Hernández, the recipient of a 2019 MacArthur “genius” grant and a professor at UCLA, has been called a “rebel historian.” That’s not a judgment but a badge of honor, and it resonates throughout her work. This book, her most recent, published in 2022, represents a case in point: a multidimensional history of the Mexican Revolution through the lens of the magonistas, a resistance movement with U.S. roots that President Porfirio Díaz condemned as “malos Mexicanos.” The idea, Hernández insists, is that the revolution was not only a Mexican phenomenon; it “also remade the United States.” Hernández is a vivid writer, and her scholarship is impeccable. But it is her conclusion that is most essential: that the revolution changed not only Mexico but the entire border region, with effects that continue to resonate.•
W.W. Norton & Company BAD MEXICANS: RACE, EMPIRE, AND REVOLUTION IN THE BORDERLANDS, BY KELLY LYTLE HERNÁNDEZ
