Latinos constitute the fastest-growing population in the United States today, and Latino political participation is growing rapidly. Still, Latino political power is not commensurate with the numbers, and much potential remains to be tapped. In LatinoPolitics in America, author John A. García examines the development of this vibrant community and points the way toward a future of shared interests and coalitions among the diverse Latino subgroups. This newly revised edition lays out the basic factsof Latino America—who Latinos are, where they come from, where they reside—and then connects these facts to political realities of immigration, citizenship, voting, education, organization, and leadership. García's nuanced portrait of contemporary Latinopolitical life, first published in 2003, has been updated throughout to include data from the 2010 census and the 2008 and 2010 elections.
Sometime in April 2014, somewhere in a hospital in California, a Latino child tipped the demographic scales as Latinos displaced non-Hispanic whites as the largest racial/ethnic group in the state. So, one-hundred-sixty-six years after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brought the Mexican province of Alta California into the United States, Latinos once again became the largest population in the state. Surprised? Texas will make the same transition sometime before 2020. When that happens, America's two most populous states, carrying the largest number of Electoral College votes, will be Latino. New Mexico is already there. New York, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada are shifting rapidly. Latino populations since 2000 have doubled in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and South Dakota. The US is undergoing a substantial and irreversible shift in its identity. So, too, are the Latinos who make up these populations. Matt Barreto and Gary M. Segura are the country's preeminent experts in the shape, disposition, and mood of Latino America. They show the extent to which Latinos have already transformed the US politically and socially, and how Latino Americans are the most buoyant and dynamic ethnic and racial group, often in quite counterintuitive ways. Latinos' optimism, strength of family, belief in the constructive role of government, and resilience have the imminent potential to reshape the political and partisan landscape for a generation and drive the outcome of elections as soon as 2016.
Due to the dramatic growth of the Latino population in America, in combination with the relative decline of the Anglo (non-Hispanic white) share, Latino Studies is increasingly at the forefront of political concern. With Latino Politics: Identity, Mobilization, and Representation, editors Rodolfo Espino, David L. Leal, and Kenneth J. Meier bring together essays from a number of leading scholars to address the ever-more important issues within the field. Providing an overview of issues surrounding Latino identity and political opinion--such as differences among Latino groups based on national origin, the importance of descriptive representation, and issues of competition and cooperation, particularly with reference to African Americans--the editors speak to the many fundamental debates ingrained in the discipline. In addition to highlighting important contributions of the study of Latino politics to date, this volume suggests areas that have yet to be explored and, perhaps more importantly, demonstrates how the study of Latino politics relates to broader questions of American politics and society. Foregrounding debates in the overall discipline of political science, the collection will appeal to those who study Latino politics as well as those who are interested in understanding American politics and society with reference to Latino and "minority" concerns. Contributors Rodney E. Hero, University of Notre Dame * Benjamin Márquez, University of Wisconsin, Madison * David L. Leal, University of Texas at Austin * Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University * Matt A. Barreto, University of Washington * Ricardo Ramírez, University of Southern California * Louis DeSipio, University of California, Irvine * Adrian D. Pantoja, Arizona State University * Sylvia Manzano, Texas A&M University * Helena Alves Rodrigues, University of Arizona * Gary M. Segura, University of Washington * René R. Rocha, University of Iowa * Luis Ricardo Fraga, University of Washington * Sharon A. Navarro, University of Texas at San Antonio * Rodolfo Espino, Arizona State University * Jason P. Casellas, University of Texas at Austin * Eric Gonzalez Juenke, University of Colorado at Boulder * Nick A. Theobald, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo * Valerie Martinez-Ebers, Texas Christian University * Manuel Avalos, Arizona State University * Kenneth J. Meier, Texas A&M University
The third edition of this popular text provides students with a comprehensive introduction to Latino political engagement in US politics. Focusing on six Latino groups – Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans – the book explores the migration history of each and examines their political status on arrival in the United States, including their civil rights, employment opportunities, and political incorporation. Finally, the analysis follows each group’s history of collective mobilization and political activity, drawing out the varied ways they have engaged in the US political system. Fully revised and updated, the new edition explores the state of Latino politics under both the Obama and Trump Administrations, discussing issues such as migrant detention at the US–Mexico border, the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and the thawing of relations between the United States and Cuba. It encourages students to think critically about what it means to be a racialized minority group within a majoritarian US political system, and how that position structures Latinos’ ability to achieve their social, economic, and political goals.
Through an in-depth study of the Latino community in Boston, Carol hardy-Fanta addressees three key debates in American politics: how to look at the ways in which women and men envision the meaning of politics and political participation; how to understand culture and the political life of expanding immigrant populations; and how to create a more participatory America. The author's interviews with Latinos from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Central and South America and her participation in community events in North Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and the South End document the often ignored contribution of Latina women as candidates, political mobilizers, and community organizers. Hardy-Fanta examines critical gender differences in how politics is defined, what strategies Latina women and Latino men use to generate political participation, and how culture and gender interact in the political empowerment of the ethic communities. Hardy-Fanta challenges the notion of political apathy among Latinos and presents factors that stimulate political participation. She finds that the vision of politics promoted by Latina women—one based on connectedness, collectivity, community, and consiousness-raising—contrasts sharply with a male political concern for status, hierarchy, and personal opportunity.
A new history reveals how the rise of the Latino vote has redrawn the political map and what it portends for the future of American politics. The impact of the Latino vote is a constant subject of debate among pundits and scholars. Will it sway elections? And how will the political parties respond to the growing number of voters who identify as Latino? A more basic and revealing question, though, is how the Latino vote was forged—how U.S. voters with roots in Latin America came to be understood as a bloc with shared interests. In The Rise of the Latino Vote, Benjamin Francis-Fallon shows how this diverse group of voters devised a common political identity and how the rise of the Latino voter has transformed the electoral landscape. Latino political power is a recent phenomenon. It emerged on the national scene during the turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s, when Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American activists, alongside leaders in both the Democratic and the Republican parties, began to conceive and popularize a pan-ethnic Hispanic identity. Despite the increasing political potential of a unified Latino vote, many individual voters continued to affiliate more with their particular ethnic communities than with a broader Latino constituency. The search to resolve this contradiction continues to animate efforts to mobilize Hispanic voters and define their influence on the American political system. The “Spanish-speaking vote” was constructed through deliberate action; it was not simply demographic growth that led the government to recognize Hispanics as a national minority group, ushering in a new era of multicultural politics. As we ponder how a new generation of Latino voters will shape America’s future, Francis-Fallon uncovers the historical forces behind the changing face of America.
The definitive tie-in to the CNN documentary series Latino in America, from former top CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien. Following the smash-hit CNN documentary Black in America, Latino in America travels to small towns and big cities to illustrate how distinctly Latino cultures are becoming intricately woven into the broader American identity. As she reports the evolution of Latino America, Soledad O’Brien explores how tens of millions of Americans with roots in 21 different countries form a community called “Latino” and recalls her own upbringing and what she’s learned about being a Latino in America.
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). The book is a valuable contribution to immigration courses in sociology, history, ethnic studies, American Studies, and Latino Studies. It is one of the first, and certainly the most accessible, to fully take into account the plurality of experiences, identities, and national origins constituting the Latino category.
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. Gómez, 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,” Gómez “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.
