Synopses & Reviews
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar takes us on the definitive tour of the Spanish-speaking United States a parallel nation, 35 million strong, that is changing the very notion of what it means to be an American in unprecedented and unexpected ways.
The year 2005 will mark Latino-Americans' first year as the largest minority in the United States. By the middle of the century, Spanish-speaking Americans will make up 25 percent of the population. Never before has a group been as poised to make so substantial an impact on American culture and identity. And not just in California and Texas but also in Georgia, Alabama, New York, and Idaho. As a Guatemalan-American journalist, Héctor Tobar has grown up with and chronicled this parallel nation, surrounded by its people and their collective experiences, complexities, and contradictions. In Translation Nation he introduces us to its past, the present and our future.
Tobar begins on familiar terrain, in his native Los Angeles, with his family's story, along with that of two brothers of Mexican origin with very different interpretations of Americanismo, or American identity as seen through a Latin American lens one headed for U.S. citizenship and the other for the wrong side of the law and the south side of the border. But this is just a jumping-off point. Soon we are in Dalton, Georgia, the most Spanish-speaking town in the Deep South, and in Rupert, Idaho, where the most popular radio DJ is known as "El Chupacabras." By the end of the book, we have traveled from the geographical extremes into the heartland, exploring the familiar complexities of Cuban Miami and the brand-new ones of a busy Omaha INS station.
Sophisticated, provocative, and deeply human, Translation Nation uncovers the ways that Hispanic Americans are forging new identities, redefining the experience of the American immigrant, and reinventing the American community. It is a book that rises, brilliantly, to meet one of the most profound shifts in American identity.
Review
"In plain, stirring prose, this landmark documentary brings close the universals of exodus and displacement, as Tobar reveals the unsettling particulars of Americans who are restless and always longing for home, whatever that is." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"...Tobar does a magnificent job of portraying the "contradiction and possibility" contained in the words una nacion unida. A plea for transnational identity in the spirit of Tobar's hero, Che Guevara." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"An essential and illuminating read...full of discoveries..." San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
"Translation Nation comes close by giving these nameless masses who cross our borders daily a human face. But Tobar never tells us what to do about them." Miami Herald
Review
"One of the book's true gems is Tobar's gifted, breezy writing style. His eye for detail intertwined with the storytelling skills of a novelist elevate his story beyond the usual immigrant tale...." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hector Tobar takes readers on the definitive tour of the Spanish-speaking United States a parallel nation, 35 million strong, that is changing the very notion of what it means to be an American in unprecedented and unexpected ways.
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar takes us on the definitive tour of the Spanish-speaking United States-a parallel nation, 35 million strong, that is changing the very notion of what it means to be an American in unprecedented and unexpected ways.
The year 2005 will mark Latino-Americans' first year as the largest minority in the United States. By the middle of the century, Spanish-speaking Americans will make up 25 percent of the population. Never before has a group been as poised to make so substantial an impact on American culture and identity. And not just in California and Texas-but also in Georgia, Alabama, New York, and Idaho. As a Guatemalan-American journalist, Héctor Tobar has grown up with and chronicled this parallel nation, surrounded by its people and their collective experiences, complexities, and contradictions. In Translation Nation he introduces us to its past, the present-and our future.
Tobar begins on familiar terrain, in his native Los Angeles, with his family's story, along with that of two brothers of Mexican origin with very different interpretations of Americanismo, or American identity as seen through a Latin American lens-one headed for U.S. citizenship and the other for the wrong side of the law and the south side of the border. But this is just a jumping-off point. Soon we are in Dalton, Georgia, the most Spanish-speaking town in the Deep South, and in Rupert, Idaho, where the most popular radio DJ is known as "El Chupacabras." By the end of the book, we have traveled from the geographical extremes into the heartland, exploring the familiar complexities of Cuban Miami and the brand-new ones of a busy Omaha INS station.
Sophisticated, provocative, and deeply human, Translation Nation uncovers the ways that Hispanic Americans are forging new identities, redefining the experience of the American immigrant, and reinventing the American community. It is a book that rises, brilliantly, to meet one of the most profound shifts in American identity.
Synopsis
In the national bestseller Translation Nation, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar takes us on the definitive tour of the Spanish-speaking United Statesa parallel nation, 35 million strong, that is changing the very notion of what it means to be an American in unprecedented and unexpected ways.
Tobar begins on familiar terrain, in his native Los Angeles, with his family's story, along with that of two brothers of Mexican origin with very different interpretations of Americanismo, or American identity as seen through a Latin American lensone headed for U.S. citizenship and the other for the wrong side of the law and the south side of the border. But this is just a jumping-off point. Soon we are in Dalton, Georgia, the most Spanish-speaking town in the Deep South, and in Rupert, Idaho, where the most popular radio DJ is known as "El Chupacabras." By the end of the book, we have traveled from the geographical extremes into the heartland, exploring the familiar complexities of Cuban Miami and the brand-new ones of a busy Omaha INS station.
Sophisticated, provocative, and deeply human, Translation Nation uncovers the ways that Hispanic Americans are forging new identities, redefining the experience of the American immigrant, and reinventing the American community. It is a book that rises, brilliantly, to meet one of the most profound shifts in American identity.
About the Author
The son of Guatemalan immigrants, Héctor Tobar is a National Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and was part of the writing team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1992 riots. He holds an MFA from the University of California at Irvine and lives in Los Angeles.
Table of Contents
Part One: Crossings
Chapter One: Americanismo: City of Peasants
Los Angeles, California
Chapter Two: Where Green Chiles Roam: No es imposible
San Ysidro, California; Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Chapter Three: Brother Citizen, Brother Alien: Sin fronteras
Watts, California; Ameca, Jalisco, Mexico
Part Two: Pioneers and Pilgrimage
Chapter Four: The Wanderers: El destierro
Ashland, Alabama; McAllen, Texas; Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico
Chapter Five: In the Land of the New: En la tierra de lo nuevo
Dalton, Georgia; Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Memphis, Tennessee
Chapter Six: Our Secret Latin Heartland: Los secretos del machote
Rupert, Idaho; Frankenmuth, Michigan; Grand Island, Nebraska; Liberal, Kansas
Part Three: Manifest Destinies
Chapter Seven: Unconquered: La reconquista
Cordova, New Mexico; San Fernando, California; San Antonio, Texas
Chapter Eight: The Old Men and the Boy: Los balseros
Miami, Florida
Chapter Nine: Fathers, Daughters, Citizens, and Strongwomen: El hombre y el orgullo
Barstow, Los Angeles, Bell Gardens, Maywood, Watts, and South Gate, California
Part Four: E Pluribus Unum
Chapter Ten: Una Nación Unida: Heroes of Another Fatherland
El Reno, Oklahoma; San Juan, Puerto Rico; New York, New York; Baghdad, Iraq
Epilogue: Che and the Three Monkeys: Che y los tres monos
La Higuera, Bolivia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Los Angelos; California; Ashland, Alabama
Acknowledgments
Notes