Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880-1930. (Book Reviews).Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880-1930. By Roberto R. Calderon. Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: Borderlands Culture and Tradition, No. 2. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000. Pp. [xx], 294. $39.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-89096-884-5.) Roberto R. Calderon traces the history of coal mining on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, where Mexican labor predominated during the era of handloading and before coal lost its place to oil. In separate chapters and in enormous detail he delineates developments regarding geology, ownership, marketing, technology, demography, and unionization at each of several mines in two Texas mining regions (for bituminous bi·tu·mi·nous adj. 1. Like or containing bitumen. 2. Of or relating to bituminous coal. Adj. 1. bituminous - resembling or containing bitumen; "bituminous coal" and lignite lignite (lĭg`nīt) or brown coal, carbonaceous fuel intermediate between coal and peat, brown or yellowish in color and woody in texture. coal) and in Coahuila, Mexico. The book relies heavily on published sources, including company records, government reports, and newspapers. In both countries, coal production took off as a response to the needs of railroads for fuel. Local ownership of small-scale mines gave way to powerfully connected and often international entitites such as Collis P. Huntington's Mexican International Railroad The following railroads have been called International Railroad or International Railway:
v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. supervision impossible. They struggled for more control, however, through organization and strikes over housing (nuclear families vastly predominated, rather than the single-male workers of other mining colonies), as well as hours and wages. Spanish-language newspapers carried stories of labor activism and revolution to both sides of the border. The fate of workers' struggles depended on location and timing; ironically, the Mexican Revolution Mexican Revolution (1910–20) Lengthy struggle that began with the overthrow of Porfirio Díaz, whose elitist and oligarchic policies had caused widespread dissatisfaction. harmed labor unions more than it helped them, with the new government crushing Mexican coal mining unions in the name of "states' rights states' rights, in U.S. history, doctrine based on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. " during the 1920s (p. 207). I applaud Calderon's decision to include both sides of the border and the variety of facets he investigates, although the book's organization and the morass of details often muddy the overall picture and bury the thesis. Nonetheless, the book is full of useful information for specialists in the fields of labor or borderlands studies. SARAH DEUTSCH University of Arizona |
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