In U.S, the Hispanics and the Latino people constitute the largest ethnic minority. Still, yet they are unable to get themselves used to with the customs of the U.S. It is not just that they live while keeping a difference with the U.S culture and traditions but these people also have differences within themselves considering their way of living. In the U.S the Mexican American have been living for centuries. They have made themselves accustomed to the traditions of the U.S, and there exists much cultural diversity with the presence of Mexican America. Compared to other immigrants from the American continent, Mexican immigrants are the oldest of all. Some historian thinks that Salvadorans and Dominicans are also as old as the Mexican immigrants, but it is not true for this. As many research findings suggest otherwise. Similarly, the Cuban Americans and immigrants from Guatemala share different occupational and employment level. Both these group of immigrants are much new to the U.S, these group of immigrants is largely based in Florida and Virginia. They also constitute the largest poultry workforce in the U.S, many of them are also industrial workers. That is how they all constitute a healthy workforce balance for the U.S. The historians who have worked on their history claims that the only thing common in all Hispanics and Latinos are their Spanish ancestry. The major work for this book has been compiled by sixteen geographers and two sociologists. All of these have mapped the regional diversity and the cultural diversity of the Hispanic and Latino communities. They have explored every facet of these communities. For example, how much they are useful to their own selves and how they constitute a healthy workforce in the U.S. in this book these sociologists and historians have also explored that how these people form relations with the nation- Hispanics. They have analyzed the pattern of their interactions. The conclusion of this book is based on the findings that how these Hispanics and non- Hispanics create cultural diversities in the U.S.
ANALYSIS
The book has been classified by many people as the best compilation to seek each information about the Latinos and the Hispanic communities. How they came to the U.S, how they have developed themselves with ages, what they do for their earnings and most importantly how they interact with the communities around them. This is interesting to note that, despite the presence of much data about the cultures, linguistics and the living pattern of these peoples, this book has not relied upon the existing knowledge. The geographers and the sociologists have worked with a totally new perspective for the compilation of this book. They have also viewed things from a different perspective. For example, the previous findings of the Latinos and the Hispanics have relied upon the qualitative studies and had not included in any way the quantitative studies, which shows the limited scope of those readings. Compared to those readings, Daniel Arreola has worked much by traveling on the field. He has interacted with his team to the Latino people and has compiled the data in a very understandable manner. This is the reason that the geographers and the social scientists consider this book as a welcome addition for those who are interested in the study about the Latino culture. The methodology applied to conduct the study for this book was qualitative. That is the explorers have gone on to discover the historical linkages of the Latino and the Hispanic people to their own land and with the land, they now live on. They have studied in every form of their culture, their political ideologies, their way of living and their perception of things (p.1). They have also included in their study the reasons why once these people have remained the target of hate and racial discrimination ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XveeUwi4","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Arreola 2004)","plainCitation":"(Arreola 2004)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":302,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/8ABBKEEI"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/8ABBKEEI"],"itemData":{"id":302,"type":"book","title":"Hispanic spaces, Latino places: Community and cultural diversity in contemporary America","publisher":"University of Texas Press","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Hispanic spaces, Latino places","author":[{"family":"Arreola","given":"Daniel"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2004"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Arreola 2004).
What the culture had indifferent? The Latinos and the Hispanics now constitute an important part of the population which reside in the U.S. they have very different things compared to the U.S inhabitants. Some of them also compare their cultures with those of the Asians and the Europeans who have just shifted to the U.S. it must not have been done. Since the Asians and the Europeans had faced much different working conditions back in their countries, compared to what the Latinos and Hispanics have faced. There is a reason for them being so hardworking. According to many researchers, their hard work is the reason so that they can make a place for themselves in the new land. One other thing which is different is their customs and traditions. These are outdated for not just the Americans but for the other immigrants like Europeans or the Asians. Their outdated culture shows that they have never explored the religious side of them. They have remained so stuck in their social interactions and in getting the sources for the incomes that they had no time to think about the religious lives of them. This is also the reason that they have faced racial tensions too (p.7). Their demographics also suggest that they have remained quite detracted from their people. They have never felt any compassionate feelings for their people and have never practiced being sitting together. Such weirdness in their interaction has led them toward the racial tensions and toward the ill feelings for each other. If one thinks about the racial tensions and the bad feelings within a tribal setting, everyone is right to opine that wherever there are cultural distractions or a kind of religious distractions, the results have remained the same. Another thing what appears from the study of their cultures and political views is their ultimate affection toward the political class and the cultures. Their culture is therefore so intact despite the passing of the centuries.
The demographics: For the research compilation of this book, the geographers have been selected from the 2002 meeting of the Association of the American geographers. This 2002 meeting took place in Los Angeles and the majority of the authors and the researchers were not Latinos or the Hispanics. One more interesting fact is this that neither of the researchers was a female. The reason why the team was kept so selective is to maximize the outreach to the maximum area possible. This practice has been observed much time before in some studies. Dan Arreola, the editor of the book has placed the demographics findings, first by describing the background of the Latino cultures. This book is also a kind of an effort in recognizing the cultural and political diversity of the Latinos who are living in the U.S. The assertion created by the findings of this book is that the cultural diversity of the Latinos are so simple. There is nothing hard or non-understandable things about their cultures, which has restricted the findings of the study anywhere. The author has opined that the only characteristics these people share in the U.S are the Spanish language. The author believes that the Spanish language has restricted in some areas in the U.S, and the cultural diversity is therefore not much expanded. In studying their demographics it has also been noted that they share the language similarities and culture affinities in parts. Nothing is the same for the major part of the population. The reason why it happens that culture's phenomenon gets stick to some specific places is the availability of the resources. People tend to live there and start expanding the population. Similar is true for these immigrants in the U.S, as they had found their destinies close to the industrial areas of Florida or close to the poultry hubs, (of which they are now the experts in). Their population is therefore divided into two ways. One is on the basis of cultural or linguistic features and the other is on the basis of the resources (p. 14). In writing so, it has also been noticed that it is a norm that the cultures and the population gets divided on some basis. In the case of the Hispanics and the Latinos, the bases are their cultural identities and their language abilities. Experts, therefore, opine that it is not necessary that if any community is sharing the same cultural traits in one place (or at the place of their origin), will also share the same living patterns elsewhere. This aspect has been applied in the demographic study of these communities in the U.S.
Space and Place perspectives: space and place perspective as described by Arreola is much different for these communities, compared to any other immigrant community around the world. For example, these people could have developed a space affection to their community if in case they would have lived there. They migrated from those place quite a long time ago (p. 27). This was the reason that the geographers who were involved in the search of the space links for this book, got influenced at the very first instance. The case at the end appeared however different. The reason is that the space links in case of the Hispanic community are vivid. They have remained for quite a long time the travelers over the continent of America. If one generation has developed affection to one place, the other generation has passed his times at some other place. Arreola has presented the table of categorization of these communities in the book, and every aspect is different from the previous ones. This stamps the opinion that it is true that space affection is dependent on many factors. Some people can live in a place for the whole life, but will not be able to develop that affection which should have been developed within a life span. There is also another perspective to this study which is the place perspective. The place perspective is when people stars attracting a place. They start thinking about that place in a more pleasant manner. For example, if one community associate good times with a specific place it is their place association. In many cases, it has been noticed that people when to moving from a place and get settled to another place, they normally think about their past association. This perspective has been considered for the Latinos and the Hispanics too. The geographers conclude that in the communities they live in, they have developed so rich attraction that it becomes much time difficult to differentiate between the real and the re-imagined world of them. Arreola has also mentioned about the place factor in a more cultural way. The editor has seen this thing much differently compared to many other readings. For example, the culture is a different thing and the association with any place is totally a new thing. There are many kinds of literature available about the place factor. This literature suggests that the place is just merely not a factor for the residential association. With time- the people living there start developing feelings to those places. They come here and think about the sad or the good times they had spent there. This book dispels the perception that the Latinos are the homogenous people and they are just been characterized on the basis of their place affection. A few writers have although considered the time of the stay of Latino people in the U.S as important for considering the place factor.
