Anything But Mexican Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles

Mexicans and other Latinos comprise fifty percent of the population of Los Angeles and are the largest ethnic group in California. In this completely revised and updated edition of a classic political and social history, one of the foremost scholars of the Latino experience situates the US's largest immigrant community in a time of anti-immigrant fervor. Originally published in 1996, this edition analyses the rise and rule of LA's first-ever Mexican American mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as the harsh pressures facing Chicanos in an increasingly unequal and gentrifying city.

Rodolfo F. Acuña is the founding chair of the Chicana/o Studies department at California State University at Northridge—the largest Chicana/o Studies Department in the United States. He has authored twenty-two books, including three children’s books, and Voices of the US Latino Experience; Corridors of Migration: Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600–1933; and Occupied America: A History of Chicanos.