>> now more of the talks with booktv about her book naturalizing mexican immigrants. the professor was interviewed at the university of texas at austin as a part of book tv's series. >> and now on your screen is the university of texas professor martha whose book is called naturalizing mexican immigrants. one of her books i should say is called naturalizing mexican immigrants. she teaches anthropology here at the university of texas. professor, when were the first large-scale immigration of mexicans into the united states when did those ocher? >> since 1848 when the board was formed there was always an ongoing movement of mexican people, but it's not until 1910

that we have the large scale immigration basically due to the mexican revolution. but even then it had already started in the late 1890's due to a lot of economic agreements the u.s. had with mexico that really impoverished the mexican people and when the econ money begins to migrate. >> what was the reaction -- and you focus on texas. what was the reaction in texas to the large scale immigration? >> in 1910 was very negative because of the large number of people that came in. before it hit a trickle so as long as they stay in the san antonio and the south texas. they welcomed it. but by 1910 with the mexican revolution they started coming in very large numbers and therefore it was very negative.

there was the women's suffrage for the suffrage in particular that were very concerned because of the feared the children were going to be going to the schools and then that is when the women would get very concerned, and also the government wanted the border patrol along the u.s.-mexican border because they felt the mexican revolution was going to spill over into texas, and they did have major concerns because when there was fighting in mexico, texas was closed and also it had a very long history of the mexican immigrants coming in. so before 1910 about one half to two-thirds of all immigrants were in texas said this was a natural area to come. >> you talked about the mexican revolution of 1910. what is that of that era? >> this is of the administration

which he was basically a dictator. he had control from 1874 to 1910 when he was forced to leave and what he wanted to do was modernize mexico and bring investors into mexico to basically make mexico more solid to the u.s. and europe so he had good ideas but the problem is that he believed the best way to bring investors was to do away with labor rights, to give them land grants so that they would invest and at the same time they had a labour force that would not protest and many mexican people who just lost their land as a result of this or did not want to live in this type of society chose to migrate to the

u.s. so that takes place from the 1870's until 1910 when mexico has its revolution. >> what was the border like at that time and by making the but the rio grande river and there are crossings today and fencing. what was it like in that time? was it wide-open? >> it was fairly wide open. you had a very serious people had traditionally been coming through. ranches, ports of entry, major areas but basically people were coming in through various ranch areas it wherever there were rhodes. in 1924 the u.s. begins to deal with the general overall federal reform to deal with immigration from europe to the begin now to make the border more professional and it established the border patrol and the border

agents, but it was very fluid. >> was the word illegal used back in that time to describe the mexicans who had come over the border? >> the term really becomes popular after 1965. we have federal reforms of immigration 1965, and then the western hemisphere act of 1974 and what the u.s. tries to do is regulate the emigration, but the problem of 1965 is finally set a limit to the immigration from the western hemisphere. before that it had been completely open so you had a long history of allowing and

sometimes encouraging mexican immigration and in 65 when its limited in the then you have a limit of 20,000 which even in the immigration service stated for mexico it is a realistic so at this point this is when we really began with the era of the undocumented and the legal infrastructure was not there any longer to allow newcomers to come in and come in who legally. >> how is the guest worker program developed and changed over the years and when they began? >> the program, the earlier programs began around 1917 and in the 1920's but they are small. the large-scale program begins during world war ii and was to

help the united states during world war ii because at that time the united states is a hero in our history that they are helping the allies fight nazis in europe and they have to feed a great number of people and a lot of the young men taken before they were doing leader you have a number supplies of the united states and act as the program to bring workers from mexico for temporary period of six months so that's when it begins. the problem is it is not terminated at the end of world war ii. it's removed because the large scale want to continue and it's not terminated until around 1964

>> was there a backlash against the immigrants coming to texas? >> 1960s? >> any time in the last 80 years or so was there any incidents that stand out? stand yes. i would say the period of the civil war was a very positive period and also during the construction when mexicans were treated well they emigrated. it was to naturalize, but in 1897 there is a social movement in texas which is the people's party movement or a third-party or some people call it the populist party and which some individuals fear the mexican immigrant vote was not to their benefit because democrats controlled texas in the 1890's and therefore the republicans

had a very low control and the people's party became a challenge for democrats and the problem was that mexicans -- because they were in very large immigrant population, they voted democrat said the people's party wanted to develop methods to make sure that ev the whole issue is we all know that the mexicans are indian descent charging that in the u.s. the cannot be citizens or voter therefore they want to imply

