Synopsis
Nestled on the banks of the Rio Grande, at the heart of a railroad, mining, and smelting empire, Smeltertown was home to generations of ethnic Mexicans who labored at the American Smelting and Refining Company in El Paso, Texas. Using newspapers, personal archives, photographs, employee records, parish newsletters, and interviews with former residents, including her own relatives, Monica Perales unearths the history of this forgotten community. Smeltertown provides insight into how people and places invent and reinvent themselves and sheds light on a vibrant community grappling with its own sense of self and its place in history and collective memory.
Library Journal
Smeltertown, or La Esmelda, was a company town that developed around the American Smelting and Refining Company plant in El Paso, TX. Perales (history, Univ. of Houston) offers not simply a narrative history of this area, but also a look at how the community was created by Anglos and Hispanics, citizens and immigrants, rich and poor. The book explores the sometimes contradictory dichotomy between the history and the development of the community, in particular the paternal and often negative treatment of the Mexican labor pool, and how the residents, Esmeltianos, created a sense of place and fashioned their identities as Mexicans and Americans. Personal stories and remembrances throughout the text help paint a picture that appears rosier, at least in the Esmeltianos' memory, than the history portrays. VERDICT Though the text is a bit repetitious, this well-researched and well-documented work would be a good addition for academic libraries, especially collections related to borderlands studies or labor issues.—Mike Miller, Austin P.L., TX