"Discussions of Latino cultural citizenship and public culture have a distinguished and stimulating lineage in the work of major figures such as Renato Rosaldo, Rina Benmayour, and William Flores. With his new book that introduces literary history into the discussion, we must now add the name of John-Michael Rivera."
José E. Limón,author of American Encounters: Greater Mexico, the United States, and the Erotics of Culture "Offers an eloquent and compelling account of nineteenth and twentieth century cultural productionone that resituates Mexicanos at the center of thinking about U.S. nation-making during the nineteenth century and beyond. . . . This stunning new text promises to reshape literary and theoretical work in American Studies."
Mary Pat Brady,author of Extinct Lands, Temporal Geographics: Chicana Literature and the Urgency of Space "The books research base is impressive, and Riveras reading of his sources is sophisticated, nuanced, and informed by the latest scholarship in ethnic, literary, sociological, and historical studies."
Ernesto Chavez,University of Texas at El Paso "In elegant (and enviable) prose, Riveras work calls for continued inquest into the role of stories, land, and memory in the formation of current Mexican political collectivities."
Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies