Latino Politics in the United States: Race, Ethnicity,
Class and Gender in the Mexican American and Puerto
Rican Experience”*
Victor M. Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Department of Chicano and Latino Studies
California State University, Long Beach
*This book received an honorable mention in the 2005
Outstanding Book Awards 2005 by the Gustavus Myers Center
for Bigotry and Human Rights.
Publisher: Kendall-Hunt, June 2005
http://www.kendallhunt.com/
ISBN# is 0-7575-1917-2
Raul Fernandez*
The work begins by addressing, in the first chapter, one of the least studied aspects of
the experience of Latin American migrants to the United States. That is to say, the
ways in which their cultural and national differences are erased upon settling in this
country, and their subsequent pigeonholing into pre-established, uniquely American,
racial categories. Víctor Rodríguez shows us the similarities
and the differences between Chicanos and Boricuas in the
paths they took into the racialized American space.
*
His most recent books are Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination .
Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2002 and co-author with Gilbert
G. Gonzalez, A Century of Chicano History: Empire, Nations and
Migration. New York: Routledge, 2003
Juan Mestas*
What makes Latino Politics… so accessible to the uninitiated
reader, without dishonoring its scholarly rigor, is, first of all,
the clarity and precision of the language. It is evident that
the writer is interested in conversing with the reader, not just
in manifesting his erudition. Other factors that contribute to
the book’s accessibility are the multi-layered structure of the
text (abstract, exposition, end notes), which allows the reader
to choose his/her level of immersion, and the rational fervor
with which the author approaches his subject. Dr. Rodriguez
is objective but not dispassionate. As a good scholar, he seeks the truth; as a caring
Latino, he knows that the truth matters beyond itself.
*Former Chancellor, University of Michigan, Flint