A classic account of life on the Texas-Mexico border, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados offers the fullest portrait currently available of the people of the South Texas/Northern Mexico borderlands. First published in 1999, the book is now extensively revised and updated throughout to cover developments since 2000, including undocumented immigration, the drug wars, race relations, growing social inequality, and the socioeconomic gap between Latinos and the rest of American society—issues of vital and continuing national importance.

An outgrowth of the Borderlife Research Project conducted at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados uses the voices of several hundred Valley residents, collected by embedded student researchers and backed by the findings of sociological surveys, to describe the lives of migrant farmworkers, colonia residents, undocumented domestic servants, maquiladora workers, and Mexican street children. Likewise, it explores social, racial, and ethnic relations in South Texas among groups such as Latinos, Mexican immigrants, wealthy Mexican visitors, Anglo residents or tourists, and Asian and African American residents of South Texas. With this firsthand material and an explanatory focus that utilizes and applies social-science theoretical concepts, the book thoroughly addresses the future composition and integration of Latinos into the society and culture of the United States.

CHAD RICHARDSON is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His previous books include On the Edge of the Law: Culture, Labor, and Deviance on the South Texas Border, coauthored with Rosalva Resendiz.

MICHAEL J. PISANI is a professor of international business at Central Michigan University. He coauthored The Informal and Underground Economy of the South Texas Border with Chad Richardson.

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I. Ranking and Class Inequality
  • Chapter 1. Migrant Farmworkers (with Juanita Valdez Cox)
  • Chapter 2. The Colonias of South Texas (with David Arizmendi)
  • Chapter 3. “Only a Maid”: Undocumented Domestic Workers in South Texas
  • Chapter 4. Social Inequality on the Mexican Side of the Border
  • Conclusion to Part I: Social Class on the South Texas–Northern Mexico Border
• Part II. Racial and Ethnic Inequality
  • Chapter 5. The Pain of Gain: South Texas Schools Then and Now (with Daniel P. King)
  • Chapter 6. From Mexicanos to Mexican Americans to Americans? (with Chrystell Flota)
  • Chapter 7. “Ahí Viene el Bolillo!”: Anglos in South Texas (with Jenny Chamberlain)
  • Chapter 8. Race and Ethnicity in South Texas
  • Conclusion to Part II: The Interaction of Race, Class, and Ethnicity
• Epilogue: The Strength and Resilience of People of the South Texas Border (with John Sargent)
• Appendix A. Borderlife Survey Research Projects Utilized in This Volume
• Appendix B. Students Who Contributed Ethnographic Accounts
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index