Booknotes: Reasons We Fight

New Arrival:

• Reasons We Fight: Tejanos and American Wars, 1836-1972 by Alex Mendoza (OU Press, 2026).

Starting with the Texas Revolution and ending with the exit of U.S. forces from Vietnam, Alex Mendoza's Reasons We Fight: Tejanos and American Wars, 1836-1972 examines what motivated Texans of Mexican descent to fight for the United States. In the process, Mendoza "discovers a complex landscape of shifting loyalties, motivations, and notions of nationalism reflecting Tejanos' conflicted relationship with America as it changed over time."

From the description: During much of the long period covered in the book, Tejano military service "often had less to do with nationalism or patriotism than with individual decisions. A soldier might be motivated by local allegiances, ethnic pride, a desire to defend his home, escape poverty, or seek adventure in a foreign war." However, "(b)y World War II, these notions had become stronger, and the Tejano community responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor with the patriotic fervor of their Anglo-American neighbors."

More from the description: As referenced above, the twentieth century marked a significant transformation in Tejano patriotism and nationalism. Mendoza's study "traces a growing sense of nationalism through the mid-twentieth century, as Tejanos sought to refute their second-class status as "inferior" individuals—and to demonstrate their warrior tradition, thus confirming their rights to citizenship through battle. In essence, by the Second World War, Tejanos who joined the ranks of the military adopted the characteristics of American nationalism—sentiments that would only expand during the Cold War era conflicts in Korea and Vietnam."

Since this is an ACW site, it behooves us to look at how much Civil War-era content and analysis is present. The war with Mexico and the Civil War are covered in Chapter 2, while the following chapter pairs Reconstruction with the Spanish-American War. According to the summary in the introduction, Tejano participation in the Mexican War was minimal, with "less than two dozen Spanish-surnamed volunteers" among Texas forces. Tejano allegiances were split during the American Civil War, with around 2,500 joining the Confederate Army and 958 donning Union blue. During Reconstruction, Tejanos "served as a paramilitary force" until the U.S. Army fully took over frontier and border security (pp. 4-5).

In sum: "The first comprehensive record of Tejanos in war, Mendoza's account documents the forces and circumstances that shaped military attitudes among Mexican Texans, along with the challenges they faced navigating a complex of shifting ideas about identity, community, and nationalism—and America itself."