The book Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the Great Depression seeks to explain how the Mexican population of Los Angeles recreated the Mexican World in this new land. Throughout the book the author explores many facets of Mexican life in what he calls Mexico de afuera, detailing topics such as labor, family and politics. However, the author neglects to follow a single train of thought from beginning to end, and even neglects his thesis for large sections of the book. The book as a whole reads more like a collection of articles than a cohesive novel. Douglas Monroy received his Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees from University of California Los Angeles, and has been a professor at Colorado College for 39 years. At Colorado College he serves as the director of Southwest Studies. Throughout his academic career Monroy has published three books and has authored 19 articles, most of them book reviews on Mexican-American culture. Moreover, Monroy has served on the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Speaker series. Though he is not heavily cited, with only 39 official citations to his name, it is clear that Douglas Monroy is a leader in his field. …show more content…
Monroy utilizes a plethora of primary source documents to substantiate his points throughout the book. When he discusses secondary sources, they add more to the historiography rather than the narrative he presents. The amount of research and sources used is seemingly unparalleled. This amount of research allows Monroy to give examples of Mexican culture in Los Angeles with such depth and vibrancy that that one can feel as though they are there. However this often leads to Monroy’s downfall; he cannot follow his thesis throughout the