Jose Vasconcelos

Jose Vasconcelos was a controversial Mexican scholar who fostered an alternative view of the future. In Jose Vasconcelos: The Prophet of Race, his influential 1925 essay, "Mestizaje"- key to understanding the role he played in the shaping of multiethnic America-is for the first time showcased and properly analyzed. Ilan Stavans insightfully and comprehensively examines the essay in biographical and historical context, and considers how many in the United States, especially Chicanos during the civil rights era, used it as a platform for their political agenda.