Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism

Laura E. Gómez

Aug 2020 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Joana Garcia

About this audiobook

Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture‚ yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos‚ Laura Gomez illuminates the fascinating race-making‚ unmaking‚ and re-making of Latino identity that has spanned centuries‚ leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today. Pulling back the lens as the country approaches an unprecedented demographic shift (Latinos will comprise a third of the American population in a matter of decades)‚ Gomez also reveals the nefarious roles the United States has played in Latin America-from military interventions and economic exploitation to political interference-that‚ taken together‚ have destabilized national economies to send migrants northward over the course of more than a century. It's no coincidence that the vast majority of Latinos migrate from the places most impacted by this nation's dirty deeds‚ leading Gomez to a bold call for reparations. In this audacious effort to reframe the often-confused and misrepresented discourse over the Latinx generation‚ Gomez provides essential context for today's most pressing political and public debates, giving all of us a brilliant framework to engage cultural controversies‚ elections‚ current events‚ and more.

About the author

Laura E. Gomez is a professor of law, sociology, and Chicana/Chicano studies at UCLA. She is the author of Manifest Destinies, Mapping Race, and Misconceiving Mothers. She lives in Los Angeles.

Joana Garcia is a retired military officer with twenty years of active duty under her belt. She spent most of her adult life fixing fighter jets on aircraft carriers as a US Navy aviation maintenance officer. Her warm, rich, and graceful voice can be heard in over sixty titles in multiple genres, fiction and nonfiction.