Along with these three important themes of the books some other areas have been addressed. Arreola has mentioned about the distinctions between the gender and the ages. More specifically these distinctions are mentioned in one chapter and lack the debate in other chapters. Arreola opines that the gender and the age difference have remained an important aspect in deciding about the workforce, and in deciding about how their population will take part in making the cultural diversities (p. 197). The culture has apparently nothing to do with the workforce balance or with the age or gender considerations. Since every person of a community adds an aspect to the cultural diversity therefore, the culture and gender remain pertinent in the study of the Latinos and the Hispanic people. The sociologists have also attempted to discover the transnational perspectives of the Latinos and their cultural associations with the Bolivian people. They opine that the globalization has changed the way of their interaction. The people living in the communities at present has a totally different view of the issues that their community faces. It has also been noted that they place themselves at a position at par with many other communities, which are mainly not the immigrants. This book also addresses the issues of the Transnationality of the Latino people. Arreola opines that the globalization has not significantly impacted over the Latino settlements but it has however remained pertinent in impacting over the issues of them. In doing this they have created six ecologies. The compilers of the research findings suggest that the language barriers, the space of the Latino or Hispanic communities, the global tourism trends and the housing issues are some areas that have witnessed a disturbance or an impact by the immigrants in the U.S. In doing so, the writers have provided the layout of the new metropolitan settings that conforms to their findings (P. 86).
In an effort to trace the exact linkages of the Latino people with the new settings they have inhabited into, Haverluk has suggested some five stages. These five stages are about how the Latino people get themselves interacted with the places (the U.S in this case) when they immigrate into that. These five stages include entering the territory, organizing themselves, creating occupational diversification, dealing with the social and cultural differences and finally the domination. The domination actually is the control and then use of the resources for their own benefits. Haverluk has also mentioned this as the general procedure followed by the Hispanic communities when they move from a place to another. Some parts of the books are totally related to the geographic consideration of the cultures of the Hispanic communities. They have worked on them just in relation to their physical attributes, over their fertility rates and many such aspects. This pattern has been observed in such other readings also, but this book presents this in a different manner. They have worked on it in a more systematic manner. The geographers and the sociologists who had been searching over the cultural attributes of the Hispanic communities opine that in their case, the geography of their population is linked with their culture. Every age group person takes part in one way or another, in making the culture richer. Since they live in close proximities to each other and share similar living standards, therefore, a rich and a kind of common living style is so evident.
There are more factors about the Hispanic and the Latino communities of the U.S, which are shared in the book. They have compiled this in a manner that the readers get a thorough background about these two communities and then how they have affected the cultural settings of the U.S. it has been presented in almost every chapter of the book that these new communities are an equal part of the U.S cultural settings. In some areas the people of these communities are living for centuries, which is the reason they make a rich addition to the culture of the U.S. Since the book is more like a compilation of the results based on both the quantitative and the qualitative research, therefore it appears that it has touched upon each facet of the living pattern of the Hispanic and the Latino community. There have appeared no extraordinary traits that shows that these communities have introduced totally different cultural traits. There are some other reasons also for an amalgamation of the U.S culture with that of the Hispanic or the Latino culture. The reason is the U.S own cultural diversity. As not any time in the history of the U.S, it has been noticed that the people or the culture of the U.S has opposed or differentiated with the inhabitants of the new culture. This richness in the U.S culture makes it more broad and appealing towards the other newcomers in the United States. Such attributes of the host country have helped them evolve in a more productive way. The authors have also opined that the occupational diversities of the inhabitants of Latin America also adds much skill set to the workforce in the United States.
