Book Review of Vicki R. Ruiz’ From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America

Vicki R. Ruiz’ study on the struggles of Mexican-American women, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America, provides a unique and important perspective at a unique demographic of women that is often overlooked. Ruiz, a historian and one of the only Mexican American women to hold a PhD paints a heartbreaking yet stunning portrait of the plight of women. Mexican-American women have been struggling for centuries to find innovative ways to overcome their dire circumstances and use their creativity to find their way out of poverty, domestic violence, and oppression, and Ruiz’ book shows just that.

The unique demographic of women that form the basis of Ruiz’ book are in many ways responsible for shaping the cultural and economic climate of the American Southwest, since before it was even part of the United States. These women have overcome exceptional odds and circumstances ranging from trying to raise children in poverty, to living in labor campus, and ghettos made of boxcars. Ruiz uses the narratives of particular Mexican-American women to highlight their individual stories while also drawing upon the larger cultural context in which these women have been struggling to survive in for centuries. The personal stories and interviews in From Out of the Shadows do exactly what the title promises; it provides a foundation for the first real study of Mexican American women in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Ruiz begins by discussing the first wave of Mexican-American women to cross the border from Mexico to the Unites States Southwest at the dawn of the twentieth century. She includes the distinctive struggles faced by these women but also provides a solid argument that it is these same women who have built communities out of nothing and fought for political rights for their people. This culture of Mexican-America women is a brave one that has gathered momentum over the last century, having a significant impact on the culture spanning from Mexico over the border to the American Southwest.

A significant portion of Ruiz’s study of the female experience for Mexican-American women has to do with ideas of feminism that are distinct from their larger cultural context as part of both their Mexican and American identities. The Protestant social service mission in Texas working to instill Christian values on new immigrants raises some important questions as to its larger effect on the development of this subculture within American society. There is a strong sense that these women are held to different, more traditional standards of femininity that are not as scrutinized in mainstream American culture. For instance, the expectations of forming traditional marriages and families and the upholding of virginity for these women seems to invoke strong patriarchal governing over a group of Mexican-American women that in other ways are so radical and progressive.

Much of Ruiz’s book is about feminist concerns for this subculture of Mexican-Americans that is aloof from mainstream feminism and women’s liberation movements of decades past As Ruiz writes of Chicana feminism, the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s in America had left this group of women out, not just out of history books, but also out of the wave of equal rights that these women seem to be sorely lacking (Ruiz 100).

In many ways it is paradoxical that the strong-willed women Ruiz describes are still held back by these traditional, patriarchal expectations when it seems men are often not even present in the accomplishments achieved by this subculture of Mexican-American immigrants. These women are subjugated by old world ideas and Christian values in a reality that often necessitates their independence from men in their culture. Given the expectations and pressure put on these women to rise above so many obstacles and still adhere to tradition attests to their spirit and strong will. It is truly extraordinary what these women have accomplished given all of the odds against them and impossible standards to uphold as women, wives, mothers, and immigrants.

As Ruiz writes, “Chicano social scientists have generally portrayed women as ‘the glue that keeps the Chicano family together’ as well as the guardians of traditional culture” (54). While Ruiz describes many examples in which this is certainly the case, it seems that for all of their efforts, this sub-culture of Mexican-American women are still being oppressed instead of praised for their accomplishments. Sexism is running rampant among this culture in juxtaposition to the Christian virtues that only females, not males, are expected to uphold. In this way it is as if the mainstream patriarchal subjugation of women in America is magnified for this group who are stuck between a cramped space of tradition and progression that can only go so far and yet their circumstances require them to go farther, to step out of their traditional roles and to have a voice in society. Many women are doing just that, and Ruiz’s book should be celebrated for bringing attention to the fact that the innovation of Mexican-American women throughout the twentieth century is truly remarkable. As these women continue to jump hurdles of socio-cultural and economic setbacks, they are proving their gender--although in many ways still held to different standards--is not a barrier to overcoming century’s worth of struggle for survival and improvement in their lives and the lives of their families.

Work Cited

Ruiz, Vicki R. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America. NewYork: Oxford, 2008.