Description
Book SynopsisUsing oral history interviews and citrus company records, this book argues that Mexican Americans helped lay the groundwork for civil rights struggles and electoral campaigns in the post-World War II era. It also shows how Mexicans transformed leisure spaces into politicized spaces where workers voiced their grievances and built solidarity.
Trade Review"A lively narrative that makes a solid contribution to Mexican American and U.S. labor history. Alamillo adds a fresh voice to our knowledge of how and why Mexican American political action blossomed in the latter half of the twentieth century."--Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies
"Alamillo's work is an important contribution to the field. In describing how leisure activities helped create bonds of community solidarity, Alamillo adds an important dimension to our knowledge of Mexican American history and California history. . . . This book demonstrates how community-based oral history techniques can breathe new life into the writing of history." --
American Historical Review"
Making Lemonade out of Lemons, an engaging community study of a Southern California citrus town, shifts attention to the leisure hours of pickers and packers, the realm where they exercised the most autonomy over their lives. . . . Alamillo uses oral interviews and local newspapers to reconstruct the vibrant social and cultural life that working men and women erected out of their employer's earshot."--
Journal of American Ethnic History"In this rich social history of the Mexican community of Corona, California, Jose M. Alamillo develops the literal and metaphorical power of a cliché. . . . Alamillo masterfully weaves a gendered analysis of labor, leisure, and household into his description of the ethnic Mexican community. . . .
Making Lemonade Out of Lemons underscores the importance of Chicano/a history to understand the American West. Alamillo succeeds in adding the element of race to the development of industrial agriculture in the urbanizing West." --
Western Historical Quarterly"Alamillo's study teaches lessons on processes of social change and the shifting formation of racial, ethnic, gender, and class identities. Further, the book's analysis provides insight on the creativity and persistence which subjugated groups rely upon to actualize social equality. . . . This book has been necessary for a good while. . . . Alamillo fills part of the considerable literature gap on Latina/Latino and US Southwestern community and labour history." --
Left History
