Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S.

Latinos are the fastest growing racial ethnic group in the United States. Despite the fact that they will soon outnumber African Americans, Latinos are often excluded from discussions of race by a binary black/white paradigm.Challenging Fronterasexposes the limitations of this paradigm, which fails to describe the complex reality of America's changing and multi-ethnic population. The editors have assembled a group of essays that resist the stereotypes that frame Americans' perceptions of race, moving beyond superficial treatments of Latinos as a monolithic group. It offers a comprehensive introduction to the diversity of Latino cultures and experiences in the United States. While food, music, clothing, and other elements of Latino material culture have been incorporated into the mainstream, Amerian schools continue to neglect Latino history, politics, socio-economic conditions, family life, and educational experiences. At the same time that educators continue to exclude such topics from theircourses, legislation like California's Proposition 187 seeks to exclude the children of Latino immigrants from the education system itself. Several of the contributors examine the immigration experiences of groups from different Latin American nations. Other contributors reflect upon how Latinos living in the United States identify themselves. Sections cover topics such as immigration, concepts and theories of ethnicity, identity, work and family life, and political and economic restructuring. Each section contains articles about several Latin groups. Tracing the intersection of race, class, gender, ethnicity and citizenship, the contributors expose the constraints that shape the lives of Latinos and explore the possibilies ahead. The contributors, selected from leading scholars in Latino Studies, include Patricia Zavella, Suzanne Oboler, Alejandro Portes, Clara Rodriquez, Marta Tienda, Nestor Rodriquez. and others.