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Looking for Respect in the Borderlands

River of Hope and Cultural Construction of Empire are interesting studies that analyze empire-building projects, nascent state-formation, and constructions of regional identities in the lower Rio Grande borderlands of Texas and the American frontiers of New Mexico and Arizona. Both studies stress the limits of bureaucratic authority due to the distance of borderland communities and army villages from imperial and national centers, resulting in policies of neglect and increasing discontent among inhabitants. Both authors reveal the fluid nature of identity-formation among village residents experiencing colonization and regime change, emphasizing demarcations of class and culture, and to a lesser extent, delineations of race and gender. Another feature shared by these studies is their analysis of resistance and survival strategies by conquered communities, taking care not to romanticize the agency of newly subjugated peoples while avoiding narratives of monolithic bureaucratic control. Valerio-Jiménez’s wonderfully written and nuanced study evaluates the lower Rio Grande region of Texas from early Spanish colonization (1749–1821), to Mexican control (1821–48), and U.S. rule (1848–1900). “Everyday experiences—along with transnational political events, migration, and trade,” he argues, led generations of Mexican Americans, “to construct strategic identities that countered each nation-state’s disciplining efforts” (p. 12). Organizing his study topically with some chronological overlap, the book consists of two main sections, with the U.S.–Mexican War serving as a dividing line. In chapter one, he discusses the Spanish founding of villas del norte (northern villages) by colonists of racially mixed and humble backgrounds. He examines colonial interactions between vecinos (community members) and “Indian workers, slaves, consorts, enemies, and allies” (p. 15). Vecinos forged an ethnic and