Authored by Rodolfo Acuña, one of the most influential and highly-regarded scholars of Chicano history and Ethnic Studies, Occupied America is the leading textbook for Chicano history courses. Beginning with the Mesoamerican civilizations before the 1519 Spanish invitation, continuing through Mexico’s conquests as a developing nation, and ending with an examination of issues of immigration, labor, education, and equality during the last 100 years, this text serves as an ideal foundation for understanding and analyzing Chicano history. This extensively researched and passionately written text not only covers the major developments and incidents in Mexican history, but also explores the complicating factors of race, gender and class in forming Chicano identity.

1. Not just pyramids, explorers, and heroes -- The cradles of civilization -- The corn people -- The Olmeca 1500 BC-500 BC -- The Maya -- Maya hieroglyphic writing -- Maya society -- The decline of Mayan civilization -- Teotihuacn -- Urbanism and trade -- Other corn civilizations -- The Tolteca -- The Tarasco -- The Azteca -- En El Norte -- Conclusion : the world system in 1519 -- The core zones -- The semi-peripheral zones -- The Mesoamerican periphery -- 2. The occupation of Middle America -- Africa begins at the Pyrenees -- The Spanish conquest -- Faith versus rationality -- The Spanish invasion of the Mexica -- The colonization of native Mesoamerica -- Smallpox and other plagues -- The conquest of race and labor in Mesoamerica -- Women in colonial Mesoamerica -- The changing roles of women -- The assimilation of native women -- Al Norte : god, gold, glory, silver, and slaves -- The decline of the indigenous population -- The changing order -- The bonanzas -- Forced labor -- The Northern corridor -- The decline of the native population -- The colonization of Texas -- El Paso del Norte -- The Tlaxcaln and the Castas -- The importance of San Antonio and links to the Río Bravo -- The occupation of Alta California : paradise lost -- Los Indios -- The missions : myth and reality -- Conclusion : on the eve of the Mexican War of Independence -- 3. A legacy of hate : the conquest of Mexico's northwest -- Mexican independence from Spain -- The colonial legacy -- The nation-state -- Background to the invasion of Texas -- Broken promises -- Causes of the war -- Follow the money : the land companies and trade -- Wanna-be Sam Adamses -- The point of no return -- The invasion of Texas -- The pretext : myths of the Alamo -- The defense of the Mexican homeland -- Mexicans win the battles but lose the war -- The invasion of Mexico -- The manufactured war -- An unwarranted aggression -- The pretext for conquest -- Religious justifications for war -- History as propaganda -- The myth of a nonviolent nation -- Peacemakers expose the violence of war -- The San Patricio Battalion -- The war crimes -- Mexicans on the front lines -- The prosecution of the war -- The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo -- The controversy -- The deception -- The honorable man -- Conclusion. 4. Remember the Alamo : the colonization of Texas -- The years between 1836 and 1845 -- To the victor belongs the spoils -- The border -- The founding fathers? -- The robber barons become captains of industry -- Social and political ostracization and control -- The consolidation of Texas wealth -- Socialization -- The Indian savage, the Mexican bandit -- Controlling the Mexicans -- Politics of race and gender -- The resistance -- Runaway slaves -- Trade wars -- Social banditry -- The case of Juan Cortina -- The people's revolt -- The ballad of Gregorio Cortez -- The transformation -- The restructuring -- The railroad and the advent of industrial capitalism -- Mexico comes to Texas -- Reform politics and Mexicans -- The growth of the Mexican population -- The growth of racist nativism -- Mexican resistance -- Conclusion -- 5. Freedom in a cage : the colonization of New Mexico -- On the frontier -- The Santa Fe Trail : the Trojan horse -- Anti-American sentiment -- The Euroamerican invasion -- The Taos revolt -- Inventing tradition -- The transition -- The illusion of inclusion -- Gringos and ricos -- How was it done? -- The Santa Fe ring and the land grab -- The Lincoln County war -- Socialization -- The Americanization of the Catholic Church -- The New Mexican Diaspora -- It's the chili -- New Mexico in Colorado -- The resistance -- The land grabbers -- The village people defend their land -- More illusions of inclusion -- The end of the frontier -- The growth of industrial mining -- Changes in society -- Federal encroachment -- Conclusion -- 6. Sonora invaded : the occupation of Arizona -- The frontier -- The Gadsden purchase -- The silent war with Sonora -- Filibustering expeditions into Sonora -- Mexicans in early Arizona -- Tensions -- "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" -- Marrying