Contemporary Los Angeles can increasingly be considered a part of Latin America. Only 200 miles from the border with Mexico, it has the largest, most diverse population of Latinos in the United States-and reportedly the second largest population of Mexicans outside of Mexico City. It also has one of the most diverse representations of Latino gastronomy in the United States, featuring the cuisine of nearly every region of Mexico, countries such as Peru, Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador, as well as an incredible variety of Asian-Latin fusion cuisine. Despite the expansion of Latino cuisine's popularity in Los Angeles and the celebrity of many Latino chefs, there is a stark divide between what is available at restaurants and food trucks and what is available to many low-income, urban Latinos who live in food deserts. In these areas, access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate foods is a daily challenge. Food-related diseases, particularly diabetes and obesity, plague these communities. In the face of this crisis, grassroots organizations, policy-makers and local residents are working to improve access and affordability through a growing embrace of traditional cuisine, an emergent interest in the farm-to-table movement, and the work of local organizations. Angelinos are creating alternatives to the industrial food system that offer hope for Latino food culture and health in Los Angeles and beyond. This book provides an overview of contemporary L.A.'s Latino food culture, introducing some of the most important chefs in the Latino food scene, and discussing the history and impact of Latino street food on culinary variety in Los Angeles. Along with food culture, the book also discusses alternative sources of healthy food for low-income communities: farmers markets, community and school gardens, urban farms, and new neighborhood markets that work to address the inequalities in access and affordability for Latino residents. By making the connection between Latino food culture and the Latino communities' food related health issues, this study approaches the issue from a unique perspective.

In "An Other's Mind" you get a firsthand look at the yet  unaddressed core issue that has rendered the United States a more sharply divided nation than ever. Fact is, we may all share the same longing that ours be a society that is fair, just, free, equal and democratic, but these themes, fundamental as they are, have markedly different contexts for those of us flourishing in the mainstream than for those of us struggling at the margins. An impaired person might for example perceive that it is only fair that at the expense of the rest of us public places be rendered handicapped-accessible so that he or she might have entree to what the rest of us take as a given. Yet a post 60's populace, weaned on New Order, think tank, paradigms, seems to more and more agree that true fairness demands that we all, crippled and able-bodied alike, surmount the same flight of stairs on our own. More so than race, class, culture, politics, language, and so forth, it is this divergence of perception that buries even the most basic and well-intended initiatives of social policy in a maelstrom of heated, discordant ambiance and which constitutes the newest frontier in the battle for social progress and a truly united nation.Recognizing this and the urgent interest that we might yet come to understand one another and thereby reach greater accord as human beings, Luis Quiros delivers, in this unique volume, a first call to arms, by offering you a rich, vivid, personal and visionary look at the inner workings and arcs of critical thought that percolate inside an other's mind.= -Lee Stringer, award-winning author of "Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street"; "Like shaking Hands With God," and "Sleepaway"" School"," Stories From a Boy's Life."

Despite the declaration that we are living in a "post-racial America," multiple recent events in which Black lives were prematurely ended have sparked a racial reckoning within the United States. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are institutions with a long history of addressing racial disparities and injustices whose relevance is being recognized in light of these recent events. It is essential to give voice to those who represent the ongoing challenges, aspirations, and impact of HBCUs in the 21st century in upholding their collective mission to educate students of color who were historically excluded from institutions of higher education. Contributions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 21st Century focuses on the role of HBCUs in contemporary American society as diverse and inclusive environments that continue to positively impact historically excluded students. The voices of faculty, students, and administration are included to highlight the innovations and contributions of HBCUs in the areas of scholarship, teaching, and service. Covering topics such as BlaQ Lives Matter, community activism, and self-advocacy, this premier reference source is a valuable resource for sociologists, higher education administration, graduate programs, faculty and administrators at HBCUs, students and educators of higher education, libraries, government officials, activists, non-profit organizations, researchers, and academicians.

