It is a commonplace that the history and culture of the United States are themselves a patchwork of the diverse cultures of the many waves of immigrant communities which make up the national heritage. In recent times the most numerous group of immigrants have been Spanish‐speaking communities from, in particular, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba as well as others from neighbouring Latin American countries, most notably the Dominican Republic, San Salvador, Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. The idea of a pan‐Latino identity has been the subject of lively and at times contentious debate in studies of Latino literature over the past fifteen or twenty years. At the heart of these debates have been questions of language, religion, immigrant or resident minority experience, and, not least, the ever‐present issue of race.
The Blackwell Companions in Cultural Studies series aims to provide researchers and teachers with a range of convenient and comprehensive surveys of the latest trends in gender, race and ethnic studies. The present volume is the latest addition to this series which also includes volumes on African American studies, museum studies, art theory, and gender studies. Editor of the present volume, Juan Flores is Professor of Latino Studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, whilst co‐editor, Renato Rosaldo, is Lucy Stern Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and currently teaches at New York University where he was founding Director of the Latino Studies Program. Both have written extensively on a range of Latino issues.
The volume comprises 45 original essays written by leading scholars in the Latino studies field. These cover a broad range of themes from Latinismo, immigration, education, language, and religion to discussions on political and economic perspectives and race, class, gender and sexuality. Essays are grouped into a range of broad subject themes including Latin identity, the struggle for recognition, and transnational connections. The racialization of African and Native American heritages is also the subject of study in the present work. Most essays are accompanied by copious notes and, in some cases, by extensive up‐to‐date bibliographies of further reading.
Since 1990 the Hispanic community in the United States has doubled in size (currently approaching 40 million) now replacing African Americans as the country's largest minority community. Given the social and political conditions prevailing in many Latin American countries the influx of Spanish‐speaking immigrants is unlikely to slow down for the foreseeable future at least. For a number of years the administrations of those states with significant Hispanic populations (California, Texas and Florida) have organized programmes to recruit teachers from Spain to offer Spanish‐language instruction in their schools as well as to assist parent‐teacher relations for immigrant families from Spanish‐speaking countries. As a result of this rapid growth of the Hispanic community Latino culture has made a significant impact on the culture of the United States as a whole. One obvious result has been the assimilation of Spanish vocabulary into the everyday language of the country. An interesting essay by Raul Villa discusses Jose Montoya's elegiac poem El Louie, a classic of modern Chicano literature written in a mixture of English and Spanish. Other interesting essays consider the question of preserving aspects of the culture and the Latino influences on USA popular music.
As significant proportions of the populations of most Latin American countries are themselves from an extensive range of racial backgrounds as a result of slavery and immigration, essays in the present volume inevitably cover a wide spectrum of racial issues. In keeping with the aim of the series the present volume provides researchers and academics with detailed information on a wide range of issues. It offers material for study both to the growing numbers in the academic community undertaking research on Latin American affairs as well as for sociologists in general. For the serious reader the information to be gleaned from this volume will more than repay the price of £95.
