Hispanic or Latino? Mexican American or Chicano? Social labels often take on a life of their own beyond the control of those who coin them or to whom they are applied. In "Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives" Suzanne Oboler explores the history and current use of the label "Hispanic", as she illustrates the complex meanings that ethnicity has acquired in shaping our lives and identities. Exploding the myth of cultural and national homogeneity among Latin Americans, Oboler interviews members of diverse groups who have traditionally been labelled "Hispanic", and records the many different meanings and social values which they attribute to this label. She also discusses the historical process of labelling groups of individuals and shows how labels affect the meaning of citizenship and the struggle for full social participation in the United States. Ultimately, she rejects the labelling process altogether, having illustrated how labels can obstruct social justice, and vary widely in meaning from individual to individual. Though we have witnessed in recent years the fading of the idealized image of US society as a melting pot, we have also realized that the possibility of recasting it in multicultural terms is problematic. "Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives" aims to understand the role that ethnic labels play in our society and brings us closer towards actualizing a society which values cultural diversity.
Our evidence from both the focus groups and the Latino national surveys (LNS) suggests that the stark contrast often made between “assimilation” and “transnationalism” is dramatically overstated. if anything, transnationalism and ...
This book addresses the complex issue of incarceration of Latino/as and offers a comprehensive overview of such topics as deportations in historical context, a case study of latino/a resistance to prisons in the 70s, the issues of youth and ...
This collection of cutting-edge essays on the Hispanic/Latino population in the U.S. makes a major contribution to Philosophy, Ethnic Studies and Latin American studies.
This book provides broad coverage of the various research approaches that have been used to study the development of ethnic identity in children and adolescents and the transmission of ethnic identity across generations.
The philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia engages fifteen prominent scholars on race, ethnicity, nationality, and Hispanic/Latino identity in the United States.
This volume fills that gap and takes an important step in remedying this shortcoming in the existing philosophical literature, and also in the literature of related fields such as Latin American studies, ethnic studies, and the cross ...
Emphasizing the link between racial ideology and racial identification, Dowling offers an insightful narrative that highlights the complex and highly contingent nature of racial identity.
This volume provides a superb introduction to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity.
The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States Edited by Juan F. Perea Taxing America Edited by Karen B. Brown and Mary Louise Fellows Notes of a Racial Caste Baby: Color Blindness and the End of Affirmative Action ...
This book addresses that question through a unique blend of quantitative data and firsthand interviews with third-plus-generation Mexican Americans.