From the Bookshelves: Mexico The Good Neighbor: Contracts, Betrayal and Survival in the Cold War by Soledad Quartucci

Mexico The Good Neighbor: Contracts, Betrayal and Survival in the Cold War by Soledad Quartucci.  Published January 2019.

When Mexico joined other Latin American countries in declaring war on the Axis in June 1942, a wave of young Mexican citizens crossed the border to volunteer for service in the United States military. Over 300,000 Mexican Americans volunteered or were drafted into the military. They were recruited in farms and in high schools. They worked on railroads, in mines, in shipyards and airplane factories. These workers were crucial to the country’s wartime economy. Mexicans joined the ranks of the National Guard, the Army reserve, enlisted in the United States Military and signed Bracero agricultural agreements to fill the labor gap created by wartime. They relocated north providing a service to the United States and laying community roots in the process. They built barrios, neighborhoods that were underserved by government services and were dependent on strong social and family networks and on their Spanish press. In Los Angeles, the newspaper La Opinion, became an indispensable immigrant support and coping tool that helped Mexicans navigate a complex U.S. society in Cold War America. La Opinion editors and columnists felt a deep sorrow and sympathy for the suffering of Mexicans in the United States at a time when the barrios were surrounded by a hostile society that viewed them as dangerous, suspect to communism and as a public charge. La Opinion embraced braceros and welcomed its veterans fighting alongside them during the racially charged period of immigration exclusion that followed World War II. The Spanish press formed part of the complex network that supported Mexican labor migration in the U.S. Southwest. As an immigrant labor press, the paper recorded the history of the everyday lives of Mexican Americans during the Cold-War period. Mexico The Good Neighbor – treads new ground, seeking to contribute to studies of the Spanish press in the United States by analyzing the daily events that shaped Mexican-American politics, leisure and intimate relations in the World War II and Cold War period through the analysis of the key immigrant press, La Opinion.

KJ