This collection of original essays explores the major challenges to Latino political representation in cities where Latino populations do not make up the majority of the population and therefore cannot rely on sheer numbers to gain representation.

Political organizing by men and women in Boston's Latino community.

The first comprehensive look at the growing Latino presence in New England.

Latino City explores the transformation of Lawrence, Massachusetts, into New England's first Latino-majority city. Like many industrial cities, Lawrence entered a downward economic spiral in the decades after World War II due to deindustrialization and suburbanization. The arrival of tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in the late twentieth century brought new life to the struggling city, but settling in Lawrence was fraught with challenges. Facing hostility from their neighbors, exclusion from local governance, inadequate city services, and limited job prospects, Latinos fought and organized for the right to make a home in the city. In this book, Llana Barber interweaves the histories of urban crisis in U.S. cities and imperial migration from Latin America. Pushed to migrate by political and economic circumstances shaped by the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America, poor and working-class Latinos then had to reckon with the segregation, joblessness, disinvestment, and profound stigma that plagued U.S. cities during the crisis era, particularly in the Rust Belt. For many Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, there was no "American Dream" awaiting them in Lawrence; instead, Latinos struggled to build lives for themselves in the ruins of industrial America.

Following its rapid growth over the past twenty years, the Latino population of Massachusetts is now the largest racial and ethnic minority group in the state. It is also one of the poorest. During the "Massachusetts Miracle" of the 1980s, the Latino poverty rate in the commonwealth was twice that of blacks and six times that of whites. And with Latino children dropping out of school at a rate three times that of white children, the economic future of these young adults is bleak indeed. Unlike blacks--who are concentrated in Boston--Latinos are dispersed geographically throughout the state. This distribution, combined with their limited economic and political power, has made Latinos victims of public indifference and neglect. This volume and its companion, Latino Poverty and Economic Development in Massachusetts, edited by Edwin Melendez and Miren Uriarte, are designed to educate policymakers and other concerned individuals about the particular needs of Latinos in Massachusetts. They address issues of education and economic development and suggest strategies to facilitate Latino empowerment in ways that preserve ethnic identity, language, and cultural expression.

The Latin-American population has become a major force in American politics in recent years, with expanding influences in local, state, and national elections. The candidates in the 2004 campaign wooed Latino voters by speaking Spanish to Latino audiences and courting Latino groups and PACs. Recognizing the rising influence of the Latino population in the United States, Federico Subervi-Velez has put together this edited volume, examining various aspects of the Latino and media landscape, including media coverage in English- and Spanish-language media, campaigns, and survey research.

Fully revised and updated, the second edition of this popular text provides students with a comprehensive introduction to Latino participation in US politics. Focusing on six Latino groups - Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans - the book explores the migration history of each group and shows how that experience has been 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, drawing out the varied ways they have engaged in the US 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 encourages students to think critically about what it means to be a racialized minority group within a majoritarian US political system, and how that position structures Latinos’ ability to achieve their social, economic, and political goals.