Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re) Presentation in the United States

By Suzanne Oboler

Book Overview

Hispanic or Latino? Mexican American or Chicano? Social labels often take on a life of their own beyond the control of those who coin them or to whom they are applied. In Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives, Suzanne Oboler explores the history and current use of the label "Hispanic" as she illustrates the complex meanings that ethnicity has acquired in shaping our lives and identities.

Exploding the myth of cultural and national homogeneity among people of Latin American descent, Oboler interviews members of diverse groups who have traditionally been labeled "Hispanic" and records the many different meanings and social values they attribute to this label. For example, a person of Mexican descent has a different historical relationship with the United States and a different cultural background than an individual of Puerto Rican or Brazilian descent. The different meanings and social values those interviewed attribute to the label "Hispanic" also correspond to their gender and social class position, including racial prejudices and values stemming from their countries of origin.

Though we have witnessed in recent years the fading of the idealized image of U.S. society as a melting pot, we have also realized that the possibility of recasting it in multicultural terms is problematic. Oboler discusses the historical process of labeling groups of individuals, illustrating how labels affect the meaning of citizenship and the struggle for full social participation in the United States. Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives aims to understand the role ethnic labels play in our society and brings us closer toward actualizing a society that values cultural diversity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816622868
• ISBN13: 9780816622863
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Do Latinos really identify as such?

Suzanne Oboler is a well-respected Latino studies professor at Brown University. In this book, she interviews immigrants from Latin America and asks if they identify as Latino and see themselves as having anything in common with other Latinos, those outside of their national origin group. Basically, she asks Latin Americans in the US themselves whether they accept this country's racial categorizations. What she finds is that working-class Latinos merely look at others as fellow Spanish-speakers and shrug US racial classifications off (though not in a hostile way) whereas Latin Americans from middle-class backgrounds were quite aware that the minority label opened access to affirmative action programs and other tangible benefits and thus embraced the label. This conclusion seems counterintuitive and is fascinating. Oboler grounds her discussion by talking of Puerto Rican and Chicano activism in this country. Even though she is of Peruvian descent, she is knowledgeable about the more populous Latino groups. This text is well-respected among ethnic studies scholars. Anyone interested in books on Latinos and Latinas in the US must obtain a copy of Oboler's work.

Professor Oboler Rocks!

Well structured, thoughtful, insightful, and emotionally engaging. Candid and effective for being so. Bravo to her, waiting for the next one anxiously.