Description
Book SynopsisPresents alternative and more empowering representations of Latinidad to help attain true political equity and intra-racial coalitions
Trade Review"Arlene Dávila depicts the frenzied efforts of post-industrial America to corral more than 40 million diverse Latinos into a single homogenized market. Whether its peddling consumer goods, monetizing art and culture, engineering barrio land development, or shaping a new political voting bloc, Latino Spin brilliantly dissects Hispanic-American reality in the 21st century." -- Juan Gonzalez,author of Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America
"The finest, fiercest and most piercing of our public intellectuals . . . Dávila is a force of nature. In Latino Spin Dávila elegantly unravels the media driven sleight-of-hand that simultaneously celebrates an uber-American (and almost entirely manufactured) Latino middle class while demonizing recent Latino immigrants and the poor folks who resemble them. On a line by line, idea by idea basis Dávila is simply without peer, her scholarship essential to our understanding of our New America." -- Junot Díaz,author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Drown
"A wonderfully written book that cuts through the & spin often used to typecast the U.S.s largest minority group. Offering a fresh and insightful take on race in America, Arlene Dávila addresses popular images of Latinos and shows us the limitations of both negative portrayals and the attempts to respond to them. In this tour de force, Dávila goes beyond simply describing bias to offer a transcendent vision of Latinos that challenges racism and captures the complexity of this diverse community." -- Mark Sawyer,author of Racial Politics in Post Revolutionary Cuba
"Her invaluable scholarly treatment unearths the competing interests and race-inflected ideological tendencies behind characterizations of Latino political identity in the mainstream media." * Publishers Weekly *
"A must read for students as well as a general public concerned with the future role of Latinos in U.S. society. Dávila also lays the foundation for understanding events that have occurred since the books publication." * Journal of American Ethnic History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part I. The Politics of Latino Spin 1 Here Comes the Latino Middle Class 2 Latinos: "The New Republicans (They Just Don't Know It)" 3 The Hispanic Consumer: That's "A Lot of Dollars, Cars, Diapers, and Food" Part II. Political Economy: Spaces and Institutions 4 The Times-Squaring of El Barrio: On Mega-Projects, Spin, and "Community Consent" 5 From Barrio to Mainstream: On the Politics of Latino/a Art Museums 6 The "Disciplining" of Ethnic Studies: Or, Why It Will Take Goya Foods and J.Lo to Endow Latino Studies Conclusion: On the Dangers of Wishful Thinking Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
