... Ideally, a biography should illuminate its subject and the society in which he or she lives. There are two major biographies of Jorge Ubico, Guatemala’s dictator from 1931 to 1944. One, by Joseph Pitti, ends with Ubico’s inauguration in 1931 (“Jorge Ubico and Guatemalan Politics in the 1920s,” Ph.D...

... Bachelor’s analysis of striking Mexican workers in a Chrysler plant shows how the Mexican government used the excuse of Communism to repress union independence. Similarly, Stephen Pitti explains how the participation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in California labor movements sparked local fears...

... explain why Taylor does not refer to crucial topics, including the process of racialization of the Mexican community during the second half of the nineteenth century, a topic explored recently by, among others, Stephen J. Pitti. Fernando Alanis’s article explores some of the factors that help explain...

...,” Mesoamérica 17 (1989), 25-60; Kenneth J. Grieb, Guatemalan Caudillo: The Regime of Jorge Ubico (Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 1979); Stefan Karlen, “Paz, Progreso, Justicia, y Honradez”: Das Ubico-Regime in Guatemala , 1931-1944 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1991); Joseph A. Pitty, Jorge Ubico and Guatemalan...