Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

Written by Kelly Lytle Hernández

Narrated by Joana Garcia

Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and American dissidents—to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico's dictator, Porfirio Díaz, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of US authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The US Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice, as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country.



But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world's first social revolution of the twentieth century.



Taking listeners to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of US history. Long ignored by textbooks, the magonistas threatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making the magonistas' story integral to modern American life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Aug 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781696608213

Reviews for Bad Mexicans

[Carmen Medina · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story of the characters that set the scene for the Mexican Revolution. However, given the enormous amount of Spanish names and words in this book, it would have been wise to select a reader that could pronounce them.

[spoko_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There is an exciting, interesting story here—a group of passionate idealists fomenting a revolution, darting back and forth across political borders, narrowly escaping capture, inspiring the kind of change that often doesn’t come even once in a lifetime. The facts and details of that story are here. Sadly, they are absolutely drowning in all manner of minutiae and nonessential detail. This is the dry, tedious narrative of what should be a really captivating story. I wanted to like it, wanted to at least find it interesting. But in the end I was just happy to be done with it.

Also, for what it’s worth, the audiobook narrator was terrible. One of those that has you wishing for an abridged version. She matched the tone perfectly, I’ll say that: Breathless Monotony.

[vive_livre · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

She's really good at creating a propulsive narrative out of myriad facts. This book had a lot of information but it read really quickly.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is full of information and manages to pull together the timeline of the magonistas into a readable (if a bit dry) format. This book helped fill in some gaps in my existing knowledge of Mexican and southwest US history.

There is a nice map at the front, though I did not need to refer to it much.

My biggest complain is the vagueness of some of her terminology. Where, exactly, is "south Texas"? Is this south of San Antonio, specifically? Is El Paso west Texas and not south Texas? I also became somewhat confused in her terminology of referring to some groups by race and others by nationality, when she really means political/philosophical groups, and of referring to native Mexicans (the Yaqui most often) but not native Americans in the PLM's plans and recruitments (they were recruiting Japanese immigrants but not, say, the Tohono O'odham in Arizona?--why? and was this related to their demands in Mexico?).

I absolutely learned a lot from this book, if you are interesting Mexican, American, or borderlands history; political history; rebellions; even the media in rebellions--this book is worth a read.

[bridgettes-104215 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bad Mexicans is a very powerful book discussing the relationship between Mexico and the US, historically and economically, which leads up to the Mexican Revolution of 1910. This book provides a very good background of the Mexican Revolution - best I've read so far! Book was well researched and well thought-out. Thoroughly enjoyed. Highly recommend!