The Southern Exodus To Mexico

After the Civil War, a handful of former Confederate leaders joined forces with the Mexican emperor Maximilian von Hapsburg to colonize Mexico with former American slaveholders. Their plan was to develop commercial agriculture in the Mexican state of Coahuila under the guidance of former slaveholders with former slaves providing the bulk of the labor force. By developing these new centers of agricultural production and commercial exchange, the Mexican government hoped to open up new markets and, by extending the few already-existing railroads in the region, also spur further development. The Southern Exodus to Mexico considers the experiences of both white southern elites and common white and black southern farmers and laborers who moved to Mexico during this period. Todd W. Wahlstrom examines in particular how the endemic warfare, raids, and violence along the borderlands of Texas and Coahuila affected the colonization effort. Ultimately, Native groups such as the Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches, and Kickapoos, along with local Mexicans, prevented southern colonies from taking hold in the region, where local tradition and careful balances of power negotiated over centuries held more sway than large nationalistic or economic forces. This study of the transcultural tensions and conflicts in this region provides new perspectives for the historical assessment of this period of Mexican and American history.

Following the fall of the Confederacy thousands of southerners and their families went into self-exile in various parts of the world. General Joseph Orville Shelby led several hundred members of his former Missouri Cavalry Division to Mexico and into the middle of another civil war between Emperor Maximilian and his French protectors on the one hand and Constitutional President Benito Juarez and his supporters. Those former Confederate soldiers who arrived first in 1865 hoped to be the vanguard of an army of mercenaries pledged to become Maximilian's protectors after the French Army withdrew. Maximilian refused their military support but made thousands of acres available for their settlement and colonization. He also employed several former officers to survey and administer this project. This is the story of those who hoped for refuge from the Reconstruction of their former homes in the southern United States and the eventual destruction of their dream.

From prizewinning journalist and immigration expert Alfredo Corchado comes the sweeping story of the great Mexican migration from the late 1980s to today. Homelands is the story of Mexican immigration to the United States over the last three decades. Written by Alfredo Corchado, one of the most prominent Mexican American journalists, it's told from the perspective of four friends who first meet in a Mexican restaurant in Philadelphia in 1987. One was a radical activist, another a restaurant/tequila entrepreneur, the third a lawyer/politician, and the fourth, Alfredo, a hungry young reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Over the course of thirty years, the four friends continued to meet, coming together to share stories of the turning points in their lives-the death of parents, the births of children, professional milestones, stories from their families north and south of the border. Using the lens of this intimate narrative of friendship, the book chronicles one of modern America's most profound transformations-during which Mexican Americans swelled to become our largest single minority, changing the color, economy, and culture of America itself. In 1970, the Mexican population was just 700,000 people, but despite the recent decline in Mexican immigration to the United States, the Mexican American population has now passed three million-a result of high birth rates here in the United States. In the wake of the nativist sentiment unleased in the recent election, Homelands will be a must-read for policy makers, activists, Mexican Americas, and all those wishing to truly understand the background of our ongoing immigration debate.

In the midst of the heartbreak, confusion, and rumors that followed Appomattox, some Southerners resolved to emigrate rather than surrender, and emigrate they did-to South America, Europe, Canada, and Mexico. Mexico's Emperor Maximilian, trying to secure his shaky throne against Juarez' opposition, encouraged these recalcitrant Confederates to settle in Mexico. But, doomed to defeat by the internal crisis in Mexico and by the Southerners' failure to face reality, the Confederate colonies were established and destroyed within two years' time. Later, many of the colonists who survived the ordeal tried to forget that they had ever gone into exile. Among the emigrants were many prominent Southern leaders, barred from holding public office and, in some cases, facing possible arrest: General Jo Shelby, the hero of the Confederacy, who later became so reconciled to the victory of the North that he voted for a Republican; Commodore Matthew Maury, internationally recognized oceanographer and naval astronomer, who was welcomed to Mexico by Maximilian himself; Henry Watkins Allen, "the single great administrator produced by the Confederacy," who founded the English language Mexican Times; and Thomas Caute Reynolds, former lieutenant governor of Missouri, who encouraged Maximilian to stay in Mexico but who himself left. In all there may have been between eight and ten thousand Confederates in Mexico. The exodus, exile, and repatriation of the Confederates constitute a hitherto incompletely known incident in American history. In this fully documented account, Andrew F. Rolle reveals the hope, humor, disappointment, and defeat of Americans who believed that the only way to save their way of life was to leave their homeland.

The Baltimore connection -- Moving to Brazil -- The importance of agricultural, social, and economic conditions in Brazil -- Ideologies: race, religion, politicians, and scientists -- Protestantism, education, and the Campo Cemetery grounds.

"A detailed, rich, and engaging text on Mexicans in Los Angeles, from the turn of the century, when their presence was virtually unacknowledged, to the 1930s, when Mexican communities created a significant presence in the city. Monroy's book offers a sweeping narrative that carries you into Los Angeles and beyond, through a discussion of immigration pathways, work lives, and the popular culture of the immigrants and the first generation youth."—Lisbeth Haas, author of Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 1769-1936