Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
California's San Gabriel Valley has been called an incubator for ethnic politics. Located a mere fifteen minutes from Los Angeles, the valley is a brave new world of multiethnic complexity.
Here Latinos and Asian Americans are the dominant groups, rather than the minorities they are elsewhere in the United States. Politics are Latino-dominated, while a large infusion of Chinese immigrants and capital has made the San Gabriel Valley the center of the nation's largest Chinese ethnic economy. The white population has dropped from an overwhelming majority in 1970 to a minority in 1990.
Leland T. Saito presents an insider's view of the political, economic, and cultural implications of this ethnic mix. He examines how diverse residents of the region have worked to overcome their initial antagonisms and develop new, more effective political alliances.
By tracing grassroots political organization along racial and ethnic lines, Race and Politics focuses on the construction of new identities, especially the panethnic affiliation "Asian American."
Synopsis
Located a mere fifteen minutes from Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley is an incubator for California's new ethnic politics. Here, Latinos and Asian Americans are the dominant groups. Politics are Latino-dominated, while a large infusion of Chinese immigrants and capital has made the San Gabriel Valley the center of the nation's largest Chinese ethnic economy. The white population, meanwhile, has dropped from an overwhelming majority in 1970 to a minority in 1990.
Leland T. Saito presents an insider's view of the political, economic, and cultural implications of this ethnic mix. He examines how diverse residents of the region have worked to overcome their initial antagonisms and develop new, more effective political alliances.
Tracing grassroots political organization along racial and ethnic lines, Race and Politics focuses on the construction of new identities in general and the panethnic affiliation "Asian American" in particular.
Table of Contents
Introduction : race, ethnicity, and politics -- Monterey Park and the San Gabriel Valley : regional, national, and international trends -- Reasserting whiteness : transforming history and architecture, from "Mexican" to "Spanish" to "Mediterranean" -- Asian American politics : identity, political mobilization, and regional networks -- Asian American political issues -- "Common ground" : from agricultural struggles to urban politics in Latino and Asian American relations -- The case of redistricting : the growing organizational scale of politics and interracial alliances -- Conclusion : "progress"?