Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race

CSRC Press announces two new policy briefs, both drawn from the new book Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race by Edward E. Telles and Vilma Ortiz. The two new briefs are the first in a series of five that explores Mexican American assimilation.

CSRC Latino Policy and Issues Brief No. 17, concludes that Mexican Americans are part of an ethnic political community with a distinct ethnic and political sensibility. Mexican Americans and Economic Progress, CSRC Latino Policy and Issues Brief No. 18, reveals that occupations, earnings, home ownership, and overall wealth have not increased for later generations of Mexican Americans. The briefs were generated by the Mexican American Study Project (MASP), a longitudinal and intergenerational research project based at UCLA. In 1965–66, MASP project teams interviewed Mexican Americans living in Los Angeles and San Antonio; in 1997–2000, Professors Telles and Ortiz re-interviewed the original participants, plus two of their adult children. The two surveys provide data for a systematic analysis of how well Mexican Americans are being absorbed into the predominant culture. Other measures of assimilation—including education, language, religion, family values, intermarriage, and residential segregation—are explored in CSRC Policy and Issues Briefs Nos. 19–21, which will be released in June and July.

For more information on these and other CSRC publications, visit the CSRC Press website.

KJ