Rating: 
Summary: Well written, well researched, well balanced
Review: As one who shares the author's ethnic,cultural and geographical heritage, I thought Hanson did a marvelous job of assessing California's major social issue, and one of America's primary problems. Like Hanson, I was born and reared in Fresno County, albeit some 25 miles from his native Selma. I can attest to the accuracy of his description of Selma and the Central Valley in the 1950's. As a child, my associates included Hispanics; as a teenager working in the fig and peach orchards, my fellow workers were Hispanic. During my professional career, I have hired and promoted many Hispanics. Hanson's Scandinavian ancestors (from Sweden) and mine (from Denmark) came to America legally and without speaking English, but they succeeded--without bilingual classes, welfare, government subsidies, or that phenomenon known as "affirmative action", which is being rapidly unmasked as nothing, more or less, than "reverse discrimination". Hanson deftly exposes the race industry as an amalgam of organizations and individuals who are quick to attack the Anglo for any slight, either real or imagined, but who, in the long run, seem not to do much for those whom they purport to serve. As a criminologist, I am well aware of the violence committed by Hispanic Gangs, and the fact that those gangsters who do not wind up in the morgue soon become expensive inmates in our overcrowded prison system, costing taxpayers some $25k per year each. I am equally aware of the many outstanding Hispanic officers, prosecutors, and judges with whom I've worked. Hanson has eloquently described the failure of our educational programs to work toward an assimilated America, as well as the failure of the "separatists" in the race industry. The one failure which, to my surprise, he did not identify is that of our elected officials who establish public policy. When Hanson and I were youngsters/young men in the Central Valley, the politicians seemed to act in the best interests of their constituencies. Today,by and large, our politicians have little integrity, but rather pander incessantly to special interests which, in turn, provide them with campaign funds, endorsements,and precinct workers.It is common knowledge that, in Sacramento, legislative votes are "for sale" almost daily. Until we can restore some integrity among our public officials, we will not move toward a better California--better for Hispanics, Anglos, African Americans, Asians, and all others! Except for his failure to discuss the lack of integrity among many of our elected officials, Hanson has done an admirable job. Mexifornia should be on the "must read" list of all who are concerned about the future of Californians, nothwithstanding the color of their skins!
Rating: 
Summary: Hansons's Frank Mexifornia Tells some Harsh Truths
Review: Hanson's Mexifornia is an important book which documents important social changes in ever changing California. I know the San Joaquin Valley so I can vouch for much of what Hanson says in Mexifornia. In addition, Hanson's elegiac love for his native soil and a way of life that is irretrievably gone is moving recalling I Remember Mama. I must admit, however, that I have never been as pessimistic as he vis-à-vis our New Immigration, legal and otherwise. Hanson's work is I think held back perhaps, by Hanson's distance from and dislike of, I fear, of Hispanic culture and Mexican culture.
Hanson has some contacts with English-speaking Americans of Mexican and Hispanic origin but he seems not to know Spanish or the Mexicans themselves. He understands but darkly the virtues and strengths of their Hispanic culture, their pride of language and their deep sense of sacredness, religion and family. Indeed, it is the erosion of these virtues due to deracination and anomie that is the cause of the breakdown and demoralization of SOME (but not all) Hispanic immigrants. To his credit Hanson says are most Mexican immigrants are "the real cream of Mexican society frontiersmen and women whose endurance and courage are good prerequisites for Americanization." Hanson is mistaken concerning several major premises of the nature of the USA vis-à-vis Mexico.
First, Hanson refers to the new immigrants as primarily Indians when in fact though there is a cohort of authentic Indigenous-language speaking Indians among Mexican immigration most Mexicans immigrants are still Spanish-speaking and Mestizo. Even though the Spanish criollo mix is much less in some regions than others these Mexicans are as firmly Spanish in culture as the Scots are English -they are aware of their non-Hispanic roots but remain more a part of Cortes' world than Moctezuma's .
