This set of essays explores the ongoing cultural and political connections between Chicana/o and Mexican history. Edited and introduced by Héctor Calderón, The Aztlán Mexican Studies Reader, 1974–2016 presents thirteen previously published essays together with three essays written specifically for this collection, making a rigorous case for the contributions of Chicana/o studies to the transnational study of Mexico.

The first essay, by Tomás Almaguer, which was also the first to be published, sets the stage with a historical overview that relates how the Chicano movement was rooted in the soil of conquest and colonialism in Mexico. Subsequent essays discuss a range of topics that stress interconnections between Chicana/os and Mexicans: transborder issues such as immigration and labor; Chicana/o and Mexican fiction; femicide and racism in Mexico and their reverberations on both sides of the border; and the development of Mexican art forms—including muralism, cinema, and music—in Mexico and the United States.