Based on a comprehensive study of three counties in Texas, this work examines the idea of differential handling of minority youth offenders. Traditional wisdom indicates that minorities are over-represented in the juvenile justice system due to racism and discrimination within the system itself. The author refutes this logic by challenging current studies and examining the results of the Texas study. The findings suggest that minorities are represented in the juvenile justice system in greater numbers than their majority offender counterparts due to their greater involvement in criminal activity, not to any differential treatment they may receive at crucial decision points within the system. Allegations of racial bias against the juvenile justice system are often supported by the federal government, which suggests that minorities continue to be targeted more frequently for arrest, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment merely because they are persons of color. Drawing on new research, the author addresses racial disparity in the juvenile justice system and contends that previous research suffers methodological and statistical analysis problems, resulting in the mischaracterization of the issue of racial bias. The present study argues that most minority juveniles receive different case outcomes because of the severity of their current offense, and both the length and severity of their prior delinquency careers. Tracy's research ultimately indicates that rather than being discriminatory, the juvenile system is, instead, reacting to a particular type of delinquent using legally permissible guidelines.

Using an oral history approach, this book draws on Gypsy and non-Gypsy narratives to tell the story of Gypsy forced dislocation from Bayramic, a northwestern town of Turkey, in 1970. Gul OEzatesler examines memory construction, the categories of Gypsyness and Turkishness, and the different perspectives and positions that emerged, considering all in relation to underlying socioeconomic structure. The book reveals how ethnic and other identities can be deployed to conceal socioeconomic and political inequalities.

Since the demise of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990, collaboration and complicity--both in the torture chamber and civil society--have been taboo topics not only for the Chilean left but also for society at large. By revisiting the experience of Luz Arce Sandoval--a leftist militant turned collaborator with Pinochet's secret police--"Luz Arce and Pinochet's Chile "raises urgent political and ethical questions about how nations carry out unspeakable violence in the name of "progress" and "democracy." Juxtaposing interviews, legal documents, and academic analysis, this book probes the personal and collective dimensions of torture, collaborationism, truth, justice, reconciliation, and memory, issues that resonate in Latin America and beyond.

While the term "culture wars" often designates the heated arguments in the English-speaking world spiraling around race, the canon, and affirmative action, in fact these discussions have raged in diverse sites and languages. Race in Translation charts the transatlantic traffic of the debates within and between three zones--the U.S., France, and Brazil. Stam and Shohat trace the literal and figurative translation of these multidirectional intellectual debates, seen most recently in the emergence of postcolonial studies in France, and whiteness studies in Brazil. The authors also interrogate an ironic convergence whereby rightist politicians like Sarkozy and Cameron join hands with some leftist intellectuals like Benn Michaels, i ek, and Bourdieu in condemning "multiculturalism" and "identity politics." At once a report from various "fronts" in the culture wars, a mapping of the germane literatures, and an argument about methods of reading the cross-border movement of ideas, the book constitutes a major contribution to our understanding of the Diasporic and the Transnational."

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"Rodriguez furthers her work . . . with an engaging writing style that is poetic, personal, philosophical and theoretical. . . . This book is highly recommended."
-- "Reforma Newsletter" "A fascinating critical approach to the development of the so-called latinidad, i.e., the identity of Latinos in the US. Unlike that in other ethno-queer studies, Rodriguez's data and primary texts of analysis are not literary works. Instead, this refreshing, funny, and daring book takes the reader through unexplored queer Latino communities.... Highly recommended."
-- "Choice"

"It is rare to find as vital and sassy and smart an essayist as Juana RodrA-guez. She takes us through the intersections of culture and theory in ways that compel us to rethink what queer does to Latinidad as much as what Latinidad does to queer. She shows what it means, politically and culturally, to read for the possibility of survival and affirmation. She is careful, attentive, dynamic, disorienting, and exhilarating as she reads political and cultural events, literary and theoretical texts, and the nuances of language use for a complex cultural subject in process. A fabulous read."
--Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor at the University of California at Berkeley

"Mapping slippery subjects outside of fixed identities, this book is always against closure: Queer Latinidad at its best."
--JosA(c) Quiroga, author of "Tropics of Desire: Interventions from Queer Latino America"

According to the 2000 census, Latinos/as have become the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Images of Latinos and Latinas in mainstream news and in popularculture suggest a Latin Explosion at center stage, yet the topic of queer identity in relation to Latino/a America remains under examined.

Juana MarA-a RodrA-guez attempts to rectify this dearth of scholarship in Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces, by documenting the ways in which identities are transformed by encounters with language, the law, culture, and public policy. She identifies three key areas as the project's case studies: activism, primarily HIV prevention; immigration law; and cyberspace. In each, RodrA-guez theorizes the ways queer Latino/a identities are enabled or constrained, melding several theoretical and methodological approaches to argue that these sites are complex and dynamic social fields.

As she moves the reader from one disciplinary location to the other, RodrA-guez reveals the seams of her own academic engagement with queer latinidad. This deftly crafted work represents a dynamic and innovative approach to the study of identity formation and representation, making a vital contribution to a new reformulation of gender and sexuality studies.

Riad El-Taher arrived in England to study engineering just in time to hear Tony Benn railing against Anthony Eden's 1956 Suez policy. He was rarely far from politics thereafter. When the UN imposed crippling sanctions on his native land, he took Tam Dalyell, George Galloway and ex-BBC reporter, Tim Llewellyn, to Iraq to see their effect. At Dalyell's suggestion he formed a widely supported organisation to campaign for a reversal of this policy; after the Second Gulf War this redirected its fire at the occupation. He made enemies too, and believed he landed in Wandsworth jail as a result. Dalyell, who considered Riad to be motivated by `an un-self-seeking desire to protect the well-being of people in Iraq,' called his treatment `a process of nasty, political vengeance.' Neither a Ba'athist, nor an emigre oppositionist, Riad's patriotic voice is arguably unique and deserves to be heard. Though polemical, and posing uncomfortable questions, this is also the story of a remarkably varied life and the wide range of people encountered in it, not least among them Saddam Hussein.

Twenty years after the post-apartheid Government took office, this timely text interrogates the extent to which the attitudes, identities and everyday lives of British people have changed in accordance with the 'new' South Africa. New ethnographic research is drawn upon to explore important questions of mobility, locality and identity.

Navigating Borders into the Netherlands provides a unique in-depth look at human smuggling processes. Based on biographical interviews with smuggled migrants in the Netherlands, the study reveals considerable differences that exist in smuggling's underlying causes, how journeys evolve, and outcomes of the process. This research from an insider's perspective clearly demonstrates that smuggled migrants are not passive actors, there is a broad variety in types of smugglers, and interactions between migrants and smugglers largely determine how the smuggling process evolves.

In "Borderlands Saints," Desiree A. Martin examines the rise and fall of popular saints and saint-like figures in the borderlands of the United States and Mexico. Focusing specifically on Teresa Urrea (La Santa de Cabora), Pancho Villa, Cesar Chavez, Subcomandante Marcos, and Santa Muerte, she traces the intersections of these figures, their devotees, artistic representations, and dominant institutions with an eye for the ways in which such unofficial saints mirror traditional spiritual practices and serve specific cultural needs.
Popular spirituality of this kind engages the use and exchange of relics, faith healing, pilgrimages, and spirit possession, exemplifying the contradictions between high and popular culture, human and divine, and secular and sacred. Martin focuses upon a wide range of Mexican and Chicano/a cultural works drawn from the nineteenth century to the present, covering such diverse genres as the novel, the communique, drama, the essay or cronica, film, and contemporary digital media. She argues that spiritual practice is often represented as narrative, while narrative--whether literary, historical, visual, or oral--may modify or even function as devotional practice.

Winner, 2013-2014 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, Adult Non-Fiction presented by the Asian Pacific American Librarian Association During the Cold War, Soviet propaganda highlighted U.S. racism in order to undermine the credibility of U.S. democracy. In response, incorporating racial and ethnic minorities in order to affirm that America worked to ensure the rights of all and was superior to communist countries became a national imperative. In Citizens of Asian America, Cindy I-Fen Cheng explores how Asian Americans figured in this effort to shape the credibility of American democracy, even while the perceived "foreignness" of Asian Americans cast them as likely alien subversives whose activities needed monitoring following the communist revolution in China and the outbreak of the Korean War. While histories of international politics and U.S. race relations during the Cold War have largely overlooked the significance of Asian Americans, Cheng challenges the black-white focus of the existing historiography. She highlights how Asian Americans made use of the government's desire to be leader of the "free world" by advocating for civil rights reforms, such as housing integration, increased professional opportunities, and freedom from political persecution. Further, Cheng examines the liberalization of immigration policies, which worked not only to increase the civil rights of Asian Americans but also to improve the nation's ties with Asian countries, providing an opportunity for the U.S. government to broadcast, on a global scale, the freedom and opportunity that American society could offer.

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The President's Commission on Organized Crime predicted that Asian crime groups would be the United States' foremost organized crime problem by the 1990s. There are few comprehensive studies on the nature and scope of these groups. Ko-lin Chin warns that our limited law enforcement resources will be ineffective without a precise understanding of the norms, values, structure, criminal patterns, and interrelationships of these groups. His study takes a major step toward this effort. A sociological investigation of Triads, tongs, and street gangs, Chin's volume explores the where, how, and why of these groups as well as the connection between Triad subculture and criminality. Chinese Subculture and Criminality is a thoroughly researched study of Asian criminality and its manifestations in America's ethnic communities. Ko-lin Chin describes both the history and activities of Chinese secret societies, and how these societies degenerated into crime groups. He analyzes the symbiotic relationship of Chinese communities and tongs; and details the history of the gangs' development in San Franscisco, Los Angeles, Monterey Park, and New York City. The causative and intervening factors leading to the rise of these gangs is explored as well as their nature and activities. Personal and group characteristics help explain why these gangs persist. Comparisons are made with other ethnic gangs. The volume predicts the future direction of Chinese organized crime. It concludes with a discussion of ethnic succession and the role of Chinese gangs in the heroin trade.

Ever sinces its independence in 1991, Macedonia has made remarkable progress towards building a pluralistic, multi-ethnic civil society. Yet if the international community supports the legitimacy of Macedonia as a state it has direct responsibility to anchor its future. No matter what view one subscribes to, one stubborn truth remains: Macedonia cannot achieve success on its own. This book provides observations that offer valuable lessons on this little known but remarkable part of Europe. This work provides a review of the historical basis for Macedonia's identity and its emergence as a separate nation during Socialist Yugoslavia (1944-1991). It takes a detailed look at the events and personalities that lead to the outbreak of civil war in 1991. This book contains aspects of the Ohrid Framework Agreement and perspectives on the contemporary situation following the elections of September 2002. Personal interviews with the first and second presidents of the Repulic of Macedonia are also included.

State building and democratization in Africa rarely attract the attention they deserve. Few have grappled with the relationship between state building (nation-building) and democratic experiments in Africa. This collection consciously corrects this shortcoming in African political studies. Among the issues raised: Does democracy facilitate state building or does it exacerbate ethnic conflicts? Are certain modalities of democratization more likely to facilitate state-building than others? Has the era of democracy created the need for new state building strategies? Does the objective of state building require significant modifications in the essence and form of democracy? This collection combines theoretical explorations with empirical case studies. It looks at both anglophone and francophone countries of sub-Saharan Africa. While the contributors have written extensively on African issues, there is no consensus among the authors; most argue that integrating ethnic groups that already face discrimination and often are engaged in conflict requires compromise, political settlements, and new terms of incorporation into the state. These compromises, in turn, involve new arrangements in how democracy is perceived and instituted. An important collection for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with African political, social, and economic development.

