Bad Mexicans is a timely piece of scholarship. Notwithstanding recent criticism of scholars’ use of history as “confirm[ation] [of] [their] current political positions,” in my state, Texas, I find a book like Lytle Hernández's both vital and useful.1 It is precisely the contemporary value (or, for others, threat) of its historical content that makes Bad Mexicans a potentially transformative book. Lytle Hernández is not shy about employing this turn-of-the-twentieth-century story to insist once and for all that the histories of Mexico and the United States are intimately linked; this shared history has been consequential for both US and Mexican peoples. With an engaging prose accessible to public audiences, Lytle Hernández re-creates this shared history. Through the lens of magonismo and its greater legacy, I outline my main thoughts on Bad Mexicans as a series of historical lessons for us to consider.

Lesson 1: Silencing political criticism erodes democracy—then and...

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