Secondly, Hanson compares " Protestant" America to "Catholic" Mexico. There is some truth to these generalizations but one could say it is a verdad pocha -a truth that is somewhat faded with age. In fact Mexico has not been a Catholic nation for two hundred years -not in the way Ireland or Poland are- merely a county with Catholic roots now experiencing its own Reformation. Huge cohorts of its young are indifferent to the Catholic Church or are actively converting to other sects. Hanson also somewhat unfairly compares Mexico's economic and political situation to Zambia. I think it reasonable to say that Mexico for all its faults by virtue of its history and geography is much better off than Zambia (or even Turkey).
Lastly, Mexico is rapidly modernizing (more than 50% of its population is urban) and the birth rate in Mexico has fallen. Mexico has become more urban and families move from agricultural labor to wage labor in the services and industry. Young Mexican ladies are quickly learning the benefits of controlling or blocking their fertility. There has been nearly a 70% drop in Mexican fertility. Instead of being flooded by Latin American immigrants we soon experience a birth dearth and labor shortage. Who knows?
Hanson is to be praised for opening a door as to the real nature of many ignorant, bigoted multiculturalists whose writings -and less well known oral presentations- are tinged with rancor and racialism. If Hanson does not get too specific with the names and works of these individuals it is probably because he has chose not to get sued for defamation in a PC age. It is enough that he has brought their dangerous megalomaniacal antics to light. I am in total agreement with Hanson's argument that the evolving concept of multiculturalism that holds "Western Civilization" as nothing special and equal to all cultures. Hanson has a strong case when he says that this anti-assimilationist ideology is a "force-multiplier if illegal immigration" from Mexico (and I might add other countries). Hanson is also correct when he exposes the mediocrity of an overburdened public school system. Public schools, if they are to survive, must renew their mission to uphold high standards while modeling patriotism and civic virtue. I have always felt that the idea of America is so powerful and so attractive that it can endure negativity and naysayers. In fact it may become stronger in the face of such ideological challenges.
Hansen paints these borderland migrants as (possibly) unassimilable outsiders and strangers but I, in my close contact with these people over many years (I first visited Mexico in 1972) feel very comfortable with these people who are the seed of a sister civilization and who are in fact our "western allies". Many Hispanic immigrants hold strongly traditional Judeo-Christian values. Their presence may help blur the color line over time thus alleviating a hitherto vexing social American dilemma.
Immigration, education and national security are important issues to deal with, and Hanson is to be applauded for raising serious issues in Mexifornia. But all-American Hanson -whether he realizes it or not- is in his soul a very tidy Scandinavian. Hanson cannot understand why people cannot be as tidy as he, as organized as he and as respectful of the law and the established frontier of the ruling empire as he and his forefolk so steeped in the Protestant work ethic. To Hanson the law unalterably established a line all must obey and has destined some souls to citizenship and the good life and others beyond the pale to legal limbo -a lifetime journey of the cross- . This is a question of deep importance for America but I feel we must deal with it with compassion, magnanimity and humanity as well as strength and confidence. I believe that the traditional model of Americanization and assimilation is much stronger in the hinterland than Hanson realizes. Yes, the blood is strong but the teaching is strong as well. I say with Henry James, who and what is the alien in a land so recently created? And I say with the Israelites of old, "remember you too were once an exile in the land of Egypt."
