Bad Mexicans // Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

Bad Mexicanstells the dramatic story of themagonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magn, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers–and American dissidents–to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico’s dictator, Porfirio Daz, who encouraged the plunder of his country by U.S. imperialists such as Guggenheim and Rockefeller, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of U. S. authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The U.S. Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted themagonistasacross the country. Capturing Ricardo Flores Magn was one of the FBI’s first cases.

But themagonistaspersevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world’s first social revolution of the twentieth century.

Taking readers to the frontlines of themagonistauprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernndez puts themagonistarevolt at the heart of U.S. history. Long ignored by textbooks, themagonistasthreatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making themagonistas‘ story integral to modern American life.

Kelly Lytle Hernndezholds 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 booksMigra!andCity of Inmates. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

• Publisher:W. W. Norton & Company (May 10, 2022)
• Language:English
• Hardcover:384 pages
• ISBN-10:1324004371
• ISBN-13:9781324004370
• Item Weight:1.4 pounds
• Dimensions:6.3 x 1.3 x 9.4 inches