Today, Mexican Americans are the youngest and fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. But Mexican Americans are also among the nation’s oldest communities, with a rich and complex history. This book seeks to restore Mexican Americans to their rightful place in the narrative of American history.

Through its 71 carefully edited selections, the book draws on the voices of Mexican Americans to chronicle and interpret their experience from the beginnings of Spanish colonization of the northern Mexican frontier to the present. This documentary history provides an indispensable introduction to Mexican American history and culture.