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting narrative, flawed scholarship
Review: Victor Hanson writes from an interesting dual personality; that of a local farmer and descendent of residents in a small San Joaquin Valley farm town turned bedroom community, and that of a history professor at Fresno State. Farmer Hanson's perspective of changes in his native Selma is interesting, and far more articulate than the usual expressions of such sentiment at the coffee shops and on local daytime talk radio. Professor Hanson's work, however, completely lacks rigor. As a resident of Reedley who works in Parlier, two towns near Selma that figure prominently in Hanson's book, I must give him a couple of points. On page 10, Hanson states that "...most statisticians believe that population growth for non-Hispanics in California is flat or in decline, due to shrinking family size and emigration to other states." It would be nice if he had cited references indicating who these statisticians are and verifiable references for their data and conclusions, but at least this assertion is consistent with those by editors of the Fresno and Sacramento Bee newspapers, and their agenda seems to be different than his. Likewise, one has to admit that there is a certain logical disconnect to that assertion by immigrant advocates that California owes it to undocumented immigrants to provide them with a California driver's license based only on the matricula, an identity document issued by the Mexican consulate. The usually unspoken implication is that the Mexicans should get the same deal as the Cubans--if you get past the beach or the border, then you're in and home free. Having said that, Hanson's lack of rigor undermines his own arguments, particularly in his chapter "The New Gods that Failed". As he berates at length his fellow historians in Chicano and Latino studies programs, without bothering to actually cite their writings, he puts himself in the position of appearing to create straw man arguments. Hanson, a professor of classical studies, asks "would not a classics major of Mexican heritage gain more self-esteem through real achievement and mastery of literature than by picking up clichés and slogans from the 1960s recycled in today's "postcolonial" history classes" (p.107). I am reminded of the old joke that science and engineering students learn to ask how things work, business students learn to ask how businesses can be made to work, and arts and humanities students learn to ask, "will you have a fries with that?" Just as Hanson fails to give any operationally useful criteria for what he means by an "assimilated" immigrant, his prescriptions of immigration reform and greater efforts towards assimilation don't give enough specifics to be useful. His prescription that schools place a greater emphasis on cultural assimilation ignore the fact that California governmental institutions and Central California schools (with the exception of one wealthy district, Clovis) are already agreed to be dysfunctional failures by a large cross-section of the citizenry, many of whom agree on little else. Certainly, in an ideal world, a new compromise would be reach in which US society at large would honestly discuss and agree on realistic immigration levels, guest worker programs would be devised than are less exploitative than the status quo rather than more so, and all would understand that henceforth immigration laws would be enforced within the US as well as at its borders. As a practical matter, this will happen right after urban interests in southern California, agricultural interests in the Central Valley, and Bay Area urbanites and environmentalists all agree amicably on a lasting accord for wise and equitable use of water from the Sierra snow pack. (For non-Californians, this means "not in your lifetime or mine"). In this context Hanson's effort at an "honest discussion" (p. xv) in fact diverts Californians from more immediate and solvable problems.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding book on complicated subject
Review: Hanson knows more about the Mexican immigration dilemma in his little toe than all the windbag TV pundits combined. He's a farmer who has lived in the midst of the evolving California immigrant situation for the last four decades. The personal observation point from which Hanson works is at once no-nonsense, compassionate, and lucid. He writes terrific prose in the manner of William Langewiesche, graceful and immersed in finely-crafted physical impressions. Destined to be a definitive classic on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: 50's Nostalgia as the Solution for Today's Problems
Review: Hanson never lives up to the straight talk and objective examination of the immigration "problem" he sets out to analyze in Mexifornia. He goes to great lengths to tell the reader that he has many close friends and students that are of Mexican ancestry (even his daughters date Mexican Americans!). But this comes off as an insincere way of making his points seem objective. Rather than taking a fair and balanced look at immigration, Hanson combines personal anecdotes with unsubstantiated opinions about entire nations to explain a problem he fails to diagnose in the first place. You end the book with the feeling that Hanson preferred life in the 1950s, when Mexicans knew their place. He comes off sounding patronizing, elevating those Mexicans he believes are "good" and putting down just about everyone else. I would like to have read more examples of Hanson listening to those people he is writing about. I think he would be very surprised.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book From Hanson
Review: I have read every book written by Hanson. From the hoplites of ancient Greece, the farming crisis of the 80's, the history of warfare and culture, the teaching of the classics and now this searching analysis of the debacle of our non-policy on immigration, I have been astonished at how skillfully this man writes and with what intelligence he cuts to the essence of whatever subject he addresses. In the present book Hanson turns his gaze to a subject he is personally familiar with: the transformation of his native California by massive illegal immigration from Mexico. Hanson is not anti-Mexican. He has several Mexican relatives, his daughters are dating Mexican-Americans and most of the people he grew up with are Mexican-American or Mexican. What Hanson is opposed to is our feckless non-policy on immigration which allows steady waves of illegals to flood our border states and does not give us time to allow us to assimilate the Mexican immigrants here. Hanson believes strongly that the vast majority of immigrants, given time and opportunity, will assimilate and become good citizens. However it is impossible for this to be accomplished unless we gain control of our southern border and curb most illegal immigration. A timely book on a major issue that both the Republican and Democrat parties steadfastly ignore.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book that tells it like it is
Review: In our all to politically correct, liberal state (California) it was nice to read a book that did not pull any punches and spoke freely and honestly about the terrible problems illegal immigration is causing here in California. The author is so correct when he states you cannot speak about the problems associated with the deluge of illegal latinos into California. If you do you are branded a racist. If you want to get a real view of what is happening here and what is going to happen in your state if illegal immigration is not stopped buy this book. It will open your eyes and hopefuly make you take action to stop the madness of uncontrolled, open border illegal immigration.
