Description: This timely and important book introduces readers to the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States - Latinos - and their diverse conditions of departure and reception. A central theme of the book is the tension between the fact that Latino categories are most often assigned from above, and how those defined as Latino seek to make sense of and enliven a shared notion of identity from below. Providing a sophisticated introduction to emerging theoretical trends and social formations specific to Latino immigrants, chapters are structured around the topics of Latinidad or the idea of a pan-ethnic Latino identity, pathways to citizenship, cultural citizenship, labor, gender, transnationalism, and globalization. Specific areas of focus include the 2006 marches of the immigrant rights movement and the rise in neoliberal nativism (including both state-sponsored restrictions such as Arizona's SB1070 and the hate crimes associated with Minutemen vigilantism). Ronald L. Mize is Assistant Professor of Latino Studies at Cornell University Grace Peäna Delgado is Assistant Professor of History at The Pennsylvania State University. Publisher's note.
Review Quotes: "Extremely ambitious in scope..., this conveniently brief book will unquestionably be an accessible addition to the bookshelves of a readership as diverse as its subject matter... Scholars of immigration and/or Latino studies will greatly appreciate this volume's content and concise writing."
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
"This work is timely, incisive, and a 'must-read' for anyone interested in the complexities associated with the needs, struggles and organisation of Latino immigrants in the United States"
Bulletin of Latin American Research
"A timely corrective to the current debates surrounding Latino immigration and does a wonderful job at illuminating the struggles immigrants face. This book will serve as a useful companion to sociologists, political scientists, international economists, historians, and those concerned about one of the most pressing issues of the day."
Contemporary Sociology
"In the field of immigration it is often difficult to find books that combine the three main features of a good book: readable, informative, and allowing readers to wander with their minds beyond the book's written content. With no doubt, Ronald Mize and Grace Peña Delgado have skillfully mastered these goals"
International Sociology Review of Books
"A comprehensive sociological study of the role of Latino immigrants in controlling and shaping their existence in the U.S. [and] a solid contribution to current debates ever so pertinent to the discussion of immigration reform."
Revista Camino Real
"Throughout the last century Latino immigrants have served as convenient scapegoats for the economic ills of the United States, with many Americans continuing to view immigration narrowly as occurring in a vacuum. In this book, Mize and Delgado clearly illustrate the complex nature of immigration. Replete with valuable insights linking communities from where Latino immigrants originate and those where they relocate, this book is a valuable addition to our understanding of the global and transnational forces that create and sustain immigration between Latin America and the United States. The book is a must-read for those interested in understanding the big forces that drive immigration and the tremendous profits that capitalists gain from the exploitation of desperate human beings."
Rogelio Sáenz, Dean of the College of Public Policy, University of Texas at San Antonio
"In this clear and dramatic account of the challenges and triumph of Latino immigration in the US, Mize and Delgado reveal the dramatic and fascinating dialectic between politics and identity, the national and the local, and an indiscriminate Nativism and the 'Latinidad' it ironically helped to engender."
Lawrence Taylor, Author of Tunnel Kids and Vice-President for International Affairs at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth