CHICANOS: The Story of Mexican Americans

The Mexican-American experience: is condensed and simplified here into the semi-dramatized life stories of Carlos (whose family is among the 16th-century followers of Juan de Onate), 19th-century Californio miners Miguel and Dario, and the migrant worker family of Miguel's grandson Tomas. Later, de Garza shifts to a straight journalistic account of the contemporary scene -- the Chavez movement, other leaders and organizations prominent in La Causa and an irrelevant assortment of Mexican Americans prominent in public service and the entertainment field. The tone is optimistic throughout -- sometimes misleadingly so, as evidenced by a picture caption that reads: ""In the past, when more money was needed, women and children often worked in the fields alongside their husbands and fathers."" More to the point, this is just another uninspired resifting.