@article{714306,
      recid = {714306},
      author = {Marquez, Benjamin,},
      title = {Democratizing Texas politics race, identity, and Mexican  American empowerment, 1945-2002 / [electronic resource] :},
      pages = {1 online resource (256 pages) :},
      abstract = {"In 1940 there were virtually no Mexican American elected  officials in Texas at any level of government. By the turn  of the century that was no longer true. In fact, Mexican  Americans in Texas had effectively reached parity with  their white counterparts in elected office. This book tells  the story of this dramatic transition in Texas politics and  seeks to explain it utilizing original archival research,  hours of interviews with leading figures, and the collected  letters of some of Texas' most important politicians and  activists. The departure from a racially uniform political  class in Texas to incorporate Mexican Americans was slow  and difficult. Mexican Americans rarely won easy victories  and the concessions they received were often yielded with  reluctance. Threatened with racial tension, minority status  and political exclusion, it is perhaps surprising that  Mexican Americans were so successfully incorporated. I  argue that their incorporation was the culmination of six  interrelated political processes: the long history of  political organization among Mexican Americans in Texas  that had established an effective corps of leaders, an  increasing proportion of the voting-age population, new  Democratic Party policies developed to increase the  representation of women and minorities, a reinvigorated  Republican Party that absorbed conservative voters and  weakened resistance to racial reform in the Democratic  Party, the civil rights legislation of the 1960s, and  finally, an alliance with Anglo liberals that facilitated  the transition to a more representative two-party system in  Texas"--},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/714306},
}