Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880–1930 by Roberto R. Calderón

The years 1880 to1930 mark the period in Texas' coal mining history known as the handloading era, during which the system of mining for coal by hand was established and gave way to new methods used on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. The contributions of the large immigrant population who worked these mines have long been overlooked.

In Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880–1930, Roberto Calderón examines the complexities of mining, investment capital, labor markets, railroad construction, and racial ideology in Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, during a period of economic growth and social disruption. He discusses the history of the mines, the industrial and urban markets, and the life of workers and their response to changing conditions. He also uses variables such as education and literacy to analyze the influence of the immigrant laborers in two important Texas border counties, Webb and Maverick, in coal production. In so doing, Calderón revises the view that Mexican workers were careless and difficult to work with and documents their struggle for recognition and union organization.

Using a rich array of archival, statistical, government, and periodical material, as well as personal accounts, Calderón brings a new approach to a subject usually studied only in terms of its geology.

This informative volume is an original contribution to the fields of Chicano and borderlands history, Texas history, and labor history.

ROBERTO R. CALDERÓN is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California-Riverside.

Number Two: Rio Grande/Río Bravo: Borderlands Culture and Tradition

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Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880–1930
ISBN 0-89096-884-5
$39.95s

LC 99-34596. 6x9. 316 pp. 17 b&w photos. 4 graphs. 19 tables. 3 maps. Bib. Index.
Borderlands Studies. Texas History. Labor History.

Publication Date: December 1999.

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