Rating:
Summary: How logical can one get in discussing an illogical situation
Review: This is the second Victor Davis Hanson work I have resd, the first being "An Autumn of War..." Hanson objectively writes of a situation (illegal Mexican immigration) that will only get worse before it gets better, unless, as he argues, politicians on either side of the aisle address the concerns and issues that he raises. It is not, as one reviewer suggests, an anti-immigration diatribe -- that is left for the Pat Buchannans of this country. Part analytical, part anecdotal, Hanson hits the bullseye in discussing all aspects of the sitution. I detect not anger but empathy of the illegal male Mexicans who come to the USA in their teens, only to become disenfranchised at 50 due to no chance whatsoever of social and/or economic mobility. The most important theme that hits me is that assimilation into our American culture by these immigrants, a process that Europeans and Asians successfully accomplished in the past, may not happen in this situation. Sadly, this lack of assimilation, Hanson suggests, is due to failed and flawed policies insitituted at all levels of both the Mexican and US governments, which look the other way at the porous border, each side realizing some benefit from the illegal's plight: cheap labor for the US's agricultural economy; riddance of a low-class, dark-skinned Indian population for Mexico. Additionally, US programs embracing bi-lingualism, free social services, "wacky" insistence on cultural studies and lack of prosecutorial law only add to the issues that Hanson clearly, and without anger, addresses. Remember, Hanson has directly experienced these issues -- he's not writing from an ivory tower! I could go on, but why tell the whole story? Buy the book and read it, epspecially if you are a Legal Southwerstern US resident OF ANY NATIONALITY who is concerned about what is quickly becoming an issue of serious financial and social consequences.
Rating:
Summary: Much needed plain talk
Review: Hanson's understanding of the causes of, the benefits of, and the problems brought by illegal Mexican immigration is visceral. He has grown up and worked with them, taught their children, and welcomed them into his family. These are the people who are creating an overwhelming subculture in California and other Southwestern states. His analysis of the result of our misguided immigration policies and multicultural miseducation is thoughtful and provocative. The homogenization by American Pop culture and consumerism is taking some of the edge off potential cultural clashes, but that provides only a temporary stay. He concludes that the only solution to the problem of the growing underclass of illiterate unskilled immigrants lies in enforced immigration policy and rapid cultural assimilation of legal immigrants. We must renew the emphasis on educating all our children about the qualities and history of American society and government. This book will no doubt gather the wrath of those in the "race industry" whose livelihoods depend on sustaining race-based separatism. But all those for whom the future of an America that can sustain the greatness of its past will find this a very informative and readable book.
Rating:
Summary: The honest truth
Review: I wish the media and politicians would be this honest and frank. This is not a "trash the Mexicans" book. It's open and clear. Great book and a great writer. This should be required reading for our nations leaders.
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