I’m the daughter of a high school American history teacher and always considered myself reasonably well informed about controversies in US history. Yet this book blew me away, exposing my wide and deep ignorance of Latino American history. Romo, an acclaimed historian and “fronterizo” deftly adapts the research from his adult book, Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juárez: 1893-1923 into accessible language for middle schoolers, as he recounts the profoundly racist colonization first by the Spanish, and then by white Anglos which determined the histories of Mexico, Texas and the other border states. His explanation of the key role slavery played in both the “independence “ of Texas and the Mexican American war should be part of every school curriculum, and his description of Mexican “repatriation” (in which thousands, possibly millions of Mexican Americans citizens were forcibly deported) is essential for a true understanding of current immigration debates.

The only reason I’m giving this less than 5 stars is that Romo frequently oversimplifies and misrepresents complicated events and theories (notably his discussions of Samuel Huntington and of the Rapido River catastrophe). His work is strongest when it lets events speak for themselves rather than assigning motives and making sweeping generalizations. An index would have been helpful too. Still this is a remarkable book that should be in every US elementary and middle school library.