Border Dilemmas

“Border Dilemmas occupies a singular place in the literature on the West. It chronicles cultural relations and the generation of difference along the U.S.-Mexican border at the very moment when both American and Mexican national identities were being forged. Until now, no one has documented the nitty-gritty of this process and the ways that ethnic Mexicans on both sides of the border grappled with the production of local identities anchored in competitive national imaginaries.” - Ramón A. Gutiérrez, co-editor of Mexicans in California: Transformations and Challenges

“Anthony Mora has written a thoughtful extended essay on the racialization of citizenship and the demarcation of distinct communities in the context of the U.S.-Mexico border region.” - Cynthia Radding, American Historical Review

“Mora’s work ... provides a theoretical platform for understanding the issues of changing identity of Mexican Americans outside of New Mexico.” - F. Arturo Rosales, Hispanic American Historical Review

“Border Dilemmas by Anthony Mora is an excellent study about everyday life and identity formation in the New Mexico border region at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries…. [T]his is a strong book, and one that merits attention.” - María E. Montoya, Western Historical Quarterly

“Border Dilemmas deserves high praise for insightfully moving beyond many recent studies, which stress the deconstruction of identity, toward an understanding of how ethnic groups and nations have idealistically constructed positive identities to unite people on on a more egalitarian basis.” - John R. Chávez, New Mexico Historical Review

“Although it is thick with detail and information, the book is easy to read and informative. It presents important information, not only for those interested in the history of New Mexico, the Southwest, or even of the United States, but also for anyone interested in multiculturalism, the nature of the modern State and the social construction of race and identity. The book is ideal for the general reader, as well as for use in courses in social history, gender studies, race and ethnicity and international politics.” - Ronald J. Angel, Ethnic and Racial Studies

“In all, this study makes a sizable contribution to our understanding of the diversity and complexity of borderlands identities…. Mora’s work is a must for anyone interested in borderlands history and the interplay of race and nationalism in colonial frontiers.” - Janne Lahti, Canadian Journal of History

“Besides cutting new trails toward the subject of southern New Mexico and religion along the border, Border Dilemmas offers a sophisticated and clearly written use of cultural theory and a wealth of Spanish-language sources to bolster its central arguments about the retention of Mexican identity and affiliation. The book deserves wide readership among historians of the United States, the American West, and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.”
- Pablo Mitchell, Journal of American History

“Mora’s Border Dilemmas is a valuable contribution that sheds considerable light on historic and contemporary New Mexico through the examination of Spanish as well as English sources; presenting a more complex portrait by providing elements of the Mexican population in New Mexico with a voice in shaping their identity. The conversation over New Mexican identity in Mora’s study is largely bicultural, and scholars should be encouraged by this path-breaking study to expand their research into the perspective of the Indian people in New Mexico.” - Ron Briley, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

“Anthony Mora provides a sophisticated analysis of two border towns… to illustrate his primary contention that the meaning of “Mexican” was more complicated than historians have previously believed…. A well-written book with a strong command of the historiography of the region, imperialism, and theory, Border Dilemmas will be useful in classes and provide specialists in the history of race, nationality, and New Mexico much to debate.” - Linda C. Noel, Pacific Historical Review

“Anthony Mora’s Border Dilemmas offers a nuanced account of the relationship between racial, regional and national identities in nineteenth-century New Mexico…. [This book] serves as an important reminder of the complexities underlying the nationbuilding process along the US–Mexico border in the nineteenth century.” - S. Deborah Kang, Social History

"This work is an excellent contribution to research into the racially-charged ideological processes that relate to Mexican residents in the territories acquired by the United States in the nineteenth century.... [It] is an excellent text to further explain the phenomenon of Fantasy Heritage in New Mexico, as well as add to the discussion of identity for Mexican Americans since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848."  - Laura E. Belmonte, Ameriquests