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BAD MEXICANS

Kelly Lytle Hernandez

Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

The fascinating story of the rebel journalist, exiled in America, who sparked the Mexican Revolution.
Few Americans today know the significance of Ricardo Flores Magón (18741922) and the magonistas, a group of agitators who challenged Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz in the early twentieth century. But distinguished historian Kelly Lytle Hernández argues their cross-border insurgency, launched from U.S. soil, was a landmark revolt against the U.S. empire and the suffocating power Anglo-Americans held over Mexican lives. Through protest and armed rebellion, the magonistas ignited the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which upended North America. Their story reads like a thriller, with the rebels evading an international manhunt amid a swirl of love affairs, betrayals, and dramatic battlefield raids. Pursued by the nascent FBI, the rebels wrote in secret code and organized thousands of workers to their cause. Lytle Hernandez documents how the magonista uprising, and the failed Anglo-American campaign to stop them, proved foundational to the history of race, immigration, and violence in the United States. Kelly Lytle Hernández holds the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and directs the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. A 2019 MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient, she is the author of the award-winning books Migra! and City of Inmates. She lives in Los Angeles, California.
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Published 2022-05-10 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

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NPR "Throughline" podcast, Episode including author, "Cinco de Mayo and the Rise of the Modern Border" Read more...

An astute historical analysis... a gripping cross-border study... While the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) is usually discussed in the context of its influence on Central America, the author argues convincingly that it 'also remade the United States'... The author combines a masterful grasp of archival material and accessible prose, transforming what could have been a dry academic work into a page-turner... A beautifully crafted, impressively inclusive history of the Mexican Revolution.

This new book from historian Kelly Lytle Hernández tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, and migrant workers, who organized thousands of Mexican workers - and American dissidents - to their cause. Hernández's research will introduce readers to one of the border's greatest unknown stories. Read more...

Spanish Fondo de Cultura Economica ; Spanish - Audio: Audible Spain

Kelly Lytle Hernández writes history and makes history. She is one of the most admired and respected historians of Mexican-American history and the United States. Conveying deep archival research in a compelling, accessible narrative, she breathes life into history.

In Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, historian Kelly Lytle Hernández offers a brilliant, impeccably-researched, and engaging history of the lead up to the Mexican Revolution, whose impact on trade, immigration and international relations reverberates and impacts so many things even more than a century later. Read more...

BAD MEXICANS is a #1 Best Seller in History of Mexico on Amazon

An award-winning, internationally acclaimed scholar, Kelly Lytle Hernández delivers historical analysis with clear relevance in today's sociopolitical climate. A leading voice on issues ranging from immigration to policing to the criminal justice system more broadly, her work is known for empowering a wide range of communities, providing the necessary historical framing to build synergy among some of today's most daring social movements.

This new book from historian Kelly Lytle Hernández tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, and migrant workers, who organized thousands of Mexican workers - and American dissidents - to their cause. Hernández's research will introduce readers to one of the border's greatest unknown stories. Read more...

Kelly Lytle Hernández is one of the most compelling historians in her field. Synthesizing the complexities of race, gender, and ethnicity into the fabric of living history, her work sheds light on today's crucial issues and her passion has the capacity to not only inform but to change minds.

Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández offers a brilliant, impeccably-researched, and engaging history of the lead up to the Mexican Revolution, whose impact on trade, immigration and international relations reverberates and impacts so many things even more than a century later. Read more...

I'm mad at Kelly Lytle Hernández. Every time I pick up something she's written, I can't put it down. I've lost hours, days, sleep, missed deadlines and appointments, made my kids late to school reading Migra! and City of Inmates, and, now, Bad Mexicans. Her writing is like a drug, riveting, intoxicating, vivid. And she's a damned historian! I come away from reading Kelly's writing exhilarated and inspired.

In this sweeping cross-border narrative, Lytle-Hernández places the Magón brothers and the Mexican Revolution squarely at the heart of U.S. history - revealing not only the centrality of Mexicans to the U.S. story but also the currents of imperialism, racial violence, and political suppression that have shaped the United States as we know it today. In Bad Mexicans, Lytle-Hernández displays the skills of a deep thinker, a powerful storyteller, and an assiduous and implacable researcher