Introduction to Latino Politics in the U.S.: (US Minority Politics Series)

Focusing on five Latino groups - Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans - this book provides students with a comprehensive introduction to Latino participation in US politics. It begins by looking at the migration history of each group and how that experience is affected by US foreign policy and economic interests in each country of origin. The political status of Latinos on arrival in the United States, including their civil rights, employment opportunities, and political incorporation, is then examined. Finally, the analysis follows each group's history of collective mobilization and political activity, exploring the varied ways they have engaged in the U.S. political system. Using the tension between individual agency and structural constraints as its central organizing theme, the discussion situates Latino migrants, and their children, within larger macro economic and geo-political structures that influence their decisions to migrate and their ability to adapt socially, economically, and politically to their new country. It also demonstrates how Latinos continually have shown that through political action they can significantly improve their channels of opportunity. Thus, the book pushes students to think critically about what it means to be a racialized minority group within a majoritarian U.S. political system, and how that position structures Latinos' ability to achieve their social, economic, and political goals.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction: Latinos and U.S. Politics Chapter 2. Latina/o Participation: Individual Activity and Institutional Context Chapter 3. Mexican Americans: Conquest, Migration, and Adaptation Chapter 4. Puerto Ricans: from Colonized People to Political Activists Chapter 5. Cuban Americans: Occupation, Revolution, and Exile Politics Chapter 6. Central Americans: Inequality, War, and Solidarity Chapter 7. Conclusion: The Context of Latino Migration and Mobilization

About the Author :
Lisa Garcia Bedolla is professor of social and cultural studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Review :
"If you have been looking for a textbook to use in an introductory course on U.S. Latino Politics, stop looking. Lisa Garcia Bedolla's Latino Politics is the book to use." Bulletin of Latin American Research "Bedolla has given us the determinant must-have resource for any student of Latino politics. Insightful, theoretically sophisticated, well-researched, but also highly accessible, this book provides the most careful and complete analysis of Latinos political diversity, and of their growing significance in American politics." Arlene Davila, New York University "If you have been looking for a textbook to use in an introductory course on U.S. Latino Politics, stop looking. Lisa Garcia Bedolla's Latino Politics is the book to use. It seamlessly weaves together theoretical and substantive issues in an eloquent way that carries the narrative forward ensuring that the reader never bogs down. But the genuine brilliance of the book is its transnational lens that allows it to go beyond the typical analysis of Latino politics." Hector Perla Jr. University of California, Santa Cruz