The postborder metropolis of Bajalta California stretches from Los Angeles in the north to Tijuana and Mexicali in the south. Immigrants from all over the globe flock to Southern California, while corporations are drawn to the low wage industry of the Mexican border towns, echoing developments in other rapid growth areas such as Phoenix, El Paso, and San Antonio. This incredibly diverse, transnational megacity is giving birth to new cultural and artistic forms as it rapidly evolves into something unique in the world. Postborder City is a genuinely interdisciplinary investigation of the hybrid culture on both sides of the increasingly fluid U.S. Mexico border, spanning the disciplines of art and art history, urban planning, geography, Latina/o studies, and American studies.

"Urban Latino Cultures is a superb, multidimensional study of place and identity in Los Angeles. Recognizing that the transnational character of Latino realities is often realized in local expression and control of space, the book offers a useful lesson for those seeking to understand the ongoing transformations of many American cities, including San Antonio, Miami, and elsewhere and will be required reading for analysts of the new Los Angeles."  

--Manuel Pastor, Jr., Chair, Latin American & Latino Studies,

Merrill College, University of California

In public venues and in their homes, Latinos are asserting their cultural identities and changing the face of American cities. This book records the voices and visions of poets, cartoonists, photographers, architects, geographers, designers, playwrights, musicians, and filmmakers as they testify to the new vida latina in Los Angeles. They uncover the transformation of Latino memory, identity, and destiny in the social spaces of the barrio. Using Spanish, English, and Spanglish, contributors mingle the jingle of palatero trucks with sweatshops, in-your-face cartoons, rock music, family photos, hard-edged reporting, videos, and lyrical laments. The result is a joyful celebration of a pivotal moment in Latino history in the USA.