With more than 50 million Latinos living in the United States, Ray Suarez's companion book to the PBS documentary series Latino Americans provides a comprehensive overview of the often ignored historical contributions this vast minority has made. Latinos encompass not only Mexican-Americans but also immigrants from Puerto Rico and Cuba as well as Europe, Africa and Asia--anywhere Spanish is the predominant language.
Latinos "are at once a new people on the American landscape," Suarez writes, "and an old and deeply embedded part of the history of this country and continent." Spanish names are sprinkled across the countryside from Florida, "the flowery place," to the San Juan Islands. Moving chronologically and by country, Suarez examines the rich intermingling of Latinos and their cultures into the melting pot of the United States. He details the way Mexico lost huge amounts of land to the U.S. in 1848, then sent workers across the border during World War II to pick U.S. crops--and are again facing immigration and border issues. In the American Southwest, Latinos suffered segregation "for decades before the civil rights movement" despite the valor of many in the U.S. military. Entertainers Desi Arnaz and Rita Moreno, political activist Dolores Huerta and Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor are just a few of the Latinos brought to life in Suarez's engaging prose. He has written an entertaining, informative and much needed account of people who shaped the United States as much as any other group. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer