Reviews
Marie Arana has accomplished the herculean task of defining us as a community, meticulously separating the threads that unite as well as divide us. LatinoLand is a fascinating introduction for those who need to know us. And--surprise--an especially illuminating read for those of us who thought we knew ourselves., As a Latina/Latinx/Hispanic/Dominican-America who has lived through six decades of identity iterations and labels on USA soil, I think I know myself and my story pretty well, but Marie Arana's magisterial Latinoland has enlarged my understanding, not just of myself, but of so many of us included under the one identity umbrella of Latinos. Comprehensive, thoroughly researched, balanced, generous and penetrating, Latinoland is destined to become the text we all turn and return to in understanding not just this country but our hemisphere., An impressively wide-ranging overview of the turbulent history of Latine people in America. . . . Ably blends historical research with insightful anecdotes. . . . Arana has a fascinating, complex, and deeply personal story to tell, and she narrates it with abundant verve and intelligence., Unfolding across four hemispheres and dozens of nations, Marie Arana's new book is a sweeping, comprehensive, and impassioned introduction to the centuries of history and activism that have given us the term 'Latino.', LatinoLand aims to show that Latinos are as essential to the fabric of America as everyone else is, and it does so by deconstructing the most pervasive stereotypes around them., Marie Arana does something beautiful in this book: she captures all the strands and weaves that form the fabric of the one-fifth of our nation she calls LatinoLand. This burgeoning population contains many different narratives, as she shows, but there are a number of commonalities. Her book not only helps explain LatinoLand but also America itself., Only Marie Arana could hold this infinitely complex, endlessly shifting subject in her mind, and then write a book that explains it all in language that is at the same time dazzlingly vibrant and surgically precise. Latinoland doesn't just speak, it sings., In a just world Marie Arana would be everyone's favorite writer and her monumental LatinoLand would be everyone's book of the year. Arana has achieved the impossible - she has produced a searching, moving portrait of one of the most misunderstood and singularly important communities in our country. LatinoLand is indispensable, unforgettable. A work of prophecy, sympathy and courage.
