Table of Contents

List of Contributors.

Editors' Acknowledgements.

Acknowledgment to Sources.

Introduction: Understanding the Américas: Insights from Latina/o and Latin American Studies (Lynn Stephen, Patricia Zavella, Matthew C. Gutmann, and Félix V. Matos Rodríguez).

Part I: Colonialism and Resistance.

1. Traddutora, Traditora: A Paradigmatic Figure of Chicana Feminism (Norma Alarcón).

2. From the Plantation to the Plantation (excerpt) (Antonio Benítez Rojo.

3. New Approaches to the Study of Peasant Rebellion and Consciousness: Implications of the Andean Experience (Steve J. Stern).

4. The Real ‘New World Order’: The Globalization of Racial and Ethnic Relations in the Late Twentieth Century (Néstor P. Rodríguez).

5. The Americans: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples in the United States (Rubén G. Rumbaut).

Part II: Global Political Economy.

6. '¿Quién trabajará?': Domestic Workers, Urban Slaves, and the Abolition of Slavery in Puerto Rico (Félix V. Matos Rodríguez).

7. A Central American Genocide: Rubber, Slavery, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Guatusos-Malekus (Marc Edelman).

8. Transnational Labor Process and Gender Relations: Women in Fruit and Vegetable Production in Chile, Brazil and Mexico (Jane I. Collins).

9. Inequality near and far: International Adoption as Seen from a Brazilian Favela (Claudia Fonseca).

Part III: Identities, Practices, Hybridities.

10. History, Culture, and Place-Making: 'Native' status and Maya Identity in Belize (Laurie Kroshus Medina).

11. The Carnivalization of the World (Richard Parker).

12. 'Playing with Fire': The Gendered Construction of Chicana/Mexicana Sexuality (Patricia Zavella).

13. Returned Migration, Language, and Identity: Puerto Rican Bilinguals in Dos Worlds/Two Mundos (Ana C. Zentella).

14. A Place Called Home: A Queer Political Economy of Mexican Immigrant Men's Family Experiences (Lionel Cantú).

15. Dominican Blackness and the Modern World (Silvio Torres-Saillant).

Part IV: Popular Cultures.

16. Jennifer's Butt (Frances Negrón-Muntaner).

17. La Quinceañera: Making Gender and Ethnic Identities (Karen Mary Davalos).

18. Two Sides of the Same Coin: Modern Gaúcho identity in Brazil (Ruben George Oliven).

19. The United States, Mexico and Machismo (Américo Paredes).

20. Spectacular Bodies: Folklorization and the Politics of Identity in Ecuadorian Beauty Pageants (Mark Rogers).

Part V: Regional, National, and Transnational Political Cultures.

21. Gender, Politics, and the Triumph of Mestizaje in the Early 20th Century Nicaragua (Jeffrey Gould).

22. The Construction of Indigenous Suspects: Militarization and the Gendered and Ethnic dynamics of Human Rights Abuses in Southern Mexico (Lynn Stephen).

23. For Whom the Taco Bells Toll: Popular Responses to NAFTA South of the Border (Matthew C. Gutmann).

24. Immigration Reform and Nativism: The Nationalist Response to the Transnationalist Challenge (Leo R. Chávez).

25. The Process of Black Community Organizing in the Southern Pacific Coast Region of Columbia (Libia Grueso, Carlos Rosero, and Arturo Escobar).

Index.

About the Author

Matthew C. Gutmann is the Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor of the Social Sciences – International Affairs at Brown University, Providence, RI.

Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is the Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (City University of New York).

Lynn Stephen is Professor and chair of Anthropology at the University of Oregon, Eugene.

Patricia Zavella is Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies and Co-Director of the Chicano/Latino Research Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Reviews

"Perspectives on Las Américas is a timely anthology for anyone teaching or studying the histories, cultures, and political economy of our hemisphere. With a broad geographic scope that unifies the Caribbean with North, South, and Central America, this volume splendidly explores the tensions among regions, states, and nations over global transnational processes. Its synthesis of the best scholarship in Latina/o Studies and Latin American Studies makes this a particularly appealing text, one I enthusiastically recommend." Ramón A. Gutiérrez, University of California, San Diego

"This refreshing and original collection synthesizes the current effervescence of Latin American and Caribbean studies, with a particular focus on cultures and identities. Importantly, it takes a hemispheric view, not stopping at the Rio Grande, but including in its scope the Latin Americanization of the US. A welcome addition." Olivia Harris, Goldsmith's College
“As a work designed for students Perspectives on Las Américas has proved to be a success with this reviewer. […] The book brings together some splendid (previously published) articles by historians, anthropologists, sociologists and other scholars which address topics ranging from the gendered nature of labour in the Latin-American fruit-picking industry to Jennifer Lopez’s bottom.” Journal of Latin American Studies, 36 (2004)
"Perspectives on Las Américas provides a wealth of fascinating readings on a very diverse range of topics [...] It is [...] of undoubted utility as a source of worthwhile articles to assign to students." Journal of Latin American Studies, 36 (2004)
"Perspectives on Las Américas helps to dismantle Latino stereotypes by bringing out the profound national distinctions among immigrants, and by weaving together many common threads between U. S. Latinos and Latin Americans[.]" CENTRO Journal, XV No 2 (2003)