Explores the ways that nearly a century of steady immigration from Mexico has shaped ethnic politics in California and Texas, the two largest US border states. This work focuses on the complex ways that their pattern of immigration influenced Mexican Americans' sense of social and cultural identity - and, as a consequence, their politics.

In addition, Gutierrez offers a new interpretation of the debate over assimilation and multiculturalism in American society. Rejecting the notion of the melting pot, he explores the ways that ethnic Mexicans have resisted assimilation and fought to create a cultural space for themselves in distinctive ethnic communities throughout the southwestern United States.