Customer Reviews

Café con leche: Race, Class, and National Image in Venezuela

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Being a native and also someone who has lived outside of the country, I can say that this book digs deep into the ambiguous relationship between class and race in Venezuela. Racism isn't an outright problem, classism is, but color does tend to relate to class, a way of thinking that is still inherited from colonial times. I just wish the book gave a closer look at modern times. Maybe one day there will be a sequell. A good book that must be read in the context of the country and realize that racism in North America cannot be used as a litmus test for racism else where since each region has its own heritage. If you read it with racism in the United States in mind, then you will miss the meaning and conclusions of the book. The book examines the almost forgotten but still unconsciously practiced bias that skin color plays in a Latin American society.

As a student soon to graduate with degrees in Spanish and Latin American Studies and as one who lived in the Dominican Republic for some time, this book is fascinating. It discusses the very serious and prevalent issues of identity, "race", and "racism", that exist in many parts of Latin America on some level. It is a perceptive and intelligent look at a very real topic that is usually not found in detail about places such as Venezuela, or Latin America in general for that matter. I found it to line up with all of my study regarding Latin America as well as my experiences in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. I learned from this book, and so will you.

I have had the opportunity to work in Venezuela for many years and what the author describes here is unaccurate. I have never seen or feel any kind of racism in that country. However, there exist a clasist separation. But, that is not even close to the racism that exists in USA.