Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities (review)

Julio Cammarota begins Sueños Americanos with an introductory chapter explaining the social, cultural, and political environment in California, as well as a glimpse of each of the subsequent six chapters. He explains historical immigration laws that have targeted specific ethnic groups. Besides presenting his methodology and the purpose of his research on young Latinos who strive to reach the American dream without giving up their ethnic identity (6), he incorporates interviews with forty Latina/os of Mexican and Central American background who live in El Pueblo, California, and attended local schools, twenty who worked at a major fast food chain (Happy Burger) and twenty in a community organization (El Pueblo Community Center). Except for the names of the community organizations, he uses pseudonyms. His work centers on the interviews and deeper ethnographic studies of six whom he worked with and whose homes, school, and work he visited. Describing El Pueblo, its population, and an educational system as one that perpetuates poverty and offers few opportunities for Latino advancement, Cammarota points out that the community and youth must resort to community organizing, which he defines as a process by which youth and community reflect and act on ways in which they can maintain their identity (10-11).

Chapter 2 focuses on Latinos' response to changes (1960s to 1990s) in a Californian political economy that gravitates toward globalization, highlighting its effects on Latinos' work and educational opportunities. Cammarota provides insightful information on how corporations avoid long-term contracts and look for temporary nonunion workers or immigrants, which has not only accomplished lower labor costs but has also led to antiimmigrant movements and propositions. With California ranking among the seven highest poverty states (16 percent), he notes that up to 75 percent of Latino adolescents have worked in the wholesale, retail, or service industries (21-22). This, according to him, results in the segregation of schools, inequalities, and poor performance of Latinos.

Chapter 3 interprets the role of Latino and white middle-class youth in the family. His field research and interviews with adolescents demonstrate that although Latino families depend on youth's income, parents do not ask them to work or contribute. Cammarota explains that the concepts of respect and familism motivate youth to share economic responsibility. In the case of young women, they are concerned with gender and their desire to reject sexist oppressions (47). His work shows that contrary to widespread stereotypes, Latinos value education and see it as an escape from poverty.

Chapter 4 addresses youth employment, specifically at Happy Burger. Cammarota stresses working conditions, lack of formal training, work environment, and its effect on youth's academic performance due to "flexible scheduling." Important in this section are his observations and conclusions of what he calls "automation with machines and people." According to Cammarota, Happy Burger's approach to fast service distances workers from customers (60-64). His interviews also substantiate that young workers have few opportunities for promotion and often have to choose between school and work (70-79).

Chapter 5 explains the positive effect of government-sponsored programs that take into account the culture and traditions of the communities they serve. Students and workers receive incomparable training and experience in which they apply what they learn to community projects. Students develop academic competence and observe and learn skills from effective leaders.

The focus of chapter 6 is schools and education. What stand out are the physical conditions of the schools, the overcrowding, and the insufficient and outdated resources, where the grade point average of the high school is 1.4 (117). Once more, through oral interviews coupled with field and academic research, Cammarota reveals the absence of accountability in teachers and total indifference of the administration to educate Latinos. He concludes that what takes place at El Pueblo would not occur at a predominantly white upper middle class district (115-19). The negligence and conditions observed in K-12, according to Cammarota, are...