THE QUALITY OF ARGUMENTS
There are many books written on the cultural aspect of Latin American and Hispanic people. Much of this literature is about their history, their norms and traditions and the differences these people have. The literature which existed prior to this book was more of the kind of qualitative. The literature has not included or talked about the quantitative aspect. For example, in some literature, the authors have talked about in more of the kind of qualitative manner. They have included the comparative studies in their literature which just present a narrow scope of the culture. For example, the book Cultural Code by Philip Penix presents an outlook about Latin American culture but does not talk how they are actually related to the culture where they migrate ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"qf9EWA2g","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Penix-Tadsen 2016)","plainCitation":"(Penix-Tadsen 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":304,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/WCHLDGDW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/WCHLDGDW"],"itemData":{"id":304,"type":"book","title":"Cultural Code: Video Games and Latin America","publisher":"MIT Press","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Cultural Code","author":[{"family":"Penix-Tadsen","given":"Phillip"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Penix-Tadsen 2016). The authors have again talked about the community settings of the Latin people throughout the world but again has left many flaws in presenting more specifically about their cultural traits. The authors have focused on the Cultural Code on the gaming trends of the early people of the Hispanic and Latin communities. He then has drawn a comparison between different cultures and the culture of the Latin people. Unlike this book, the Cultural code has a too narrow scope.
Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies by Stephen Hart and Richard Young is also another good read about Latin American culture. The authors have presented the hidden traits of the Latin American people to the readers ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"IrwEYnrh","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hart and Young 2014)","plainCitation":"(Hart and Young 2014)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":309,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/LUMWAE62"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/LUMWAE62"],"itemData":{"id":309,"type":"book","title":"Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Hart","given":"Stephen"},{"family":"Young","given":"Richard A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2014"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hart and Young 2014). They have talked about the skill set which has made them different from the other people of the world. This book is actually a collection of essays about the culture of Latin America and how it has evolved throughout the times. The authors have attempted to provide the readers with the different cultural and communal aspects of the Latin communities. They have also worked in a much Broadway, but have not considered the quantitative aspect anywhere. The quantitative aspect is about studying the traits of the communities' more precisely. Such readings help in understanding the situations more clearly. This book is different from the above two books and many such other books because of any reason some of them includes the editorial curiosities and the amalgamation of the qualitative and the quantitative findings. This compilation has used the census of the year 2000 and has compared the data findings with other research findings relevant to this study. It has also looked on why the results show a different figure, when the international community opines differently about the Latin and the Hispanic communities, the cultural and the communal findings also suggest that the U.S culture has remained very welcoming towards them. This is the reason they have developed themselves in more a kind of general way. There were other curiosities in the minds of the compilers of this book. For example, the authors have everywhere supported their findings on the studies which they conducted on more than six million people who listed themselves as the Latinos or Hispanic. This reading is ranked among one of the best books on the Latin culture which has been properly supported by the figures that were just relevant to these communities. On these bases, the quality of the arguments has been maintained.
WHY THIS IS A MUST READ?
The book is a must read for many reasons. The content has been designed in such a way that it takes the readers inside deep into what exactly the culture is, and how the communities are developed. It then takes the turn and tells about why the communities and the immigrants with time develop some strong bonds with the host communities. It also searches for what are the basic traits of the immigrants which they offer to secure a place in the next country where they are heading towards. It has also presented for the readers some chapters on the history of the immigration of Latinos and Hispanic communities towards the U.S. The editors have placed very attention towards presenting the fact in a more orderly way, which is not a normal and a more used to practice in such literary works. It also creates confusion in the minds of the readers about the aspect they are searching for. The numerical data has also substantiated the opinions of the authors. Although the concluding paragraphs of this reading appear some kind of distracted and not giving a proper outlook of the book, still up till then it presents the readers with a much thorough understanding of the subject. This book is the best read for the students of history, arts and the literature. For the students of history, it offers a broad understanding of world affairs as to how they have changed and were a factor in creating mass immigration. For the students of arts, it presents the understanding that how art remains relevant despite the different borders and the regions. Finally, to the students of the literature, it presents an understanding about the evolution in literature, and how it changes its form when people start to think differently and join hands in order to present themselves in a more united manner.
REFERENCES:
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Arreola, Daniel. 2004. Hispanic Spaces, Latino Places: Community and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary America. University of Texas Press.
Hart, Stephen, and Richard A. Young. 2014. Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies. Routledge.
Penix-Tadsen, Phillip. 2016. Cultural Code: Video Games and Latin America. MIT Press.
