Latino USA: A Cartoon History [Hardcover]

Ilan Stavans (Author), Lalo Alcaraz (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2000

Latino USA represents the culmination of Ilan Stavans's lifelong determination to meet the challenges of capturing the joys, nuances, and multiple dimensions of Latino culture within the context of the English language. In this cartoon history of Latinos, Stavans seeks to combine the solemnity of so-called "serious literature" and history with the inherently theatrical and humorous nature of the comics. The range of topics includes Columbus, Manifest Destiny, the Alamo, William Carlos Williams, Desi Arnaz, West Side Story, Castro, Guevera, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Neruda, García Márquez, the Mariel Boatlift, and Selena. Stavans represents Hispanic civilization as a fiesta of types, archetypes, and stereotypes. These "cliché figurines" include a toucan (displayed regularly in books by García Márquez, Allende, and others), the beloved Latino comedian Cantinflas (known as "the Hispanic Charlie Chaplin"), a masked wrestler, and Captain America. These multiple, at times contradictory voices, each narrating various episodes of Latino history from a unique perspective, combine to create a carnivalesque rhythm, democratic and impartial. For, as Stavans states, "History, of course, is a kaleidoscope where nothing is absolute." Latino USA, like the history it so entertainingly relates, is a dazzling kaleidoscope of irreverence, wit, subversion, anarchy, politics, humanism, celebration, and serious and responsible history.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If it's a comic book, then it can't be a work of serious scholarship, right? Wrong. Ilan Stavans, a literary scholar and cultural historian, teams up with Chicano artist Lalo Alcaraz to craft an endlessly entertaining but painstakingly researched history of Latinos--also called Latin Americans and Hispanics, and taking in peoples from all over the Spanish-speaking world--in the United States. Stavans's text covers the ground from avocados to zoot suits, touching on such matters as the Puerto Rican independence movement, the Mexican American War, the Marielito flotilla, and the ongoing struggle for civil rights throughout the hemisphere.

Stavans has great fun, it's clear, twitting received wisdom. He observes, for instance, that Mexico's "Niños Heroes" may be an invention of folklore, and wryly remarks that "nationalism turns egotism into an ideology." Alcaraz has just as much fun, subversively borrowing stock figures such as the toucan (a symbol in much Latin American literature) and the skeleton to serve as a kind of ironic Greek chorus. But author and illustrator also fulfill an earnestly undertaken mission: namely, in Stavans's words, to "represent Hispanic civilization as a fiesta of types, archetypes, and stereotypes" and to tell its story from many points of view. In this they succeed admirably, and Latino U.S.A. is required reading for anyone interested in democratic, inclusive historical writing. --Gregory McNamee

Review

". . . Latino's kaleidoscopic perspective bubbles with an irreverent mix of Latin politics, wit, self-reference and sincerity." -- San Antonio Express-News [September 1, 2000]

". . . an amusing comic book that outlines the salient features of U.S. Latino history." -- Houston Chronicle [November 1, 2000]

"....a cartoon history for everyone: ...witty and inviting." -- Kirkus Reviews [October 1, 2000]

"Latino USA explores these and similarly serious questions in entertaining cartoon form." -- Austin American-Statesman [October 30,

"Read this primer if you don't want to be left out." -- The

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 16 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First Edition. states edition (September 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465082211
• ISBN-13: 978-0465082216
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #749,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new way to see..., November 23, 2000

By 

"hsgfrombc" (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Latino USA: A Cartoon History (Hardcover)

Deliciously left wing, and direct and powerful, Ilan Stavans is not afraid to stand and be counted and he knows that you might not like what he has to say. And what he has to say is " Look here. This is good. This is powerful."

He reaches out to inform -- and celebrate the culture-- with authority and panache. He speaks the truth about the oppressed and the oppressor and his book pulls no punches in a direct attack on any hint of a poor Latino self-image. No time for pity here because the time for ascendance is coming.

This book is a necessary shakeup. It's a primer, albeit uneven at times, to folks outside the Latino community and a step in reaching out to those who don't know the truth of their (varied) civilizations.

Rich and potent, this opinionated polemic stands out as a tool to understanding and pride.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A great idea destroyed (as many are) by academe, September 7, 2000

By 

sam lopez (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Latino USA: A Cartoon History (Hardcover)

My joy at hearing about a cartoon history of Latinos (not, you may notice, Latinas or even Latina/os) illustrated by Lalo Alcaraz was tempered only slightly by hearing the editor (not, I'm sorry Mr Stavans, the author) was self-styled Mexican kitsch authority Ilan Stavans. "A possible resource for teaching!" I thought. Reading the book, however, was such a great disappointment that I doubt it's going to make the cut for the classroom.

Without denigrating at all Lalo Alcaraz' art, the book fails on several levels, not the least of which is originality. The first question I asked myself was "Who was this written for?" The introduction to what could have been a revolutionary book seems to veer between being too clever for its own good and winking in the direction of academics, intimating somehow that "comics" are a kind of Latino cultural icon that is kitschy and therefore useful for transmitting ideas. Stavans hasn't done much work on cartoons or comics, or the notion that cartoonish comic art is more (or less) appropriate to represent Latino history would have been more informed. Alcaraz' talent rises above this rather mediocre beginning and keeps the reader amused, even while Stavans (as a cartoon Mini-Me) keeps popping up exclaiming the inevitability of historical bias, insisting on the futility of "truth" in history, and generally sounding defensive. Instead of acknowledging the real social and cultural impact of how history has been and gets transmitted, Stavans seems to want to exist in an academic, vague vacuum, which he may believe protects him or makes him appear to be unbiased-- it does neither. Even some of us academics know that.

More troubling, and the key to a two-star review of this text, the book cribs horribly its history from better texts, the most particular offenses being those against the Elizabeth Martinez-edited "500 Years of Chicano History". Several images (MANY images) are culled from that fine picture/word text-- somewhat surprisingly, since Alcaraz has talent galore. Martinez' book, far more complex in its use of images and commentary, should be read before this cartoon history. Also at stake is Stavans' perception of historical importance. We know from the text he loves Richard Rodriguez, but when we finally get to the real (non-idealized) Latinas, we get a few of them drawn on one page, and a digression all too brief of their importance. In what way was this book supposed to educate, inform, or revolutionize when it remakes history in the pattern of most history books before it? Reread Acuna's "Occupied America" and "500 Years" if you'd like to see history-as-usual turned on its head.

A book which perhaps would have been better if left to Alcaraz alone, Latino USA trips over itself and its editor's need to academize and, ironically, oversimplify in trying for an audience (ANY audience). Next time, aim for the Academy, Mr. Stavans-- it deserves the hit better than Latinas and Latinos who are still looking for the past to make sense of the present and prepare for the future. Meanwhile, I'll keep reading L.A. Cucaracha.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars El Profe Y La Cucaracha, October 11, 2003

By 

Bruce Crocker "agnostictrickster" (Whittier, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Latino USA: A Cartoon History (Hardcover)

Ilan Stavans studies and teaches Latino and Latin American culture and most recently authored Spanglish: The Making Of A New American Language. Lalo Alcaraz reaches the public on a daily basis through his most excellent comic strip La Cucaracha. Together they have joined to take the reader on a trip through Latino USA: A Cartoon History. Biting and sweet, biased and fair, incomplete but thorough, Latino USA is a good way to introduce yourself to the history of the majority minority in the United States. The scholarship is tight and Alcaraz's art makes it go down easy. I can't wait to get my copy into the school library, where I hope some of my not very cosmopolitan anglo students and not as self-aware as they could be latino students get pulled in by the drawings and learn a little history. I highly recommend this book!