University of North Carolina Press Archives of Dispossession: Recovering the Testimonios of Mexican American Herederas, 1848-1960 (Gender and American Culture)

One method of American territory expansion in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands was the denial of property rights to Mexican landowners, which led to dispossession. Many historical accounts overlook this colonial impact on Indigenous and Mexican peoples, and existing studies that do tackle this subject tend to privilege the male experience. Here, Karen R. Roybal recenters the focus of dispossession on women, arguing that gender, sometimes more than race, dictated legal concepts of property ownership and individual autonomy. Drawing on a diverse source base—legal land records, personal letters, and literature—Roybal locates voices of Mexican American women in the Southwest to show how they fought against the erasure of their rights, both as women and as landowners. Woven throughout Roybal's analysis are these women's testimonios—their stories focusing on inheritance, property rights, and shifts in power. Roybal positions these testimonios as an alternate archive that illustrates the myriad ways in which multiple layers of dispossession—and the changes of property ownership in Mexican law—affected the formation of Mexicana identity. Review An important contribution to the history of the southwest.--Journal of Southern HistoryA well-written text that is easy to absorb, Archives of Dispossession makes important contributions to Mexican American history.--American Historical ReviewRoybal's work is a new and valuable addition to U.S.-Mexico borderlands scholarship through its argument that the history of land struggles is a key to better understanding Mexican American women's identity formation.--The Journal of American HistoryThis is an informative study that takes unique approaches to discuss and recover elite Spanish/Mexican American women's cultural production.--LegacyIllustrates the longstanding struggles of women--especially women of color--inspiring new generations to continue the fight against patriarchal constraints.--Southwestern Historical QuarterlyAn evocative read, Roybal's book reminds us that we have each inherited the world in which we live and that, if we are to share it well, we must reckon with the prejudices that shaped it.--H-Net Reviews About the Author Karen R. Roybal is assistant professor of Southwest studies at Colorado College.