Laura E. Gomez

*A Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this for an honest and unbiased review*

Laura E. Gómez is here and she has receipts...

When I saw this book available to read I knew I had to read it. I, myself am Latino, yet I wasn't aware of most of the history that is discussed in this book. It's because it's just not talked about, but it's important to talk about it and learn it. This book took me a long time to get through, this is mostly because I wanted to make sure I understood everything I was reading, since it was a bit heavy. Gómez did her homework, in writing Inventing Latinos and she wrote this very well.

I don't want to give too much away as I do consider this a must read for any American, not just Latinos. Inventing Latinos, answered a lot of questions that I personally have, but it also made me ask more think and ask more questions. This book will definitely require another read, as well as some annotations because it covers a lot of topics in such a short amount of writing that I wish there was more in this book. It is virtually impossible for Gómez to be able to cover the amount of history that Latinos have in this topic, and there were some points in which I do wish that she went a little more in depth with. I will be looking into and reading more of Gómez's work because she's a great writer and fosters critical thinking as well as providing information.

The one downfall is despite the fact that I enjoy Gómez's writing, to more casual readers, it may be too heavy. It does have a lot of information to process that those who are not use to it may be overloaded. I do feel that some of the text should be broken up slightly more.

Overall, a must read.… (altro)

Gómez presents a history of the racialization of Mexican Americans in the post Mexican American war period. In this work, she argues that the social perception of Mexican Americans as non white does not always match their legal status as a white group. Gómez displays the material consequences of this perspective, specifically in New Mexico but also briefly looks at Texas, Arizona, California and other places. She concludes this work with a Postscript that shows modern day censuses and identity issues that took place after the period she studied for this book. Overall, this is a fantastic work to understand this piece of social history, and a fantastic read for anyone interested in the subject.… (altro)

*A Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this for an honest and unbiased review*

Laura E. Gómez is here and she has receipts...

When I saw this book available to read I knew I had to read it. I, myself am Latino, yet I wasn't aware of most of the history that is discussed in this book. It's because it's just not talked about, but it's important to talk about it and learn it. This book took me a long time to get through, this is mostly because I wanted to make sure I understood everything I was reading, since it was a bit heavy. Gómez did her homework, in writing Inventing Latinos and she wrote this very well.

I don't want to give too much away as I do consider this a must read for any American, not just Latinos. Inventing Latinos, answered a lot of questions that I personally have, but it also made me ask more think and ask more questions. This book will definitely require another read, as well as some annotations because it covers a lot of topics in such a short amount of writing that I wish there was more in this book. It is virtually impossible for Gómez to be able to cover the amount of history that Latinos have in this topic, and there were some points in which I do wish that she went a little more in depth with. I will be looking into and reading more of Gómez's work because she's a great writer and fosters critical thinking as well as providing information.

The one downfall is despite the fact that I enjoy Gómez's writing, to more casual readers, it may be too heavy. It does have a lot of information to process that those who are not use to it may be overloaded. I do feel that some of the text should be broken up slightly more.

Overall, a must read.… (altro)

Inventing Latinos by Laura E Gomez is an eye-opening study of how those in power can often bend reality to fit their needs and create new pseudo-realities to entrench them.

Race is a social construct, there isn't really much real argument about that except from those trying to gain or maintain power through exploiting the construct. Gomez illustrates how through colonialism and the inherent white supremacist structure of the United States, both culturally and institutionally, a new "them" was created through lumping different but seemingly, to the white mind, similar peoples together into a new "race."

The history here, the sociology, and the horrific US policy are all investigated in showing how the creation of such a group could be used to support white supremacist (read official US policy) fears and concerns. Yet in spite of the many different cultures included under this umbrella, it may just be useful for those peoples to form coalitions and find enough common ground, maybe the widespread racism in the white communities, to use this monolithic identity against the white supremacists who created it.

This is an excellent history and makes explicit the wrongs the US government has perpetrated on both foreign governments and its own citizens.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Goodreads.… (altro)