Customer Reviews

Everything You Need to Know About Latino History: 2003 Edition

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Though this lively, pithy primer on Latino History does not quite live up to its title (that would take many volumes), Novas does offer enough history and commentary to educate and, hopefully, encourage the reader to search out more books on Latinos (her "Selected Readings" at the end of the book will help towards this latter goal). Novas correctly notes through chapter topics that Latinos are not monolithic but, rather, are made up of numerous cultures each with different dialects, foods, music, politics, history, etc. She answers such questions as what's a bracero, who was Cesar Chavez, what are mariachis, and offers interesting, straight-forward answers. As a Chicano, I learned much about other Latinos (and a little about my own culture). This is an enjoyable and educational book.

The book on Latino history is not bad, but it is nothing special. She has simply re-written the work of her researchers. So yes, it's a good primer, but it is rather glib (After all, Novas wrote an article about sightings of Tejano singing star Selena's ghost for The National Enquirer. That doesn't do much to boost her credibility as an historian.) Advice to knowledge seekers: this is educational junkfood. Get a textbook.

I bought this book back in September of 2002 and perused it lightly, but I never read it through. Now that I have taken a course on Latin American History at UNC-CH, I must say that this book is completely useless as a historical source.

My major problem with Novas' novel is the fact that nine out of ten entries contain some relevance to the United States. Apparently nothing happened in Mexico without some direct causation from the United States. I'm not denying the fact that the EEUU played a role in Mexican History, but Novas overemphasizes every single link the two have shared since the two cultures first met.

Morever, she hardly does the job of covering Latin American History in the first place. Apparently, the radical and incredibly important Mexican Revolution of the 1910's can all be explained within a few paragraphs. The secession from Díaz all the way to the Constitutionalist takeover is convered in 3 sentences. Novas doesn't even attempt to explain the peasant situation of Mexico that precipitated the war, which is carefully tied to the motives of Villa and Zapata. (They didn't want power, they simply wanted land). This is just one example (of many) of Novas' shotty attempts to be a historian.

I would not advise buying this book under any circumstances. If you are truly interested in a primer, I recommend the considerably better written "Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America".

At first, I was excited about reading this book. I figured it would be a great way to get a general overview of Latino history. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. While Novas did cover a variety of topics, I found that MANY words throughout the book were not spelled correctly and there were quite a few "facts" that were just not true. For instance, the music group, Menudo, is NOT Mexican American---they hail from Puerto Rico. I would DEFINITELY not recommend this book to anyone. Latino history deserves more respect and should be presented accurately, especially since many times it is a subject that has virtually been ignored.

This book is an excellent opportunity to learn about major aspects of the Latino community and their culture. It is a must read for bilingual teachers, and every person who considers themselves Latino.

Santa Fe, New Mexico has a strong hispanic heritage dating back to the Conquistadores. The area has become a magnet for other Hispanics from other areas. As a psychotherapist, I work with native New Mexicans, Puerto Rican, Mexican and people from other countries of origin. This book is extremely helpful in describing the historical and cultural details that can influence the individuality of each person. It is also excellent reading. Very informative and well written.

I taught in an Arts Focus, Multiage, Spanish-Immersion school for fifteen years. I read Latino History AFTER I retired. It would have been an exceptional companion to Lies My Teacher Told Me and work by Howard Zinn. Having realized how much fiction we teach in the name of fact, we began to research what we were teaching and to teach the truth, despite the curriculum. I wish I had had Himilce Novas's Latina History as a resource then...

I can't imagine that the title of Himilce Novas' book, Everything You Need to Know About Latino History is to be taken quite as seriously as some impassioned detractors suggest. Myself, being a Latino culture studies novice, Novas offers exactly what I need to get me started with substance, nuance, humor, passion and debth. She has written an extreemly informative and frankly handy guide, that does not overwhelm but fills the blanks in nicely and makes individual and universal connections which create a very good read. It is safe to say that Latino History concerning "all you need to know' must be an infinit research. Novas knows this; her distillation is remarkable, intelligent and clear. For us, the readers, the embrace of the various Latino cultures only begins here. And finally for me, her opinion (being Latino) is a most welcome fleshing out of what could be, authored by another, just a Latino almanac. Brava!

This book has it all--it covers a very broad range of histories within the umbrella of Latino History, as Latinos from different parts of the Americas have their own individual histories in this country. Politics, celebrities, music, food, opression, victories, leaders, immigrant issues...everything is covered by author Himilce Novas, whose other books, both fiction and non-fiction, I also recommend. The book is in a quick and easy to read question and answer format--but be not deceived: The information in it is accurate and extremely well researched. If a book can be both popular and mass market and yet scholarly, this is it.

The difference between the title and the content accounts for the low rating. I would be less disappointed in this book if it had been titled "A Primer on Latino History", or "Latino History for Dummies" or "The Least You Need to Know about Latinos in the United States".

This book was assigned for my 8th grade daughter's humanities class, which uses the vehicle of the history of Latin America to explore world culture. It is appropriate for 8th grade readers--the language is simple, and the question-anwer format is a useful way for young students of history to grasp and organize a lot of data. However, the format gets repetitive and therefore boring after a while. The appropriateness of the book for middle school readers should give you a clue to the intellectual rigor and thoroughness with which the author covers the topic.

Four of the more useful features of the book are: the author makes it plain that Latino culture is not monolithic; the author addresses the strains between various self-identified groups (say, Mexican-Americans and Cuban-Americans); and the many lists of high-achieving people of Latino ancestry, in many different fields; and the bibliography at the end.

For the reader who has no grasp of the relations between the United States and the Spanish-speaking world, this is a good primer or place to start. It is by no means "Everything You Need to Know".