Becoming Mexican American: An Empowering Exemplar of Social and Cultural History

Abstract

I am honored to evaluate George Sánchez’s groundbreaking, meticulously researched monograph Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945. No matter how many years pass, I will always consider myself George’s grateful student, just as I will always be a humble student of history. Accordingly, this essay mixes the personal and professional as it illustrates the methodological, theoretical, and historiographical impact of Becoming Mexican American on my own research and on Chicana/Chicano history, as well as the importance of Sánchez’s other scholarship and his mentorship.