Latino American cinema is a provocative, complex, and definitively American topic of study. This book examines key mainstream commercial films while also spotlighting often-underappreciated documentaries, avant-garde and experimental projects, independent productions, features and shorts, and more. Latino American Cinema: An Encyclopedia of Movies, Stars, Concepts, and Trends serves as an essential primary reference for students of the topic as well as an accessible resource for general readers. The alphabetized entries in the volume cover the key topics of this provocative and complex genre-films, filmmakers, star performers, concepts, and historical and burgeoning trends-alongside frequently overlooked and crucially ignored items of interest in Latino cinema. This comprehensive treatment bridges gaps between traditional approaches to U.S.-Latino and Latin American cinemas, placing subjects of Chicana and Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban and diasporic Cuban, and Mexican origin in perspective with related Central and South American and Caribbean elements. Many of the entries offer compact definitions, critical discussions, overviews, and analyses of star artists, media productions, and historical moments, while several foundational entries explicate concepts, making this single volume encyclopedia a critical guide as well. Nearly 300 entries on movies, actors and actresses, concepts, and trends A resource guide and bibliography provides listings of online references and databases, research centers, and media distributors Sidebar discussions that elaborate on key points within the entry, spotlight historical and social contexts, and offer examples

"Notions of Identity, Diaspora, and Gender in Caribbean Women's Writing" uses a unique four-dimensional lens to frame questions of diaspora and gender in the writings of women from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. These divergent and interconnected perspectives include violence, trauma, resistance, and expanded notions of Caribbean identity. In these writings, diaspora represents both a wound created by slavery and Indian indenture and the discursive praxis of defining new identities and cultural possibilities. These framings of identity provide inclusive and complex readings of transcultural Caribbean diasporas, especially in terms of gender and minority cultures.

Throughout the world, cultural and racial clashes remain a major hurdle to development and progress. Though some areas are experiencing successful intercultural communications which pave the way for peaceful negotiations, there are still many regions experiencing severe turmoil. Impact of Communication and the Media on Ethnic Conflict focuses on both the positive and negative outcomes of communication and media usage, as well as the overall perceptions of these elements, within conflicting populations. Featuring theoretical perspectives on various intergroup interaction experiences within contemporary ethnic controversies, this publication will appeal to scholars, researchers, professors, and practitioners interested in ethnic studies, conflict resolution, communications, and global peace building.

Latinos comprise the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, and this interdisciplinary anthology gathers the scholarship of early career and senior Latina/o scholars whose work explores the varied and unique "latinidades, "or Latino cultural identities, of this group. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, the authors deploy various theoretical tools to examine the realities and lived experience of Latinas/o in the United States. While the editors of the book in their method of organization seek to present a wide panoramic view of the Latina/o condition, the authors of the individual essays use specific methodologies: empirical, ethnographic, linguistic, and literary and textual analysis along with cultural studies and other appropriate approaches.

After publishing fourteen books of poetry, Rudy Calderon introduces a collection of poetry that compiles the very best of his published poetry as well as introduces the reader to his more recent work. Known for his impassioned deliveries at poetry readings, Calderon has been invited to and read at legendary poetry spots like the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe and the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City as well as in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and throughout the Central Coast of California. Having published a good majority of his work in the Spanish language, this book allows the public to enjoy those poems for the first time in the English language and in-so-doing the reader will understand the level of commitment and reverence Calderon has given to this sacred art in general and to his Mexican-American and Latino sensibilities in particular. Moreover, the poetry community will be able to take-in the cultural, literary, and historical richness found in Calderon's work as they observe a poet who has worked tirelessly and with an unrelenting devotion in his pursuit to lay bare the deep riches of the Mexican-American experience.

An examination of the cultural values of working class Chicana adolescents with an emphasis on the social, political, and economic factors that shape these cultural values. This book addresses a gap in the literature on youth gangs and youth culture by examining the motivations and issues of gang affiliation, teen pregnancy, and academic failure from the point-of-view of teenage girls. Furthermore, the book emphasizes female participation in gangs as well as the impact that gangs have on non- participating adolescents. The author also discusses how current public policy is based on erroneous assumptions associated with the culture of poverty model. This book attempts to explain what appears to be self-defeating behavior of many Chicana adolescents. It explores the logic underlying their life choices and examines the connection between these choices and larger social processes. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty in ethnic studies, multicultural studies, Hispanic Studies, Sociology, and Women's Studies. In addition social service professionals and related professionals will find it helpful.