Politics, community and pleasure: The making of Mexican American Cold War narratives in the pages of 'La Opinion': 1945--1960

"Politics, Community and Pleasure: The Making of Mexican American Cold War Narratives in the Pages of La Opinion" adds a chapter to the cultural history of the post war period--one that has primarily focused on the experiences of Anglo Americans--by bringing to light how the Mexican American newspaper La Opinion interpreted and helped to shape the period. An analysis of La Opinion reveals a community's preoccupation with identity politics, cultural pride and assimilative practices. The dissertation takes into account the connection of the paper with the communities that produced and consumed it. The analysis of the paper delves into the ways that membership into La Opinion 's readership was constituted; how La Opinion derived specific nationalistic symbolism that was recognizable by similarly located readers; how the press defined insiders and chastised outsiders. The dissertation is organized around the discourse of the American dream; specifically, how the desire for consumption, liberal citizenship and labor in post World War II America produced specific accounts of migration in the pages of La Opinion. Through its publishers, editors and columnists La Opinion performed and celebrated political difference and civic duty to claim a stake in Americanism during the Cold War period.;The newspaper also sheds light on the Mexican interpretation of the roots of hostility against Mexican immigrants. La Opinion dispensed behavioral prescriptions that discouraged victimhood for the promotion of a path to citizenship. At the core of assimilative advice stood the rhetoric of sacrifice, civic and military responsibilities, participation in consumer culture and a willingness to work in Anglo style but within the moral standards of Mexican society. As the Mexican population increased, so did the relevance of the press to address a community's daily challenges and celebrations. La Opinion addressed migrants through a pedagogy of ethnic consciousness, stressing the relevance of immigrant law and the value of comportment as catalysts to discrimination.