Synopses & Reviews
Are all immigrants from the same home country best understood as a homogeneous group of foreign-born? Or do they differ in their adaptation and transnational ties depending on when they emigrated and with what lived experiences? Between Castro 's rise to power in 1959 and the early twenty-first century more than a million Cubans immigrated to the United States. While it is widely known that Cuban migr?'s have exerted a strong hold on Washington policy toward their homeland, Eckstein uncovers a fascinating paradox: the recent arrivals, although poor and politically weak, have done more to transform their homeland than the influential and prosperous early exiles who have tried for half a century to bring the Castro regime to heel. The impact of the so-called New Cubans is an unintended consequence of the personal ties they maintain with family in Cuba, ties the first arrivals oppose.
This historically-grounded, nuanced book offers a rare in-depth analysis of Cuban immigrants social, cultural, economic, and political adaptation, their transformation of Miami into the northern most Latin American city, and their cross-border engagement and homeland impact. Eckstein accordingly provides new insight into the lives of Cuban immigrants, into Cuba in the post Soviet era, and into how Washington 's failed Cuba policy might be improved. She also posits a new theory to deepen the understanding not merely of Cuban but of other immigrant group adaptation.
Review
andquot;This book offers fresh new insights, as only such a broadly conceived interdisciplinary work could, into many different areas such as modern Asian, U.S., and global histories.andquot;andmdash;Kwangmin Kim,
Journal of American Ethnic HistoryReview
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Transnational Crossroads is impressive in scope and purpose, weaving together discourses and narratives of empire, globalization, resistance, and cultural politics of converging Asian, Latina, and Pacific Islander communities. Its focus is most welcome and so exciting for engagement in these issues.and#8221;and#8212;Rona Halualani, author of
In the Name of Hawaiians: Native Identities and Cultural PoliticsReview
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Transnational Crossroads is unique and a wonderful triangulation of Pacific Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos. It will be a sourcebook for both graduate and undergraduate courses in critical race studies, comparative ethnic studies, core courses in American studies, and migration studies.and#8221;and#8212;Martin F. Manalansan IV, author of
Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the DiasporaSynopsis
This nuanced book offers a rare in-depth analysis of Cuban immigrants' social, cultural, economic, and political adaptation, their transformation of Miami into the northern most Latin American city, and their cross-border engagement and homeland impact.
Synopsis
The twentieth century was a time of unprecedented migration and interaction for Asian, Latin American, and Pacific Islander cultures in the Americas and the American Pacific. Some of these ethnic groups already had historic ties, but technology, migration, and globalization during the twentieth century brought them into even closer contact.
Transnational Crossroads explores and triangulates for the first time the interactions and contacts among these three cultural groups that were brought together by the expanding American empire from 1867 to 1950.
Through a comparative framework, this volume weaves together narratives of U.S. and Spanish empire, globalization, resistance, and identity, as well as social, labor, and political movements. Contributors examine multiethnic celebrities and key figures, migratory paths, cultural productions, and social and political formations among these three groups. Engaging multiple disciplines and methodologies, these studies of Asian American, Latin American, and Pacific Islander cultural interactions explode traditional notions of ethnic studies and introduce new approaches to transnational and comparative studies of the Americas and the American Pacific.
About the Author
Camilla Fojas is Vincent de Paul Professor and the director of Latin American and Latino studies at DePaul University. She is the author of Border Bandits: Hollywood on the Southern Frontier and coeditor of Mixed-Race Hollywood. Rudy P. Guevarra Jr. is an assistant professor of Asian Pacific American studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Becoming Mexipino: Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego and coeditor of Crossing Lines: Race and Mixed Race across the Geohistorical Divide.