From Indians to Chicanos: The Dynamics of Mexican-American Culture

Considered a pioneering achievement when first published nearly two decades ago, From Indians to Chicanos--now in a completely revised second edition--continues to offer readers an informed and penetrating approach to the history of Chicano development. Anthropologist-historian Diego Vigil shows a perceptive and knowledgeable background in brief, clear outlines of each stage of Mexican-American history, charting the culture change sequences in the Pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, Mexican Independence and Nationalism, and Anglo-American periods. He analyzes not only the events and the underlying conditions that affect them but also the dynamics that shaped contemporary Chicano life. The author has absorbed an enormous amount of information and has condensed it in a very readable and understandable fashion. Vigil's ethnohistorical introduction to the Mexican- American experience in the United States is simple yet comprehensive so that readers clearly understand historical developments and the specific socioeconomic, sociocultural and sociopsychological forces involved.