Established in 1970, the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin is a national leader in teaching, research, and publications in Chicano studies. Reflexiones, its annual review, highlights work in progress by scholars affiliated with the center. It may also include work by other authors and artists who have offered presentations sponsored by the center. Reflexiones 1999, the third volume in the series, invites us to consider the complex relationship between cultural identity, racial and ethnic politics, and the production of knowledge. Consistent with the rich tradition of Mexican American studies, the contributors to Reflexiones 1999 hail from a variety of disciplines. Almeida Jacqueline Toribio (linguistics) offers an analysis of Spanish-English code switching among U.S. Latinos. Douglas Foley (anthropology) reflects upon the political pressures of researching and writing an ethnography about the Raza Unida Party. Lisa J. Montoya (political science) examines the media's depiction of Latinos as a "sleeping giant" in U.S. electoral politics. Bárbara J. Robles (public affairs) analyzes the status of Latina scholars and graduate students in the academy. Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez (journalism) discusses the accomplishments and legacy of the pioneering Latino journalist Rubén Salazar. Other contributions include an evocative short story, "Es el agua," by Rolando Hinojosa and reproductions of a recent series of Liliana Wilson Grez's drawings and paintings.

This collection presents a rich, multidisciplinary inquiry into the role of religion in the Mexican American community. Breaking new ground by analyzing the influence of religion on Mexican American literature, art, activism, and popular culture, it makes the case for the establishment of Mexican American religious studies as a distinct, recognized field of scholarly inquiry. Scholars of religion, Latin American, and Chicano/a studies as well as of sociology, anthropology, and literary and performance studies, address several broad themes. Taking on questions of history and interpretation, they examine the origins of Mexican American religious studies and Mario Barrera’s theory of internal colonialism. In discussions of the utopian community founded by the preacher and activist Reies López Tijerina, César Chávez’s faith-based activism, and the Los Angeles-based Católicos Por La Raza movement of the late 1960s, other contributors focus on mystics and prophets. Still others illuminate popular Catholicism by looking at Our Lady of Guadalupe, home altars, and Los Pastores dramas (nativity plays) as vehicles for personal, social, and political empowerment. Turning to literature, contributors consider Gloria Anzaldúa’s view of the borderlands as a mystic vision and the ways that Chicana writers invoke religious symbols and rhetoric to articulate a moral vision highlighting social injustice. They investigate the role of healing, looking at it in relation to both the Latino Pentecostal movement and the practice of the curanderismo tradition in East Los Angeles. Delving into to popular culture, they reflect on Luis Valdez’s video drama La Pastorela: “The Shepherds’ Play,” the spirituality of Chicana art, and the religious overtones of the reverence for the slain Tejana music star Selena. This volume signals the vibrancy and diversity of the practices, arts, traditions, and spiritualities that reflect and inform Mexican American religion. Contributors: Rudy V. Busto, Davíd Carrasco, Socorro Castañeda-Liles, Gastón Espinosa, Richard R. Flores, Mario T. García, María Herrera-Sobek, Luís D. León, Ellen McCracken, Stephen R. Lloyd-Moffett, Laura E. Pérez, Roberto Lint Saragena, Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, Kay Turner

"Cristina Beltran's powerful book The Trouble with Unity is timely for our age of Obama in which an ugly anti-immigrant spirit looms large. Don't miss it!"---Cornel West, Princeton University --

MuVi4 is part of the Fifth International Congress “Synaesthesia: Science & Art” Palacio Abacial and Convento Capuchinos, Alcalá la Real, Jaén, Spain, 16-19th May 2015 Museo Casa de lo Tiros, Granada, 19-23th May 2015

The advent of the twenty-first century marks a significant moment in the history of Latinos in the United States. The “fourth wave” of immigration to America is primarily Latino, and the last decades of the twentieth century saw a significant increase in the number of Latino migrants, a diversification of the nations contributing to this migration, and an increase in the size of the native-born Latino population. A backlash against unauthorized immigration, which may indict all Latinos, is also underway. Understanding the growing Latino population, especially its immigrant dimensions, is therefore a key task for researchers in the social sciences and humanities. The contributors to Immigration and the Border address immigration and border politics and policies, focusing on the U.S. side of the border. The volume editors have arranged the essays into five sections. The two chapters in the first section set the stage and discuss the binational lives of Mexican migrants; chapters in the subsequent sections highlight specific political and policy themes: civic engagement, public policies, political reactions against immigrants, and immigrant leadership. Because the immigration experience encompasses many facets of political life and public policy, the varied perspectives of the contributors offer a mosaic that contextualizes the impact of and contributions by contemporary Latino immigrants. Their research will appeal not only to scholars but to policymakers and the public and will inform contentious debates about migration and migrants.

The first book solely devoted to Puerto Rican visability and cultural impact. The author looks as such pop icons as JLo and Ricky Martin as well as West Side Story.