Latino Crossings

Despite being lumped together by census data, there are deep divisions between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans living in the United States. Mexicans see Puerto Ricans as deceptive, disagreeable, nervous, rude, violent, and dangerous, while Puerto Ricans see Mexicans as submissive, gullible, naive, and folksy. The distinctly different styles of Spanish each group speaks reinforces racialized class differences. Despite these antagonistic divisions, these two groups do show some form of "Latinidad, " or a shared sense of Latin American identity. "Latino" "Crossings "examines how these constructions of Latino self and otherness interact with America's dominant white/black racial consciousness. "Latino Crossings "is a striking piece of scholarship that transcends the usually rigid boundary between Chicano/Mexican and Puerto Rican studies.

Nicholas P. De Genova is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Program in Latino Studies at Columbia University. Ana Yolanda Ramos-Zayas is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Hispanic Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University.

Chapter OneIntroduction: Latino CrossingsChapter TwoLatino Locations: The Politics of Space in ChicagoChapter ThreeEconomies of Dignity: Ideologies of Work and WorthChapter FourPerforming Deservingness: Civility and Modernity in ConflictChapter FiveFamiliar Apparitions: Gender and Ideologies of the FamilyChapter SixLatino Languages, Mixed SignalsChapter SevenLatino Rehearsals: Divergent Articulations of LatinidadChapter EightConclusion: Latino Futures