Americanos: Latino Life in the United States La Vida Latina en los Estados Unidos - Softcover

Text: English, Spanish

This is a beautiful, vibrant coffee-table book; it may also be one of the more socially important books to appear in some time. Americanos forces us (gently) to reevaluate, reconsider, and reestablish the very important fact that Latinos have been an integral part of the history of the U.S. "The face of America should include us," Edward James Olmos asserts in his preface, and it takes but a few moments glancing at these well-rendered photographs to recognize that "face" in all its diversity. Some images will be familiar from the entertainment world; others will strike one more directly: faces we see each day, down the street, down the hall, or right next to us. In his rhythmical and joyful introduction, Carlos Fuentes admonishes us, "All together now, keep your eyes open beyond yourselves, see the margins of the world, where those who are different from us are waiting to demonstrate that they are as human as we." If that bridge into the twenty-first century that politicians enjoy talking about is going to be successfully and intelligently crossed, it would bode well to recognize how important it is for all of us to join in the journey. This is a timely and handsome book, and as contributor David Carrasco says of Latinos, "We are both an accomplished and an unfinished people," and the same could be said of this country and all its promise. Raul Nino