The Irreducible People - A Book Review on LatinoLand

Latino Land Written by Marie Arana | Available Here

An insightful, interesting, dive into the lives of Latinos in the U.S – this is what Marie Arana communicates in her latest book LatinoLand, where she displays her extensive research including interviews, personal stories, as well as statistical and historical analysis. The book makes sure not to leave the reader with doubts about the complexity and hard-to-define nature of the Latino community, presenting a dozen dilemmas before giving out some answers, but staying true to reality and evading clear political biases. Arana’s clear writing style successfully crafted a narrative that appeals to a wide audience without sacrificing the academic rigor necessary to authentically portray a diverse community.

 " A clear portrayal of the Latino community...something that Arana understands thoroughly".

A clear portrayal of the Latino community would always be incomplete without talking about their history, something that Arana understands thoroughly. The first third of the book focuses on US Latino history, from when the Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca arrived in what today is considered Florida and got lost, to the social and economic crises of the 20th century in the regions that boosted the massive waves of immigration towards the United States from Latin America. There are good efforts by Arana to mention, for example, Asian and Jewish Latino history, which are very real communities that are often forgotten from the U.S. point of view. Latino Arabs and other groups are only briefly mentioned, though that is already more than usual for such a small percentage of the US Latino population. Where I felt a lack of representation were the scant mentions of South American countries, which is probably the least talked about countries of origin in the US Latino context. This is a missed opportunity to expand the American perception of Latinos further than Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Additionally, the brief moment where a country like Argentina, Chile, or Uruguay is mentioned, is to perpetuate the American stereotype that these countries are full of white supremacists, something that as an Argentinian myself was deeply disappointing. The only testimony comes from people expressing euro-centric identities such as  “Argentines are Italians that believe they are French.”  This view of some South Americans deserves to be at the very least, presented in a more nuanced manner. 

"These interviews are a central aspect of the book’s research methodology".

Arana supports the historical lessons of the book both with her own narrative as a Latina immigrant alongside with testimonies from the more than two hundred people interviewed. These interviews are a central aspect of the book’s research methodology.

What should in theory only add to the quality of the book and support her efforts to further showcase the diverse and hard to pin-point reality of Latinos, at times can heavily slow down the passing of the book. Multiple testimonies are in practice, identical, offering little new information beyond what has been established. It doesn’t support the author's claims, it reads less like deliberate emphasis and more like unintentional repetition.

This gets more noticeable as the conclusion gets closer, the argument is stretched out for several pages. The best of these testimonies, though, feed the reader’s curiosity and complement Arana’s observations and arguments with real, dramatic experiences that bring you closer to the Latino experience. For example, the section about religion is vividly portrayed via direct quotes from faith leaders that target Latino communities for conversion.

Similarly, I also found the section on Cuban immigration compelling due to the incorporation of interviews by people that directly lived under the Castro regime and landed in the U.S as kids. 

Religion takes up a big chunk of the text, as the Latino identity has always been associated with strong ties to the Catholic Church, but this is where Arana begins to dismantle the idea of Latinos as a unified group. It becomes clear that similarities between Latinos are hard to pinpoint on almost all levels. It is no longer true (and maybe never was) that Latinos can be reduced to the Catholic, brown, Spanish-speaking mold. Protestantism has seen an exponential rise among Latinos not only in the U.S. but also in countries like Brazil; many third-generation Latinos speak only English; and ethnicity has proven to challenge the United States conception of race as simply Black and White.

"Latinoland excels when Marie Arana takes her time to analyze what is believed to be at the core of the Latino identity..."

At this point, the author’s knowledge of 19^th century independence leader Simon Bolívar becomes especially useful, as he was a man who strongly believed that the Spanish language and Catholic faith were the glue that united all Latinos across the continents from Mexico to Argentina. Arana had already published

Bolívar: American Liberator a decade before this one, and it is in these moments—when she

Marie Arana's Book Bolívar

brings him up—that she reveals a strong desire for something like that to be true: a unifying identity that could define what all Latinos have in common, which she later admits in the epilogue.

Latinoland excels when Marie Arana takes her time to analyze what is believed to be at the core of the Latino identity, a Brown, Catholic, Spanish speaker, debunking misconceptions and how the U.S. elites have portrayed a people that live throughout the whole continent of America. It is a good book for the people interested in starting to understand the not-at-all-easy-to-summarize experience of Latinos in the United States. While some of the latter parts of the book might feel repetitive and less interesting than those at the beginning, the author does an admirable job attempting to tackle all the aspects that are relevant to truly understanding what being Latino means. However, the book focuses on those Latinos that are more relevant for US citizens – Mexico, Central American and the Caribbean – spending very little time with those from around or below the equatorial line. The mix of academic insight, lived experience, and diverse voices make it appealing not only to scholars or Latino readers but also to anyone who wants to get closer to the reality of what it means to be Latino in the U.S. today.

Readers willing to embrace complexity, ambiguity, and contradiction will likely find Latinoland to be a valuable and thought-provoking read. It should be noted though, that this is still an introductory-level book on Latino identity, meaning that there isn’t much new to learn for those who consider themselves familiar with Latino history, and experts may be familiar with the arguments made.