pp. 450-452). unapi

Review Kenna Lang Archer (April 2018) Review of "Blood Oranges: Colonialism and Agriculture in the South Texas Borderlands". Environmental History (pp. 403-404). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB319505005/

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Authors & Contributors
Busch, Andrew M.
Williams, John
Manu Karuka
Bickers, Margaret A.
Feeley, Lynne
Searcy, Stephen W.
Concepts
Agriculture
Race
Colonialism
Labor and laborers
Borderlands
Floods
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
21st century
Places
United States
Texas (U.S.)
Mexico
Hawaii (U.S.)
California (U.S.)
São Tomé and Príncipe
Institutions
Southern Pacific Railroad Company
Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company
Texas A&M University
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