Latina/o Studies by Ronald L. Mize (review)

Part of the Short Introductions Series by Polity Press, Ronald Mize’s Latina/o Studies casts the field’s current debates against a historical accounting of its development. This monograph serves as a comprehensive guide to both students and scholars who are interested in the growth of the discipline, as well as the historical foundations that inform ongoing debates. As it is significantly easier for individuals to remain connected to a homeland in the “post-1965 migration” (8) era, a major theme of this text is transnationalism and its relationship with neoliberalism, nativism, and globalization. Divided into eight chapters, the work traces the veins of Latina/o studies from several perspectives.

Chapter 1 concentrates on terminology, beginning with government deployment of the term “Hispanic” on census forms in the 1970s to the emergence of “Latino” as a shortened version of “Latinoamericano.” During the 1990s, concern over the term’s visible masculinity was voiced, and more inclusive language such as Latin@ (2000s), Latinx (2010s), and most recently, Latinidad(es), has since emerged. Through a discussion of national origin and lived experiences, Mize confronts (im)migration and transnationalism and complicates conceptualizations of a panethnic Latina/o identity.

Chapter 2 chronicles the trajectory of US and Latin American history, focusing on the legacy of Spanish colonialism and US imperialism that continues to inform Latina/o studies research and scholars. This includes the US-Mexico War, the Spanish American War, and US political and military involvement in Latin American nations (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala), as well as revolutionary and proindependence figures. Similarly, the chapter describes historical immigration patterns to, and destinations within, the US and traces US political movements such as the Chicano and Boricua civil rights movements (1960s and 1970s), the sanctuary movements (1980s), and the immigrant rights movements (2000s).

In chapters 3 and 4, Mize pushes back on scholarship that overrepresents Mexican American culture and thought by unpacking the complexity of Latina/o studies through a detailed account of the preceding area studies. Specifically, chapter 3 concentrates on the simultaneous but separate inauguration of Chicano studies in the Southwest and Puerto Rican studies in the Northeast, which arose amid the civil rights movement as well as in response to earlier scholarship that relied upon and perpetuated stereotypes of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans.

The focus of chapter 4 broadens to illustrate the “plurality of Latina/o and Latin American experiences” (59). It introduces the rise of other Latina/o area studies such as Central American studies, Cuban American studies, Dominican studies, and South American studies through theorizations of a Latino political consciousness (59). However, Mize is quick to clarify that Latina/o studies is “more than simply an amalgamation of disparate national-origin groups” (59). In many ways unique to the US, there are “places where Latina/os come together in their daily lived experiences” (59), which the field of Latina/o studies now conceptualizes “as embodying Latinidades” (59).

In a similar way, chapter 5 engages Latina subject positions to illustrate the expansion of identity through conceptualizations of gender and sexuality. Mize outlines scholarship aimed at “reclaiming the lost voices of Latinas” (62) in historical contexts such as representations of Doña María/La Malintzin/La Malinche and other writings that “inform our understanding of life filtered through Latina eyes” (64).

In chapter 6, Mize returns to the present to concentrate on popular culture and the representation of Latina/os therein. Mize demonstrates the “conflation” (76) of Latina/o identities and stereotypical representation of Latina/o subjects in all forms of popular media as well as an imagined homogenized market segment. He then counters with an outline of the heterogenous responses put forth by Latina/o studies scholars. This chapter further explicates the political threat posed by representations like the “Latino threat narrative” (77) emerging from Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and administration. Mize illustrates how state legislation is a “main expression of today’s nativism” (79), positing that “Latina/o Studies scholars have to recognize that in many ways our celebration...