Omar S. Valerio-Jiménez. River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Borderlands. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013. xiv + 369 pp. $26.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8223-5185-6.

Reviewed by Sonia Hernandez

Published on H-Borderlands (September, 2013)

Commissioned by Benjamin H. Johnson (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)

The Rio Grande borderlands, as Omar S. Vale‐ cana/o history, Valerio-Jiménez is to be commend‐ rio-Jiménez contends, were shaped through daily ed for his attention to the intersections of gender, negotiations of gender, class, and racial ideolo‐ class, and race. Further, he places such intersec‐ gies. Such negotiations--whether personal in daily tions within the context of a changing community encounters, or public in courts or military con‐ rife with political animosities and competing frontations--informed inhabitants’ identities as ideas of belonging and privilege. His arguments they managed to cope with the profound changes are placed within and engage current debates in wrought by war, conquest, and empire and nation the felds of women’s and Mexican historiogra‐ building. Residents’ identities were not static and phy; he also incorporates key Mexican scholar‐ changed as the Villas del Norte came under the ship for a balanced interpretation of historical control of diferent empires and nation-states. The events. Villas del Norte were the Spanish settlements in By the late nineteenth century, the inhabi‐ Nuevo Santander located along the Rio Grande tants of the former Villas del Norte, now subjects from Laredo to the mouth of the Gulf of . of the U.S. government, became for the most part Using binational archival documents (both reli‐ a marginalized people. From a position of “privi‐ gious and secular), including the rarely cited (but lege” during the early Nuevo Santander period to crucial to borderlands history) Archivo Histórico that of “neglected,” as Mexico became a republic, de Reynosa, Valerio-Jiménez shows how the re‐ the peoples of the region came gion’s inhabitants underwent profound changes to use localized ideas of race and citizenship to during the Spanish, Mexican, and fnally Ameri‐ frequently challenge newly created local and state can occupation of the region from the to the laws as the region became part of the United early 1900s. Doing borderlands history while si‐ States. People’s “class and gender diferences fur‐ multaneously addressing indigenous and Chi‐ ther shaped their perception of American rule” H-Net Reviews

(p. 12). What followed was a process of identity attempted to negotiate the terms of their subjugat‐ formation based on localized ideas of culture, ed positions vis-à-vis husbands/or family patri‐ gender, class, and political orientation shaped by archs--not necessarily to demand gender equity, living in a region infuenced by indigenous, Span‐ as the author points out. The drawing of the ish, Mexican, and Euro-American customs and boundary in 1848 ushered a new era for women-- practices. on both sides. , while at times more progres‐ Valerio-Jiménez’s scholarship is in line with sive than other states with regard to its laws, of‐ recently published works by such scholars as Raul fered women legal recourse when it came to cases Ramos (Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, of seduction and rape. Texas law also recognized 1821-1861 [2009]), Miguel Levario ( Militarizing civil and common law marriages, unlike Mexican the Border: When Became the Enemy law. Divorce was also now an option and would [2012]), and José Angel Hernández (Mexican remain a recourse for women (and men) in Mexi‐ American Colonization during the Nineteenth co until decades later. Nonetheless, such legal op‐ Century: A History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands tions were still very much colored by entrenched [2012]), who pay close attention to residents’ role gender ideologies. Judges still considered wom‐ in the making of nation-states and its often con‐ en’s sexual past in most cases, whereas men’s sex‐ tested border corridors.[1] What sets River of ual past was hardly taken into account. Hope apart is the extent to which it includes in- River of Hope is a timely reminder of the dev‐ depth analysis of resident and transient women of astating consequences of conquest and the un‐ all social classes and ethnicities. Valerio-Jiménez even process of incorporation--which remained explains how women and their male counterparts incomplete. Such processes were, however, frequently challenged larger, national, and even shaped by local voices and events. As Anglo-Amer‐ transnational changes. Working-class indigenous icans became the majority in terms of occupying and/or mestizo inhabitants, as well as criadas and privileged political and law enforcement posi‐ criados (female and male servants), used legal tions, and as ranching and small-scale agriculture channels to demand protection, or to rectify abus‐ dominated the economy, the borderlands region es. He explains this and more in six chapters became one ruled by vigilantes, unscrupulous lo‐ spanning over two centuries of history. cal lawmen, and Texas Rangers who “inspired While Valerio-Jiménez dedicates specifc fear among mexicanos” as a way to “pacify the re‐ chapters to an analysis of gender ideologies and gion” (p. 164). Such violence could in fact be coun‐ gender expectations, he deserves credit for inter‐ tered and one way was by crossing the Rio weaving women’s experiences throughout his Grande. The river was a source of hope for many, monograph. Moreover, he does so not studying as some “fed across the border to avoid conscrip‐ women in isolation but rather in relation to oth‐ tion or criminal prosecution,” while others pre‐ ers in the community. Class often shaped women’s sented claims via legal channels on the Texas side, position in society and could certainly trump gen‐ or petitioned for a divorce (p. 279). Ultimately, life der, yet, as the author proves, even women from in this region was not easy, but residents found underprivileged positions accessed the courts and ways to negotiate everyday challenges; in this used them quite frequently. Although not all way, Valerio-Jiménez convincingly demonstrates women won their cases, the legal records reveal how these people on the margins were not mar‐ their willingness to use the available legal chan‐ ginal at all and played a determining role in shap‐ nels. To be sure, women’s proactive approaches to ing their community and the boundaries between present grievances reveal the way in which they two nation-states. Further, this study reveals how identity was shaped by racial, gender, and class

2 H-Net Reviews ideologies, and how inhabitants frequently used such identities to cope with, resist, and negotiate changes in the community. Given River of Hope’s emphasis on gender, class, race, resistance, and identity and citizenship, students of Chicano/a studies, as well as borderlands, migration, and women’s history will fnd it quite useful. Note [1]. There are other examples; however, these monographs mainly focus on the eastern end of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

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Citation: Sonia Hernandez. Review of Valerio-Jiménez, Omar S. River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands. H-Borderlands, H-Net Reviews. September, 2013.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38259

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