up! -- The alliance of elites -- The war against the Apache -- The fate of the "friendly Indian" -- The land-grab- grant -- The transformation of Arizona -- From adobe to copper -- Border conflicts -- The industrialization of Arizona -- The importance of mining -- The expansion of capital -- Industrial mining -- The 1890s : the de-skilling of mine work -- The pull factor -- The impact of industrialization on Mexicans -- Mutual aid societies -- The Mexican middle class -- Small favors to women -- Miners organize : the emergence of trade unions -- It's the water -- Conclusion -- 7. California lost : America for Euroamericans -- Indians count -- The Spanish occupation -- The Mexican period -- The gap between classes -- No utopia! women and the transformation of California -- The bear flag -- John C. Fremont and the bear flag -- U.S. invasion of California -- Gold transforms California -- The Gold Rush creates a template -- Complicity of the Californios -- Legalized theft : the foreign miners' tax -- Decline of the Californios -- The locusts -- Taxation without representation -- Marrying white -- The whitening of California -- Legitimization of violence -- The Mexican prostitute -- The American dream, the Lugos trial -- The disillusionment -- El Clamor Público -- Class divisions -- Social banditry -- Tiburcio Vásquez -- Mexicans in a changing society -- Becoming a minority -- The church's role -- Labor -- The exclusion of the other -- Colonias -- Conclusion -- 8. Immigration, labor, and generational change -- Overview -- The transformation -- The push -- The pull -- Opposition to Díaz -- The Pinos Altos strike -- Precursors to revolution -- The triangle -- Teresa de Urrea -- Disciplining Mexicans : forty blonde babies -- The Mexican Diaspora -- Exploitation begets resistance -- The struggle for equal education -- The Mexican Revolution -- A changing society -- Mexican workers under siege -- Pancho Villa drives the gringos crazy -- The hysteria : the plan of San Diego -- World War I : the big shift -- Shifts in political consciousness -- Mexican responses to industrial transformation -- The failure of American brotherhood -- The westward movement of king cotton -- Conclusion -- 9. The 1920s : the effects of World War I -- Americanization : a study of extremes -- Protestant Churches and Americanization of the Mexican -- Catholic Churches react to Americanization -- Nationalism versus Americanization -- Mexicans and Mexican Americans -- The influence of World War I on becoming Mexican American -- The League of United Latin American citizens -- The move to the cities -- San Antonio's west side -- Los Angeles : "where only the weeds grow" -- Mexicans in the Midwest and points East -- Mexican labor in the 1920s -- Importance of the sugar-beet industry -- Mexicans in the northwest -- Mexicans in Texas -- Mexicans in the Midwest -- The growth of California agribusiness -- Mexican unions -- Greasers go home -- Keeping America blond and white -- Conclusion -- 10. Mexican American communities in the making : the depression years -- The Great Depression : La Crisis -- Stresses and strains during La Crisis -- Life during the Great Depression -- The importance of being San Antonio -- Nativist deportations of the 1930s -- Repatriation Texas-style -- The fate of the deportee in Mexico -- Factories in the fields -- Texas farms -- Renting Mexicans -- The farm workers' revolt -- The El Monte strike -- The Tagus Ranch -- The San Joaquín Valley cotton strike -- The Imperial Valley, 1934 -- CUCOM and Mexican strikes -- The Congress of Industrial Organizations -- Rural workers in the Lone Star state -- Colorado and the Manitos -- The city -- Los Angeles Mexican women garment workers -- San Antonio Mexicana workers -- La Pasionaria, the pecan shellers' strike, and San Antonio -- Unionization in Los Angeles -- Labor in the Midwest : Chicago -- The Mexican American miners' revolt -- The Mexican-origin community -- The Los Angeles community -- The Mexican American movement -- El Congreso de los Pueblos de Habla Español -- Fighting segregation -- The Manitos -- Move to the windy city : Chicago -- Conclusion -- 11. World War II : the betrayal of promises -- Changing identities -- World War II and the Mexican -- El Soldado Raso -- The case of Guy Gabaldón -- The story of Company E : the all-Mexican unit -- Racism at home and abroad -- Chicanas go to war -- The home front -- A profile of courage -- Finding scapegoats -- The Sleepy Lagoon Trial -- Mutiny in the streets of Los Angeles -- Mexicanas support the war effort -- Rosita the Riveter -- The Federal Employment Practices Commission -- The making of the Cold War: the politics of control -- Control of labor -- The communists are coming -- Postwar opportunities -- Toward a civil rights agenda -- The American G.I. forum -- A transitional period -- Police and institutional brutality -- Controlling Mexican labor -- The return of farm labor militancy -- Importing Mexicans -- Conclusion -- 12. "Happy days" : Chicano communities under siege -- The Cold War -- The Korean War : historical amnesia -- Keeping America American -- Militarization of the immigration and naturalization service -- The Diaspora : an American odyssey -- The cities -- Seduced by the game -- New Mexico : the illusion of it all -- Los Angeles -- San Antonio -- El Paso -- Civil rights -- The "salt of the Earth" -- Toward equality -- California -- National Spanish-Speaking Council -- The struggle to preserve the barrios -- The FHA Mortgage-Loan and the G.I. Bill -- Urban renewal : the day of the bulldozer -- The Dodgers and Chávez Ravine -- Gentrification in the Midwest -- Conclusion : the importance of 1959 -- 13. Good-bye, America : the Chicano in the 1960s -- The early 1960s -- Inequality -- Harvest of shame -- High hopes : illusions of the sleeping giant -- San Antonio -- Los Angeles -- Organizing in Chicago -- The building of a civil rights coalition -- Viva Johnson -- Building the great society -- The walkout -- The Black-white syndrome -- The illusion fades -- Impact of the war on poverty -- Magnetization of the border -- The Immigration Act of 1965 -- Mexican American reaction to the memories of nativism -- The road to Delano -- Echoes of Delano -- The road to brown power -- The making of a movement -- The formation of core groups -- The East L.A. walkouts -- Chicana/o student militancy spreads -- The brown berets -- Tlatelolco, Mexico -- "Wild tribes of...the inner mountains of Mexico" -- Gringos and Tejanos -- The land struggle -- The crusade for justice -- Chicanas speak! -- Other Voices -- The Chicano youth movement gains steam -- Where is god? -- Violence at home -- Chicanas/os under siege -- Conclusion -- 14. The 1970s and 1980s : the deconstruction of the sixties -- Redefining racism -- Government legitimizes racism -- The politics of cynicism : Nixon's Hispanic strategy -- Dismantling the war on poverty -- Chicano power -- La Raza Unida Party -- Failure to build a national third party -- The last days of La Raza Unida -- Inequality from within -- Chicana voices -- Inevitable factions -- Las Hermanas -- Sterilization -- The road to Delano -- The Farah strike : the breaking of labor -- Sin Fronteras -- Nativism is racism -- Centro de Acción Social Autonóma-Hermandad de General de Trabajadores -- Get the Mexican bandits -- The media perpetuates racist nativism -- Getting away with terrorism -- In defense of the foreign born -- The growth of the Chicano middle class -- Chicanos as commodities -- Redefinition of the political middle -- Political gains -- Education : the stairway to the American dream -- Education equality -- Importance of the EOPs -- Expanding political vocabularies -- The "Pochoization" of the vocabulary -- The myth of a color-blind society -- Legacy admits -- Why progressive organizations fail -- Violence as an instrument of control -- Conclusion -- 15. Becoming a national minority : 1980-2001 -- The tyranny of words and actions -- Shared space -- El Salvador -- Nicaragua -- Guatemala -- Mexico -- Manufacturing the crisis -- The militarization of the border -- Organizing immigrant workers -- The hotel and restaurant workers -- The janitors -- From autos to buses -- The miners -- Boycott Levis--and Dockers, too! -- César Chávez and the UFW -- The movement for inclusion -- The sleeping giant -- Texas : the lone star -- Chicago : where the wind blows -- New Mexico : the illusion -- Colorado -- The glass ceiling -- A profile of Chicanas -- Bucking the glass ceiling -- The Tejana gender gap -- Immigrant women workers -- The 1990s : a portrait of inequality -- Can you smell the refried beans? -- Tejano population boom -- California : political gains -- Under the influence of the illusion -- The North American Free Trade Agreement -- The Zapatistas -- "Don't mourn, organize!" -- The political refugees -- Forging communities -- The idealists -- The backlash -- It didn't happen by accident -- Proposition 187 : the American way -- Proposition 209 and the color-blind society -- Proposition 227 : if you speak one language, you're American -- The national scene : census 2000 -- The big three -- The California revolution -- Texas : gringos speaking Spanish -- Chicago -- The Northwest : the spread of the tortilla curtain -- The age of the believers -- Unsettled scores -- Conclusion -- Epilogue : is Antonio Banderas a Chicano? -- Identity and interests -- Where are the other Latinos? -- Not an identifiable minority -- Is there a Latino identity? -- Identifiable Inequality -- Immigration -- The search for equality -- The poor -- "Be all that you can be" -- What's in the future? -- The search for inclusion -- Conclusion -- The map room -- Creating a timeline.