Synopses & Reviews
In the spring of 2006, millions of Latinos across the country participated in the largest civil rights demonstrations in American history. In this timely and highly anticipated book, Chris Zepeda-Millan analyzes the background, course, and impacts of this unprecedented wave of protests, highlighting their unique local, national, and demographic dynamics. He finds that because of the particular ways the issue of immigrant illegality was racialized, federally proposed anti-immigrant legislation (H.R. 4437) helped transform Latinos' sense of latent group membership into the racial group consciousness that incited their engagement in large-scale collective action. Zepeda-Millan shows how nativist policy threats against disenfranchised undocumented immigrants can provoke a political backlash — on the streets and at the ballot box — from not only "people without papers," but also naturalized and U.S.-born citizens. Latino Mass Mobilization is an important intervention into contemporary debates regarding immigration policy, social movements, and racial politics in the United States.
Review
"Zepeda-Millán upends our previous understandings of Latino politics and forces us to rethink the very factors that led to political mobilization and subsequent demobilization." Michael Omi, University of California, Berkeley, co-author of Racial Formation in the United States
Review
"Highly original, deftly analyzed, and centering the voices and experiences of immigrants and their families, Zepeda-Millán's book is both timely and timeless." Vesla Mae Weaver, Yale University, Connecticut
Review
"Combining insights from social movement, racial politics, and immigration studies, Zepeda-Millán's book...reveals lessons for the politics of racialization and immigrant rights in America today." Sidney Tarrow, author of Power in Movement
About the Author
Chris Zepeda-Millán is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Public Policy, Chicana/o & Central American Studies and Political Science, as well as the Director of Faculty Research for the Latino Policy & Politics Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His book and academic journal articles on social movements, Latino politics, immigration policy and public opinion have won multiple national and regional awards.