Making Michigan Home

Mexican Americans Bridging the Rural-Urban Experience

Brett Olmsted

$229

Hardback

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English

University of Illinois Press
23 December 2025

History of the Americas; Ethnic studies; Hispanic & Latino studies

Series: Latinos in Chicago and Midwest

Shaping a distinctive Midwestern form of Mexicano identity

Mexicanos in Michigan and across the Midwest share a common experience: living as largely invisible outsiders as they struggled to build vibrant communities in places that wanted their labor but not their presence.

Brett Olmsted ranges from the 1920s to the 1970s as he analyzes how Mexicanos sought to transcend social, cultural, economic, and political exclusion. Never numerous in any one area, Mexican Americans pursued inclusion via leisure spaces and labor unionism. Activities like celebrations, sports, movies, and music encouraged Mexicanos to claim physical and social space, connect with Michigan's other Mexicano communities, and construct their own sense of identity. Mexicano workers, meanwhile, embraced interethnic union activism to address racism in job placement and promotion. Olmsted also examines how the state's Mexicanos adapted to Michigan's dual economy and found advantages in moving back-and-forth between rural and urban areas.

In-depth and innovative, Making Michigan Home spotlights the state's overlooked Mexicanos and their distinctive experiences within the Latina/o/x Studies Midwest.

By: Brett Olmsted
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780252046889
ISBN 10: 0252046889
Series: Latinos in Chicago and Midwest
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 23 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Brett Olmsted is a professor of history at San Jacinto College.

Reviews for Making Michigan Home: Mexican Americans Bridging the Rural-Urban Experience

""Making Michigan Home will have a tremendous impact. The author has found a glaring gap in the literature. No one has taken an in-depth look at the leisure practices of Mexicanos in the Midwest. The author also articulates the involvement of Mexicanos in Michigan's labor movement while telling the broader story of how Mexicanos in Michigan created their own identity. I am very excited about this book."" --Delia Fernández-Jones, author of Making the MexiRican City: Mexican and Puerto Rican Migration, Activism, and Placemaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan