Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A timely and groundbreaking argument that all Americans must grapple with Latinos' dynamic racial identity--because it impacts everything we think we know about race in America
Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture' yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos' Laura G mez' a leading expert on race' law' and society' illuminates the fascinating race-making' unmaking' and re-making of Latino identity that has spanned centuries' leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.
Pulling back the lens as the country approaches an unprecedented demographic shift (Latinos will comprise a third of the American population in a matter of decades)' G mez also reveals the nefarious roles the United States has played in Latin America--from military interventions and economic exploitation to political interference--that' taken together' have destabilized national economies to send migrants northward over the course of more than a century. It's no coincidence that the vast majority of Latinos migrate from the places most impacted by this nation's dirty deeds' leading G mez to a bold call for reparations.
In this audacious effort to reframe the often-confused and misrepresented discourse over the Latinx generation' G mez provides essential context for today's most pressing political and public debates--representation' voice' interpretation' and power--giving all of us a brilliant framework to engage cultural controversies' elections' current events' and more.
Synopsis
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR
A timely and groundbreaking argument that all Americans must grapple with Latinos' dynamic racial identity--because it impacts everything we think we know about race in America
Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture' yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos' Laura G mez' a leading expert on race' law' and society' illuminates the fascinating race-making' unmaking' and re-making of Latino identity that has spanned centuries' leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.
Pulling back the lens as the country approaches an unprecedented demographic shift (Latinos will comprise a third of the American population in a matter of decades)' G mez also reveals the nefarious roles the United States has played in Latin America--from military interventions and economic exploitation to political interference--that' taken together' have destabilized national economies to send migrants northward over the course of more than a century. It's no coincidence that the vast majority of Latinos migrate from the places most impacted by this nation's dirty deeds' leading G mez to a bold call for reparations.
In this audacious effort to reframe the often-confused and misrepresented discourse over the Latinx generation' G mez provides essential context for today's most pressing political and public debates--representation' voice' interpretation' and power--giving all of us a brilliant framework to engage cultural controversies' elections' current events' and more.
Synopsis
Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR
An NPR Best Book of the Year, exploring the impact of Latinos' new collective racial identity on the way Americans understand race, with a new afterword by the author
Who are Latinos and where do they fit in America's racial order? In this "timely and important examination of Latinx identity" (Ms.), Laura E. G mez, a leading critical race scholar, argues that it is only recently that Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Central Americans, and others are seeing themselves (and being seen by others) under the banner of a cohesive racial identity. And the catalyst for this emergent identity, she argues, has been the ferocity of anti-Latino racism.
In what Booklist calls "an incisive study of history, complex interrogation of racial construction, and sophisticated legal argument," G mez "packs a knockout punch" (Publishers Weekly), illuminating for readers the fascinating race-making, unmaking, and re-making processes that Latinos have undergone over time, indelibly changing the way race functions in this country.
Building on the "insightful and well-researched" (Kirkus Reviews) material of the original, the paperback features a new afterword in which the author analyzes results of the 2020 Census, providing brilliant, timely insight about how Latinos have come to self-identify.