Top of 2020

It will be a while until we can look back at 2020 without anger, but we thought it wouldn’t hurt to review our journal’s usage and check how people behaved, searched for answers during this period of disruption. We compiled a list of the 20 most downloaded articles from JSW in 2020 according to MUSE and JSTOR data. Not surprisingly, Race and Border issues trumped (no pun intended) other traditional southwestern themes. Also a reflection of the times, we identified an unusual interest in food and the dark side of religion (la Santa Muerte).

As a sort of humble, intellectual compensation for 2020 hardships we wanted to give you the option to download and share the digital copies of the top five pieces. You can always check our store to purchase individual issues or articles if you have no access to academic databases.

1. Constructing a Virtual Wall: Race and Citizenship in US-Mexico Border Policing, by Josiah McC. Heyman, Autumn 2008
2. “A Bunch of Tough Hombres”: Police Brutality, Municipal Politics, and Racism in South Texas, by Brent M. S. Campney, Winter 2018
3. Arizona and Japanese American History: The World War II Colorado River Relocation Center, by Thomas Fujita-Rony, Summer 2005
4. Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex, New Mex, or Whose Mex? Notes on the Historical Geography of Southwestern Cuisine, by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Winter 2001
5. Hidden Citizens: The Courts and Native American Voting Rights in the Southwest, by Matthew G. McCoy, Summer 2016
6. Bordering a “Crisis”: Central American Asylum Seekers and the Reproduction of Dominant Border Enforcement Practices, by Josiah Heyman, Jeremy Slack, and Emily Guerra, Winter 2018
7. Nuestra Señora de las Sombras: The Enigmatic Identity of Santa Muerte, by Pamela Bastante and Brenton Dickieson, Winter 2013
8. Reclaiming the Southwest: A Traumatic Space in the Japanese American Internment Narrative, by Fu-jen Chen and Su-lin Yu, Winter 2005
9. Tortilla, Pepper, Chocolate, and Mezcal: A Food History of the U.S.-Mexican War, 1846–1848, by James Turner, Spring 2020
10. Food Choice and Social Identity in Early Colonial New Mexico, by Heather Trigg, Summer 2004
11. The Chinese Six Companies of San Francisco and the Smuggling of Chinese Immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1882-1930, by Lawrence Douglas Taylor Hansen, Spring 2006
12. Reproducing the Past: Revival and Revision in Navajo Weaving, by Laurie D. Webster, Winter 1996
13. The Rise and Fall of the Bureau of American Ethnology, by Richard B. Woodbury, Nathalie F. S. Woodbury, Autumn 1999
14. Water Consumption and Sustainability in Arizona: A Tale of Two Desert Cities, by Paul Hirt, Rachel Snyder, Cyrus Hester, and Kelli Larson, Spring-Summer 2017
15. Creating a Park, Building a Border: The Establishment of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the Solidification of the U.S.-Mexico Border, by Jessica Piekielek, Spring 2016
16. Cultural Pluralism or Cultural Imposition? Examining the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Education Reforms during the Indian New Deal (1933–1945), by Gabriella Treglia, Winter 2019
17. Santísima Muerte: On the Origin and Development of a Mexican Occult Image, by John Thompson, Winter 1998
18. 1491: In Search of Native America, by W. George Lovell, Henry F. Dobyns, William M. Denevan, William I. Woods and Charles C. Mann, Autumn 2004
19. Ghosting Indigenous Cultures: Yaquis’ Near Absence in Literature of the Mexican Revolution, by Carmen Serrano, Winter 2019
20. Racial Fluidity in the Borderlands: Intermarriages between Blacks and Mexicans in Southern Arizona, 1860–1930, by Sal Acosta, Winter 2014