Latinos and the U.S. South
"As more and more Latinos move to the U.S. South for employment, it makes sense to understand the culture both of Latino countries and the South.  This book does a great job of discussing the history and culture of these two separate entities.  The author, an associate professor of Spanish… has a keen mind and sees things others would miss. … Highly recommended."-MultiCultural Review"Recently, and rapidly, increasing numbers of Latinos in the US South have caught the attention of academics. There has been a flush of studies investigating, for example, xenophobia in rural towns or the rise of births attributed to Latinos working to rebuild post-Katrina New Orleans. Bucking the trend, Mantero (Spanish, Xavier Univ.), the son of  Spanish immigrants who moved to Georgia from Michigan when he was a child, explores centuries of Latin America's and the US South's parallel histories to contextualize current demographic changes historically, politically, and economically, demonstrating that Latino culture has deep, if largely forgotten, roots in this region. Mantero's project provides a unique perspective on, and an important challenge to, dominant narratives about Latino immigration in the US South. The introduction is engaging and personal, but the winding narrative, which draws heavily on secondary sources and includes many obscure details, is difficult to follow and poorly organized. Preparing for this book, Mantero spent time on the road, visiting Latinos of varied origins and socioeconomic status living across the South. These interviews are an invaluable contribution to later chapters, and should have been the core of a shorter, better-edited study. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.'"-Choice