Customer Reviews

Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law, and the American Imagination (Critical America (New York University Paperback))

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A breath-taking study of the effect of stereotypeson the Anglo mindset of Latino/as.Thank you very much. I am
focusing a law review article on the effect of humor, parody and satire as told by Latino comedians on the proliferation of negative Latino stereotypes.

Your work was extremely helpful in putting the entire project and process into perspective. An outstanding academic study of a very serious subject. Both thought provoking and well researched

I have already read this book and I highly recommend it. This is an incredibly important book in this era when Latinas/os in general and Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants in particular are portrayed as an invading underclass that threatens the mythological "homogeneous" American society.

Bender debunks this mythology by pointing out that Latinas/os have been in what is today the United States from the earliest moments of the republic, and by presenting a well-researched and through portrayal of the misrepresentation of Latinas/os in American mass-media popular culture. He also identifies the long multicultural history of the United States, and how Latinas/os belong in and positively contribute to this varied cultural mosaic. His careful, thorough and occasionally painful analysis of the stereotypes about Latinas/os that are prevalent in American popular culture are important reminders that the struggle for equality is an ongoing process.

As Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol, a colleague of mine at the University of Florida, wrote in a review of this book: "(Bender) proposes a multi-dimensional attack on the propagation of stereotypes by using law and litigation, voluntary industry standards and hiring practices, counter speech, and community-based protest as its tools...He beautifully and lovingly juxtaposes the ever-important familia as a countervailing force to the negative stereotyping propounded by the media ..." Bender uses the counter-narrative of his strong Mexican-American family upbringing to illustrate the importance of engaging negative stereotypes with positive personal and community examples.

Although he is a fellow law professor, Bender has avoided unnecessary jargon to write an eminently accessible book that will make powerful and enlightening reading for any well-educated person.