Latinos comprise the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, and this interdisciplinary anthology gathers the scholarship of both early career and senior Latina/o scholars whose work explores the varied and unique latinidades, or Latino cultural identities, of this group.

A multifaceted portrait of "El Rey", the king of Latin music, this is the first in-depth historical, musical, and cultural study to trace the career and influence of Tito Puente. 57 photos.

Latin America is home to 1.5 million persons of Japanese descent. Combining detailed scholarship with rich personal histories, Daniel M. Masterson, with the assistance of Sayaka Funada-Classen, presents the first comprehensive study of the patterns of Japanese migration on the continent as a whole. When the United States and Canada tightened their immigration restrictions in 1907, Japanese contract laborers began to arrive at mines and plantations in Latin America. The authors examine Japanese agricultural colonies in Latin America, as well as the subsequent cultural networks that sprang up within and among them, and the changes that occurred as the Japanese moved from wage labor to ownership of farms and small businesses. They also explore recent economic crises in Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, which, combined with a strong Japanese economy, caused at least a quarter million Latin American Japanese to migrate back to Japan. Illuminating authoritative research with extensive interviews with migrants and their families, The Japanese in Latin America tells the story of immigrants who maintained strong allegiances to their Japanese roots, even while they struggled to build lives in their new countries.

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.

Antonio Olliz Boyd is an emeritus professor of Latin American literature at Temple University. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, an MS from Grorgetown University, and a BA from Long Island University. Dr. Olliz Boyd has published various essays on Afro Latino aesthetics in literature in volumes, such as the Dictionary of Literary Biography: Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers; Singular Like a Bird: The Art of Nancy Morejon; Imagination, Emblems and Expressions: Essays on Latin American, Caribbean, and Continental Culture and Identity; Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays among others, as well as articles on Afro Latino literary criticism in various refereed journals. --Book Jacket.

Modernity in Latin America is defined above all by its multi-layered, kaleidoscopic quality. Reminiscent of Octavio Paz's labyrinth, it is a modernity which has accommodated a piling-on of new traditions to old, a blending of external cultures with local, and of high cultures with more popular ones—mixes which allowed a rich and celebratory avant-garde movement, for example, to emerge in the 1920s, and prompted the explosive growth of cities like Rio de Janeiro. Many such cultural (as well as technological) innovations have occurred without equivalent changes in social and political life, however, and so the region has also been at the mercy of what might be termed an uneven development in many of its civic institutions. In this prestigious volume of original essays, many of the best writers on the region are brought together to examine the nature and manifestations of a specifically Latin American modernity. Beatriz Sarlo and Nicolau Sevcenko write about Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo in an exploration of twentieth century urban experience and shifting patterns of migration and immigration; Renato Ortiz and Ana Lopez look at mass media and the ways in which radio, television and cinema have shaped modernity; Jose Jorge de Carvalho, Jose de Souza Martins and Nelson Manrique address questions of religion, politics, ideology and social movements; Gwen Kirkpatrick and Beatriz Rezende explore the intricacies of artistic and literary modernism; and Nestor Canclini and Ruben Oliven open the collection with essays which unravel the many forces – the legacy of slavery, the freedom from an unquestioning faith in development and 'progress', the impact of globalisation – that have given rise to a characteristically hybrid modernity.

The intricacies of living in contemporary Latin American cities include cases of both empowerment and restriction. In Lima, residents built their own homes and formed community organizations, while in Rio de Janeiro inhabitants of the favelas needed to be “pacified” in anticipation of international sporting events. Aspirations to “get ahead in life” abound in the region, but so do multiple limitations to realizing the dream of upward mobility. This volume captures the paradoxical histories and experiences of urban life in Latin America, offering new empirical and theoretical insights to scholars.