Patrick J. Carroll
Felix Longoria's Wake
Bereavement, Racism, and the Rise of Mexican American Activism
(University of Texas Press 2003)

Publisher Comments:
Private First Class Felix Longoria earned a Bronze Service Star, a Purple Heart, a Good Conduct Medal, and a Combat Infantryman's badge for service in the Philippines during World War II. Yet the only funeral parlor in his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas, refused to hold a wake for the slain soldier because "the whites would not like it."

In this book, Patrick Carroll provides the first fully researched account of the Longoria controversy and its far-reaching consequences. Drawing on extensive documentary evidence and interviews ... Carroll convincingly explains why the Longoria incident ... ignited the activism of a whole range of interest groups from Argentina to Minneapolis. By putting Longoria's wake in a national and international context, he also clarifies why it became such a flash point for conflicting understandings of bereavement, nationalism, reason, and emotion between two powerful cultures—Mexicanidad and Americanism.

Dr. Carroll is Professor of History at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

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