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The book, Mi America: The Evolution of an American Family, is a detailed exploration of its author, Manuel Romero’s, family history. Beginning 500 years ago with the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Mi America covers a wide breadth of historical subject matter dealing with the cultures of two great nations, Mexico and the United States.
But this isn’t your usual history book.
Mi America is drawing national attention because it avoids your usual dry recounting of famous dates or simple retelling of well-known facts. Instead, Romero manages to add fresh insights to historical events by talking about them through the lens of his family’s history. This intimate approach has the effect of humanizing subjects that are often discussed dispassionately and independent of the experiences of those who lived through them.
In Mi America, Romero explains how historical events like the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, or the establishment of New Mexico as a state, impacted his descendants and contributed to the person he is today.
And that’s not all, he also explores how the intersection of American and Mexican cultures influenced each other in a multitude of other ways, from everything to cuisine, to music, to traditions surrounding courtship and weddings.
About the Author
Manuel Romero drew from both his personal and professional life experiences when putting this ambitious project together. Born in New Mexico, his work is full of references to his own memories and experiences from having grown up there. The same is also true of his time spent in Utah, where his family relocated in order to find work and where he would eventually go to college, the first member of his family to ever do so.
In college Romero was introduced to the Chicano movement, and would become a lifelong activist championing a variety of causes related to it. Through his role as an activist, he eventually wound up studying in Mexico City at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Eventually, Romero earned his Master’s degree in political science and would go on to teach the subject himself at several different colleges.