Sweeping in scope, Health Issues in the Latino Community identifies and offers an in-depth examination of the most critical health issues that affect Latino's health and health care within the United States. This resource offers a comprehensive approach that informs and promotes the advancement of the practice, program planning, research, and public policy to improve health care of all Latino citizens.

Latinos and the health care system; life cycle and family health issues; patterns of chronic diseases; health in the work envirnoment; alcohol, drugs and mental health issues.

Latinos are the fastest growing and largest minority group in the United States. In 2008, this group numbered over 47 million; by 2050, the population is expected to triple, reaching 133 million. Traditionally, Latinos have immigrated to large urban centers (e.g., New York, Los Angeles) that over long periods of time developed a complex infrastructure to receive new immigrants. Increasingly, new Spanish-speaking immigrants are moving into areas of the country previously unfamiliar to them. Although urban co-ethnic communities continue to be the destination of many newcomers, immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America in pursuit of low-skilled labor opportunities are settling in small towns and rural areas of the South and Midwest. This new demographic trend has resulted in the creation of the term "new growth communities," which refers to small rural areas that are now home to a small but rapidly growing Hispanic population. Unfortunately, these communities, which are now present in many states across the country (e.g., Illinois, North Carolina), lack the infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of Latino immigrants (e.g., access to health care, immigration assistance, and breaking down language barriers). The lack of an infrastructure and the lack of an established ethnic community to facilitate the assimilation of new immigrants present an ongoing challenge, especially in the area of Latino mental health. The volume focuses on dealing with systemic issues and on providing innovative ideas for development of infrastructure of services. This text will advance ways to understand and ameliorate mental health disparities both from research and experiential perspectives.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR An NPR Best Book of the Year, exploring the impact of Latinos’ new collective racial identity on the way Americans understand race, with a new afterword by the author Who are Latinos and where do they fit in America’s racial order? In this “timely and important examination of Latinx identity” (Ms.), Laura E. Gómez, a leading critical race scholar, argues that it is only recently that Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Central Americans, and others are seeing themselves (and being seen by others) under the banner of a cohesive racial identity. And the catalyst for this emergent identity, she argues, has been the ferocity of anti-Latino racism. In what Booklist calls “an incisive study of history, complex interrogation of racial construction, and sophisticated legal argument,” Gómez “packs a knockout punch” (Publishers Weekly), illuminating for readers the fascinating race-making, unmaking, and re-making processes that Latinos have undergone over time, indelibly changing the way race functions in this country. Building on the “insightful and well-researched” (Kirkus Reviews) material of the original, the paperback features a new afterword in which the author analyzes results of the 2020 Census, providing brilliant, timely insight about how Latinos have come to self-identify.