this the mexican population but of course they came in and said you can't do that. mexican people may be in the end of the year detribalized people and we're dealing with troubled wally not mexicans are detribalized people so that is in the case of 1987 with extremely important -- it was a period of hostility towards mexicans at that time. >> how would you describe the atmosphere today when it comes to mexico u.s. immigration? >> i.t. we are experiencing a hostile time for people of mexican descent. in the media the idea is generally that it's charged against the couple who do not follow the rule of law and i think that this atmosphere to

apply to everyone in place really affects the legal mexican immigrant because we are not sure if they are undocumented or not. so there's a general sense of hostility whether it's related to voting, that's another issue but something parallel to what we see in the 1890's but one of the issues i feel less hostile cents 1993 we've had the birth rate movement to remove the citizenship status of u.s. corn latinos were people whose mothers and fathers are undocumented and this has been going on quite a while and we

are talking about u.s.-born children and to the citizen i assume on the counter their is hostile. is a revised worker program a solution to the current immigration issue? >> i think for mexico it's needed to regulate. if -- not just if it is the corporations to take over it because how are you going to ensure people are paid and treated well. during the program there was the wages of the domestic farm workers were basically frozen so are we going to see that same effect on the best farm workers.

for mexico it would be a good way of regulating it and fought for providing labor for farmers especially in areas like the california or the of the large agribusiness industry is there and it's a good way to bring labour but i kept that there are better ways, increased level of legal entry. that is formed one way of allowing it. that's one way for the united states also to be involved in the mexican economy in terms of loan payments. insuring that in areas where we consider that have found that a lot of the documented people are coming from rural areas where

the agricultural economy has been devastated by nafta, by the accord and the farmer has been basically wiped out so what are they going to do? the can't find employment over there so they come here. i think if the u.s. did some sort of agreement in terms of developing those economies where the agricultural worker has been devastated. also where the u.s. businesses have the factories these businesses be required to have some sort of economic development for the local area. the u.s. can tax businesses that do business with mexico and use

that tax for the programs for mexico so there's many ways, but i believe that one of the most effective ways is to increase the number of the legal interests to the u.s.. >> you talked about the program. what does that mean in english and how does that mean develop? >> the program basically means high your arms and the term comes from the word barrasso so you are hiring arms to come and to labour in the u.s. to respect martha is a professor of anthropology here at the university of texas. what is the picture on the cover of your book? >> it is that mexican immigrants loading off and what i used for

is a comparison of two pictures of different types of individuals of different classes coming to the united states. people just crossing the border, crossing the rio granda on foot and horses and people who have more money. they come in and ride the train and in my book i do how many individuals that were better off could afford train rides and i examine the whole infrastructure of the railroad system connecting texas to the u.s. perhaps if they wouldn't have been the train system most people would have come in 1910. >> what are you teaching this semester but the university of texas? >> the graduate level for the

doctrine and master students to teach a class on oral traditions and history which is a class of how to do historical research, but also how to do research to obtain people's history through fieldwork at the undergraduate level i am teaching mexican-american indigenous class's which deal with the racial history of the mexican americans but it deals with that history from the archaeological time period to the present in the emphasis is the indigenous past. >> and what is your background? >> aye to the mexican immigrant. i came here when i was 4-years-old. i can't tell you my age, but i came during the time when the border was basically open and we were welcomed and there were a lot of jobs in the u.s.. my father was sponsored by an

employer who wanted him to be here and we settled in a little town in california which i wrote my first book on the town and my experiences growing up there. >> the mexican outsiders? >> yes, the mexican outsiders. and after that i went to the local universities of santa barbara and i went to stanford immediately after stanford i have been here and we loved the university and my father is also a professor here. >> martha menchaca to read we've been talking with her. naturalizing mexican immigrants is her most recent book. thank you for being on book tv. >> thank you.

jeremy talked to booktv about his new book liberty's carvin to read the interview which took place at the university of texas austin >> professor jeremy, what is nation-building? >> it is the effort to actually get involved in another society and held that society in prove itself as you improve yourself as well. >> who does the nation-building? >> one of the points i make is that nation-building is actually being part of a process that involves bringing americans to another society not dictating to another society but working with people on another society. it's americans and citizens of another society working together. spec the guardian is your most recent book and i want to read just a portion.