From 2000 to 2010, the Latino population increased by more than 73 percent across eight midwestern states. These interdisciplinary essays explore issues of history, education, literature, art, and politics defining today's Latina/o Midwest. Some contributors delve into the Latina/o revitalization of rural areas, where communities have launched bold experiments in dual-language immersion education while seeing integrated neighborhoods, churches, and sports teams become the norm. Others reveal metro areas as laboratories for emerging Latino subjectivities, places where for some, the term Latina/o itself corresponds to a new type of lived identity as different Latina/o groups interact in shared neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.

Eye-opening and provocative, The Latina/o Midwest Reader rewrites the conventional wisdom on today's Latina/o community and how it faces challenges—and thrives—in the heartland.

Contributors: Aidé Acosta, Frances R. Aparicio, Jay Arduser, Jane Blocker, Carolyn Colvin, María Eugenia Cotera, Theresa Delgadillo, Lilia Fernández, Claire F. Fox, Felipe Hinojosa, Michael D. Innis-Jiménez, José E. Limón, Marta María Maldonado, Louis G. Mendoza, Amelia María de la Luz Montes, Kim Potowski, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, Rebecca M. Schreiber, Omar Valerio-Jiménez, Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez, Darrel Wanzer-Serrano, Janet Weaver, and Elizabeth Willmore
| Title Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: History, Placemaking, and Cultural Contributions - Omar Valerio-Jiménez, Santiago Vaqu Part 1. The Browning of the Midwest Conversations across "Our America": Latinoization and the New Geography of Latinas/os - Louis Men Al Norte toward Home: Texas, the Midwest, and Mexican American Critical Regionalism - José E. Limón Reshaping the Rural Heartland: Immigration and Migrant Cultural Practice in Small-Town America - Aide Acosta Part 2. Essential Laborers and Neighbors Mexican Workers and Life in South Chicago - Michael Innis-Jiménez Latina/o Immigration before 1965: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago - Lilia Fernández Not Just Laborers: Latina/o Claims of Belonging in the U.S. Heartland - Marta María Maldonado Part 3. La educación adelanta Spanish Language and Education in the Midwest - Kim Potowski Contesting the Myth of Uncaring: Latina/o Parents Advocating for Their Children - Carolyn Colvin, Ja Latina/o Studies and Ethnic Studies in the Midwest - Amelia María de la Luz Montes Part 4. Performeando the Midwest The Black Angel: Ana Mendieta in Iowa City - Jane Blocker History in Drag: Latina/o Queer Affective Circuits in Chicago - Ramón H. Rivera-Servera El Museo del Norte: Passionate Praxis on the Streets of Detroit - María Eugenia Cotera Part 5. Movimientos Religious Migrants: The Latina/o Mennonite Quest for Community and Civil Rights - Felipe Hinojosa The Young Lords Organization in Chicago: A Short History - Darrel Wanzer-Serrano ¡Viva La Causa! in Iowa - Janet Weaver Work, Coalition, and Advocacy: Latinas Leading in the Midwest - Theresa Delgadillo and Janet Weaver Reconfiguring Documentation: Immigration, Activism, and Practices of Visibility - Rebecca M. Schreib Afterword: Intimate (Trans)Nationals - Frances R. Aparicio Glossary Bibliography Contributors Index |"The Reader offers something for everyone. . . . The research disrupts narratives that remove Latinos from history and from the region. . . . Current activists and allies can look to the volume for a history of resistance and a people's determination to live with dignity." —Middle West Review
"This key book expands understanding of Latina/os outside of the traditional areas of the US. . . . A major addition to the histories of...