The Strange Career of William Ellis

A prize-winning historian tells a new story of the black experience in America through the life of a mysterious entrepreneur. To his contemporaries in Gilded Age Manhattan,Guillermo Eliseo was a fantastically wealthy Mexicanthe proud owner of a luxury apartment overlooking Central Parka busy Wall Street officeand scores of mines and haciendas in Mexico. But for all his obvious riches and his elegant appearanceEliseo was also the possessor of a devastating secret: he was notin factfrom Mexico at all. Ratherhe had begun life as a slave named William Ellisborn on a cotton plantation in southern Texas during the waning years of King Cotton. After emancipationElliscapitalizing on the Spanish he learned during his childhood along the Mexican border and his ambivalent appearanceengaged in a virtuoso act of reinvention. He crafted an alter egothe Mexican Guillermo Eliseowho was able to access many of the privileges denied to African Americans at the time: traveling in first-class train berthsstaying in upscale hotelsand eating in the finest restaurants. EliseoΓÇÖs success in crossing the color linehoweverbrought heightened scrutiny in its wake as he became the intimate of political and business leaders on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Ellisunlike many passersmaintained a connection to his family and to black politics that also raised awkward questions about his racial status. Yet such was EllisΓÇÖs skill in manipulating his eraΓÇÖs racial codesmost of the whites he encountered continued to insist that he must be Hispanic even as Ellis became embroiled in scandals that hinted the man known as Guillermo Eliseo was not quite who he claimed to be. The Strange Career of William Ellis reads like a novel but offers fresh insights on the history of the Reconstruction erathe US-Mexico borderand the abiding riddle of race. At a moment when the United States is deepening its connections with Latin America and recognizing that race is more than simply black or whiteEllisΓÇÖs story could not be more timely or important.