Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation

by Ray Suarez

Overview

Chronicling the rich and varied history of Latinos in the United States, this companion to the PBS documentary miniseries vividly and candidly tells how the story of Latino Americans is the story of our country.

Latino Americans chronicles the rich and varied history of Latinos, who have helped shaped our nation and have become, with more than fifty million people, the largest minority in the United States.

Author and acclaimed journalist Ray Suarez explores the lives of Latino American men and women over a five-hundred-year span, encompassing an epic range of experiences from the early European settlements to Manifest Destiny; the Wild West to the Cold War; the Great Depression to globalization; and the Spanish-American War to the civil rights movement.

Latino Americans shares the personal struggles and successes of immigrants, poets, soldiers, and many others—individuals who have made an impact on history, as well as those whose extraordinary lives shed light on the times in which they lived, and the legacy of this incredible American people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451238146
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/03/2013
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	101,550
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Broadcast journalist Ray Suarez is a senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour, and host of the public radio show America Abroad. He has also been host of Talk of the Nation on NPR and a correspondent for CNN. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family.

Table of Contents

Telling Our Story: An Introduction vii

Chapter 1 The Convergence Begins (La Convergencia Comienza) 1

Chapter 2 Shared Destinies … Made Manifest 39

Chapter 3 At War: Abroad … and at Home 85

Chapter 4 I Like to Be in America 125

Chapter 5 Who's "In"? Who's "Out"? Whose America? 167

Chapter 6 Where are We Going? (¿Adónde Vamos?) 203

Editorial Reviews

An earnest, informative companion to the PBS series on the largest and fastest-growing minority in the United States: Latinos, now numbering more than 50 million. Journalist and PBS commentator Suarez (The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, 2006) notes that, among nations, only Mexico contains more Hispanics than the U.S. "At some point in the 2040s," writes the author, "a slim majority of Americans will trace their ancestry to people who arrived in this country from someplace other than Europe." Beginning in the 17th century, Suarez reminds readers that when Englishmen arrived at Massachusetts and Virginia to settle or look for riches while despoiling and killing Indians, Spaniards and colonists from Mexico had been doing the same for 50 years in Florida and the Southwest. After a review of Spanish New World exploration and capsule histories of Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico that emphasize their usually painful relations to the U.S., Suarez concentrates on America's Latino legacy from the 19th century to the present. Two themes predominate: racism and immigration. Although not as murderous as that against blacks, discrimination against Latinos has an equally long and troubled history that turns out to be no less true for white America's fear of being overwhelmed with Hispanics pouring across our border. True to TV documentary format, Suarez includes the story of an individual with every section. Few will be familiar, yet many should be--e.g., José Martí, the hero of Cuban independence, or Juan de Oñate, founder of the first white settlement in the Southwest. Matters improve greatly as the author approaches the present day and points with pride to famous Latinos from Desi Arnez to Albert Pujols. More journalistic guide than history, the book provides a satisfying antidote to average readers' disturbing ignorance of America's Hispanic heritage.

Kirkus Reviews

This companion book for the PBS series of the same name also stands on its own as a source of valuable information about this large, and growing, group of Americans. . . . [Suarez] does a terrific job. . . . [He] succeeds in his stated goal of getting listeners to think differently about this country and to appreciate the Latino contributions to our history.”
—AudioFile

“Suarez . . . reads with passion about his subject. Recommended to fans of the documentary series or those looking for a powerful overview of Latino Americans’ substantial contribution to American history.”
—Library Journal

From the Publisher

This companion book for the PBS series of the same name also stands on its own as a source of valuable information about this large, and growing, group of Americans. The author also serves as narrator, and he does a terrific job. Suarez, a news broadcaster, has excellent diction, and he varies his pitch and tone to make the book flow. His voice has a hint of a Hispanic accent, but what really comes through is a large dollop of New York. That’s not a bad thing; in fact, it lends credibility to Suarez’s efforts and makes his story sound grounded and real. In the end, Suarez succeeds in his stated goal of getting listeners to think differently about this country and to appreciate the Latino contributions to our history. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2013 - AudioFile