Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

by Kelly Lytle Hernández Narrated by Joana Garcia

Overview

Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers-and American dissidents-to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico's dictator, Porfirio Díaz, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of US authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The US Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice, as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country.



But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world's first social revolution of the twentieth century.



Taking listeners to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of US history. Long ignored by textbooks, the magonistas threatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making the magonistas' story integral to modern American life.

Editorial Reviews

Star Tribune - Michael Schaub

"Lytle Hernández is a natural storyteller, and her writing shines throughout "Bad Mexicans." And while it reads like a novel — she proves to be masterful at building narrative suspense — it's also meticulously researched, and the author provides ample context to help readers understand the history of Mexico and its relationship with the U.S."

Austin-American Statesman - Michael Barnes

"Fantastic....absorbing....Hernández masterfully weaves it all together into a compelling narrative, parts of which I will read again and again."

The New York Review of Books - Francisco Cantú

"What is profound about Hernández’s portrayal is the way it reverberates outward from Mexico, through the borderlands, and deep into the interior of the United States and even Canada, casually brushing aside the notion that this era of upheaval was in any way confined by our frontier and framing it instead as part of a truly American story. . . . For a region saddled with so many grimly narrated histories, Bad Mexicans is great fun, full of the joyful resilience and tenacity that make the borderlands and its people so distinct."

Heather Anne Thompson

"An award-winning, internationally acclaimed scholar, Kelly Lytle Hernández delivers historical analysis with clear relevance in today’s sociopolitical climate. A leading voice on issues ranging from immigration to policing to the criminal justice system more broadly, her work is known for empowering a wide range of communities, providing the necessary historical framing to build synergy among some of today’s most daring social movements."

Vicki Lynn Ruiz

"Kelly Lytle Hernández writes history and makes history. She is one of the most admired and respected historians of Mexican-American history and the United States. Conveying deep archival research in a compelling, accessible narrative, she breathes life into history."

New Yorker - Geraldo Cadava

"There is no Hollywood movie about the magonistas, although reading “Bad Mexicans” is like watching one....Like Flores Magón, Lytle Hernández’s pen is her sword; her writing is a monument to the belief that language can change the world."

Natalia Molina

"In this sweeping cross-border narrative, Lytle-Hernández places the Magón brothers and the Mexican Revolution squarely at the heart of U.S. history—revealing not only the centrality of Mexicans to the U.S. story but also the currents of imperialism, racial violence, and political suppression that have shaped the United States as we know it today. In Bad Mexicans, Lytle-Hernández displays the skills of a deep thinker, a powerful storyteller, and an assiduous and implacable researcher."

Robin D. G. Kelley

"I’m mad at Kelly Lytle Hernández. Every time I pick up something she’s written, I can’t put it down. I’ve lost hours, days, sleep, missed deadlines and appointments, made my kids late to school reading Migra! and City of Inmates, and, now, Bad Mexicans. Her writing is like a drug, riveting, intoxicating, vivid. And she’s a damned historian! I come away from reading Kelly’s writing exhilarated and inspired."

Michael Eric Dyson Michael Eric Dyson

"Kelly Lytle Hernández is one of the most compelling historians in her field. Synthesizing the complexities of race, gender, and ethnicity into the fabric of living history, her work sheds light on today’s crucial issues and her passion has the capacity to not only inform but to change minds."

Boston Globe - Walton Muyumba

"Hernandez’s staggering, essential study argues that 'he history of the United States as a global power' can’t be told without Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans as central actors."

Michael Eric Dyson

"Kelly Lytle Hernández is one of the most compelling historians in her field. Synthesizing the complexities of race, gender, and ethnicity into the fabric of living history, her work sheds light on today’s crucial issues and her passion has the capacity to not only inform but to change minds."

Austin-American Statesman

"Fantastic...absorbing….Hernández masterfully weaves it all together into a compelling narrative, parts of which I will read again and again."

Boston Globe

"Hernandez’s staggering, essential study argues that ‘the history of the United States as a global power’ can’t be told without Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans as central actors.”

Minneapolis Star Tribune

While it reads like a novel―she proves to be masterful at building narrative suspense―it’s also meticulously researched."

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2022-02-15
An astute historical analysis of how Mexican resistance to longtime authoritarian President Porfirio Díaz resonated on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border.

In her latest, Lytle Hernández, a MacArthur fellow and professor of history and African American studies at UCLA, delivers a gripping cross-border study. Díaz installed himself as president in 1876 and, for close to three decades, invited U.S. investment in Mexico at the expense of his country’s most disadvantaged and marginalized citizens. In response, brothers Jesús and Ricardo Flores Magón, whose family suffered financial ruin at the hands of Díaz and his policies, organized a grassroots resistance movement called the magonistas, a group the president disparaged as “malos Mexicanos.” While the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) is usually discussed in the context of its influence on Central America, the author argues convincingly that it “also remade the United States.” Indeed, the magonista movement had headquarters in San Antonio, St. Louis, and Los Angeles, and its members were partially motivated by the mistreatment of Mexicans in the U.S., especially the consequence-free murders of immigrant laborers, “act[s] of racial terror akin to the lynching of African Americans in the South.” As Lytle Hernández shows, the U.S. government continued to provide support to Díaz’s corrupt regime, including the hiring of spies to infiltrate the magonista movement. Eventually, Díaz made a series of tactical errors that resulted in the loss of American support—and, ultimately, an end to his dictatorial rule. All of these events shaped not just the formation of modern Mexico; they also defined the tenor of Mexican-American relations that continues to this day. The author combines a masterful grasp of archival material and accessible prose, transforming what could have been a dry academic work into a page-turner. Lytle Hernández fully develops each character and thoroughly contextualizes each historical event. Furthermore, her inclusion of Indigenous and feminist voices is both refreshing and necessary.

A beautifully crafted, impressively inclusive history of the Mexican Revolution.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175011587
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	788,578

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