Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity

by Paola Ramos Narrated by Paola Ramos

Overview

Latinos across the United States are redefining identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many-Afrolatino, indigenous, Muslim, queer and undocumented, living in large cities and small towns-are voices who have been chronically overlooked in how the diverse population of almost sixty million Latinos in the U.S. has been represented. No longer.

In this empowering cross-country travelogue, journalist and activist Paola Ramos embarks on a journey to find the communities of people defining the controversial term, “Latinx.” She introduces us to the indigenous Oaxacans who rebuilt the main street in a post-industrial town in upstate New York, the “Las Poderosas” who fight for reproductive rights in Texas, the musicians in Milwaukee whose beats reassure others of their belonging, as well as drag queens, environmental activists, farmworkers, and the migrants detained at our border. Drawing on intensive field research as well as her own personal story, Ramos chronicles how “Latinx” has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades.

A vital and inspiring work of reportage, Finding Latinx calls on all of us to expand our understanding of what it means to be Latino and what it means to be American. The first step towards change, writes Ramos, is for us to recognize who we are.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A journey towards the long-overdue representation of Latinx people through the term "Latinx," inspiring a collective sense of identity and solidarity."
—Marie Claire

"Paola Ramos explores Latinx identity and makes a case for why it is important that we as a community find a term that evolves with us as a community. She believes and demonstrates in her book how the term 'Latinx' might be the best term that captures our wide spectrum of stories and histories."
—Popsugar

"Crucial. . . . A long-overdue examination of identity and belonging while living as Latinx in the US. From farm workers to drag queens, from Oaxacan to Muslim, the people Ramos highlights illustrate the complexity, diversity and beauty of Latin@s from coast to coast." 
—Ms. Magazine

"Paola Ramos is the voice for the millennial and younger Latinx generation, and Finding Latinx proves just that. . . . Ramos writes with candor and empathy. . . . In these stories, we celebrate the depth and bounty of our culture, language, and history. This is the book I've needed my whole life."
—Michelle Molanzo, Buzzfeed, Great Books to Read this Fall

"Ramos chronicles how “Latinx” has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades, asking the reader to expand their understanding of what it means to be Latino and what it means to be American."
—Fortune, 5 New Books to Read in October

“Ramos compels us to reconsider our understanding of what it means to belong. . . . Finding Latinx guides readers into a deeper understanding of who we are at our core and on the margins, nuanced identities that compose the great American mosaic.” 
—Stacey Abrams 

“Paola Ramos knows how to listen, how to put herself in someone else’s shoes, and how to be an ally. With this book, she affirms the power of our diversity and identity, helping us understand that ‘Latinx’ is a label we can all fit into.” 
—Ilia Calderón, co-anchor of Univision News 

“The story of the dynamism, beauty and power of a community that is transforming what it means to be American.” 
—Ai-jen Poo, co-founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

"In her debut book, [Ramos] gives voice to a rapidly growing American demographic.... her passion is evident." 
—Kirkus Reviews

Library Journal

11/01/2020

In her first book, VICE journalist and progressive activist Ramos champions the term Latinx as an empowering collective identity—a grassroots banner inclusive of all Hispanics and Latino/as, be they undocumented, poor, queer, indigenous, or Black. Touring the United States, Ramos interviews Latinx people who are redefining Latino identity. She encounters Indigenous Guatemalan immigrants who do not speak Spanish, women farmworkers battling pollution and sexual harassment, Afro-Latinas who face racism from white-passing Hispanics, and an undocumented drag queen from El Salvador who competes in Miss Gay America. This work gives voice to this diversity. The author's own life echoes these themes. She is a queer, first-generation, millennial woman with Mexican and Cuban parents and an Afro-Latina partner. "The only label that can accommodate that spectrum of ambiguity," concludes Ramos, "is the Latinx banner." This personal narrative is in many ways her own story of "coming out Latinx." Readers can build on this book by picking up Ed Morales's Latinx or Laura E. Gómez's Inventing Latinos. VERDICT A revelatory, celebratory trip through the amazing diversity of Latinx.—Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs

Kirkus Reviews

2020-09-01
A young, queer Latinx journalist travels the U.S. to find out exactly what the term means to those who use it.

Ramos has impressive credentials: The former deputy director of Hispanic media during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, she is a Vice News host and correspondent and contributor to MSNBC and Telemundo. In her debut book, the author gives voice to a rapidly growing American demographic. Interviewing “the voices that are often neglected in the back of the room,” the author shows us a myriad of experiences that are often flattened in other portrayals. Many of the issues facing the Latinx community are the same as those that present challenges for other marginalized groups, including racism, colorism, gentrification, and sexual abuse. While the author does a good job informing readers about certain elements of the Latinx experience, the narrative sometimes bogs down in comparative statistics. Many of the numbers are helpful for context, but their abundance can detract from the power of the personal stories. Via these anecdotes, the author conveys both “the exceptionalism and the ordinary” in the Latinx community, demonstrating attention to nuance and allowing her interviewees to express themselves freely. As much as this is an exploration of the Latinx movement—which “forces you to look at 60 million people in a different way [and] to reframe the country’s own geography”—it is also a journey for Ramos. “I am queer; I am Latina; I am Cuban, Mexican and first-generation American,” she writes. “These are words I was not ashamed of saying out loud—but there’s a difference between passive recognition and really owning one’s identity….Yet the truth is that, for years, I had either blindly danced around these identities or felt like I had to choose one over the others.” Though the narrative is sometimes choppy and lacks a coherent throughline connecting the chapters, it’s clear that this was an important project for the author, and her passion is evident.

An inclusive look at the Latinx experience.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177079639
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/20/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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