- ISBN13: 9780520258273
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Latinos are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States and will comprise a quarter of the country’s population by mid-century. This landmark book is the most definitive and comprehensive snapshot available of this trend. A new preface includes the most recent data on a variety of indicators of the changing Latino landscape in the United States.
Copub: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies… More >>
The stats are very helpful indicating breakdown by country of Latino immigration to the U.S. There is an odd assumption perhaps because the reviewers don’t hable espanol that all Latinos share some big secret and hold hands in the moonlight as they espouse their love/hate relationship with America. Apparently, the researchers studied American “intervention” in different Spanish speaking countries one by one but restricted said interactions to whatever the NY Times or Washington Post rags would report. So ignore any reasons for said “interventions” or any problems that existed with native leadership of said countries or any problems that existed and still exist between various Latin American countries. Consequently, you have to wade through pages and pages of spew. To quote p16, “U.S. territorial expansion …. was achieved, largely via direct military confrontation and a series of territorial annexations, appropriations, and purchases…. Without taking a step Mexicans residing north of the Rio Grande found themselves living in a different country.” To quote p20, “This new phase represents a continuation of the asymmetrical relationship between the most powerful country in the world and its poor neighbors to the south.” “The vast majority of scholarly work on immigration and the making of white ethnics failed to consider the preexisting racial polarization so central to any understanding of American social structure.” How could I have been so blind? Why didn’t my high school and university teachers slice n dice America into buckets based of skin color and social class so that I would have a clear understanding of where I came from and why I am being forced to stay there. So sad. What a pile of nonsense!
It’s really nice when these proported intelligent educated writers consolidate the numerous peoples of Mexico into one homogenous body extremely loyal to the Spanish imperialists (or wait, didn’t Napolean ie. France sell the Lousiana purchase to the Americans?) and of course extremely loyal to Mexico suddenly feel slighted at becoming part of America. Somebody might want to take a short vacation to Mexico City and visit that really excellent Anthropological Museum to learn exactly how homogenous Mexico is. Seriously. And if time permits, do drop by the Cartoon Museum and observe political cartoons from various Latin American countries describing their hardships with their own governments that have nothing to do with American intervention. And visit the Economics Museums too to learn that different states produce different goods and services. Oh, but wait… they don’t speak Spanish do they? Bring a translator!
Anyway, in a way it reminds me of a recent conversation with my girlfriend who went to one of these post-modern poor excuses for an education schools where she studied minority identity instead of the 3 Rs consequently her grades just aren’t that high and she thinks Brave New World is some rant by an old white man trying to put down her people instead of recognizing the point of the dangers of sorting people into buckets.
Rating: 2 / 5
The growth in the Hispanic population of the US since reform of immigration law in 1965 has made the Hispanic minority visible on a national, and no longer merely, regional scale. It has also made Spanish the most obvious minority language in the country, but this has also led to the creation of many professional ethnologists/area studies specialists, as well as the availability of majors in such areas of study, not necessarily of help in finding work afterwards. The book provides a breakdown of Hispanic immigration and presence by national origin and state of residence, but the most important aspect of the increased Hispanic presence in the country, the linguistic future of the US, is left in the air. One of the chapters, of really dubious merit, takes a positive view of bilingualism where such involves street talk rather than having an educated command of both languages in spoken and written form. My view of Spanglish is that it is invalid due to its uselessness as an internationally recognizable form of Spanish and is most likely a prelude to assimilation to English (possibly also of a substandard type) or cultural ghettoization of its speakers. The future of the US is clearly one of a Hispanic minority of a large percentage if not an outright majority, but what sort of Hispanic majority is a very important matter which no writer in this book addresses. This book at its price is not worth the purchase and can be read fairly quickly for the worthwhile information it contains while bypassing the politically correct parts and sociological gobbledygook within.
Rating: 3 / 5
*Latinos: Remaking America* is heady stuff that is the perfect textbook for a Sociology class with an emphasis on Latinos. It’s perfect because there are so many issues that this book addresses that readers can relate or connect to today’s current events on Latinos. Such issues are education, language, religion, health, women, employment and many more. This book should serve as the bible of Latinos in America.
The reason I said it was heady stuff because there are a lot of statistics in the book. While I believe that statistics are important, I do have to say that some of the graphs are not “friendly”.
However, I did wish that there were essays or articles by grassroot Latinos to give readers a “breather” from heavy reading. I took me over a month to read this detailed book. With Latinos constantly growing in America, I will not be surprised if this book has to be revised in the near future.
Rating: 4 / 5