The advent of Chicano Studies in the 1960s spawned a tremendous interest in the history of Mexicans in the United States. Committed to a multidisciplinary approach from the very outset, Chicano and Chicana scholars used a variety of perspectives to explain the Mexican-American past. As was true of other non-traditional fields, in the beginning Chicana/o works lacked theoretical sophistication and tended toward simplistic interpretations. Many works were unabashedly celebratory in nature. Consequently, there was a natural reluctance by many publishing houses to accept their work, forcing many ethnic scholars to turn to professional journals, many of them obscure, for the publication of their work, a legacy that continues to the present.
Happily, the work of Chicana/o historians and their colleagues in other disciplines has grown increasingly sophisticated, notably since the mid-1980s. Today, the work of these ethnic scholars is at the forefront of studies on class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The rapid strides made by Chicana/o scholars, particularly historians, are reflected in the numerous prestigious prizes accorded their literary efforts in recent years.
Much of this path-breaking work on Mexican-American history first appeared in scholarly reviews. Unfortunately, many of these journals are difficult to access, even by academics themselves. En Aquel Entonces is intended as a partial solution to the problem. This anthology brings together thirty-one of the most innovative journal articles published during the past thirty years. This collection, from a variety of disciplines, provides students of history with a panoramic portrait of Mexicanos in the United States while at the same time introducing them to Chicana/o historiography.