Customer Reviews

Living in Spanglish: The Search for Latino Identity in America

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fascinating book that takes you on a journey into what it means to be Latino. While pointing out the many differences between Latinos and long-standing conflicts, Morales offers hope about the possibility of finding common ground. The book empowers Latinos by alllowing us to see how, historically, we have taken advantage of our mixed-race background, while painting a detailed picture about our presence in America for non-Latinos. The writing is first-rate--I highly recommend this book.

As a latino who has enjoyed occasional plays or songs that used Spanglish as a gimmick, I was curious to read this book that claimed that our entire culture should be re-labeled as Spanglish.

But within a few pages, I realized that the author engages in a self-congratulatory "deconstructionist" style designed to impress a) his writing professor in college, b) his less-educated peers, c) not sure whom? Frequent references to Jack Kerouac, Dubois and others seems more of a last-minute thought to fluff-out or "fatten" the book for press time.

I would not recommend this book for anyone needing to learn about the current Latino culture or our issues; a much better bargain is the free pdf download at Lulac.org website.

As a fellow writer of books on ethnicity, I became curious of other viewpoints. Since Latinos/Hispanics are a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, I felt a responsibility to examine some of the issues in the Latino community. I found many similarities between the Black and Latino communities when it comes to stereotypes and Race. 1. What do we call ourselves? 2. Stereotypical treatment in Hollywood. 3. Light skin vs. dark skin (Sammy Sosa) I just wish the book wasn't so long. I guess those who are interested in obscure history will love those parts. Thanks for opening my eyes to many things Ed Morales!!


Plain Talk - Volume 1

Ed Morales has done a wonderful job of helping the World understand the complexity and accomplishments of latinos. I love the chapter about Hollywood and pop music celebrities, and the stuff about California, Puerto Rico, and Cuba are hard-hitting and daring. This book rocks my world, and I hope to share it with my family and friends.

With the virtually simultaneous release of Rodriguez's Brown and Morales' Living in Spanglish one gets to see the virtues of Morales' urbane and grounded Latino odyssey compared to the self-indulgent vacuousness of Rodriguez's efforts to make Latinos acceptable to the American mainstream. Morales takes us into places where most don't normally see Latinos from the perspective of a generation forced to absorb a numbing sociocultural ambiguousness. Living in Spanglish is a refreshing tour of the current Latino moment he describes as "Spanglish." This is a book well worth reading.

Bought this book because I am the parent of a young man who is struggling to accept his dual identity as the son of a Mexican immigrant and a basic white American woman (me). He feels fully accepted by neither group, though we tried to give him pride in both halves. This book was so all-over-the-place that neither my son nor I could get through it. We are both avid readers and each came to the conclusion independently. The book is poorly written, poorly edited. There is no thesis, no cohesion, no development of thoughts or support for generalizations. I don't know why a publisher thought this was worth publishing, other than perhaps that this author has achieved some notoriety and that there is a market niche for Latino authors and subjects.

The author purports to know a lot about the diverse subcultures in the Spanish-speaking world. He knows zip about Mexicans. His exposure to Mexican culture seems to have been very brief, yet he feels he can make sweeping assessments about the people.

Just because something is in print does not make it valuable. Just because you "are" something does not mean you know anything worth sharing about the group you belong to. Anyone could have written this. I am sorry to have spent my hard-earned money on this book, and it is sad because there is a dearth of positive role models and credible, uplifting reading material for young Latino men and women in America.

Wait to check out the paperback from the library. Ed Morales' best writing was at the beginning of his career in the Village Voice, where he displayed a passion for writing. This book smacks of someone trying to stay relevant in a desperate fashion akin to a Crackhead looking for rock in the gutter.