Barrios to Burbs The Making of the Mexican American Middle Class [Hardcover]

Too frequently, the media and politicians cast Mexican immigrants as a threat to American society. Given America's increasing ethnic diversity and the large size of the Mexican-origin population, an investigation of how Mexican immigrants and their descendants achieve upward mobility and enter the middle class is long overdue.Barrios to Burbsoffers a new understanding of the Mexican American experience.

Vallejo explores the challenges that accompany rapid social mobility and examines a new indicator of incorporation, a familial obligation to give back in social and financial support. She investigates the salience of middle-class Mexican Americans' ethnic identification and details how relationships with poorer coethnics and affluent whites evolve as immigrants and their descendants move into traditionally white middle-class occupations. Disputing the argument that Mexican communities lack high quality resources and social capital that can help Mexican Americans incorporate into the middle class, Vallejo also examines civic participation in ethnic professional associations embedded in ethnic communities.

This book should be required reading for students and advanced sociologists alike. With a focus on shifting the conceptualization of a monolithic Mexican American experience,Barrio to Burbsalso serves as a significant resource for students and scholars interested in Latino/a sociology, racial and ethnic studies, and social stratification. Though it isn't the only book addressing the experiences of a Mexican American middle class, it certainly is now a seminal read for all those who would like to complicate their understandings of Mexican Americans in the United States. Utilizing interviews, non-participant observation, participant observation, and ethnography, [Vallejo] provides a rich contextual description of middle-class immigrant life. This book examines middle-class Mexican Americans' patterns of mobility and incorporation.Jody Agiuló(