National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226703596)

In this book, Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas explores how Puerto Ricans in Chicago construct and perform nationalism. Contrary to characterizations of nationalism as a primarily unifying force, Ramos-Zayas finds that it actually provides the vocabulary to highlight distinctions along class, gender, racial, and generational lines among Puerto Ricans, as well as between Puerto Ricans and other Latino, black, and white populations.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, Ramos-Zayas shows how the performance of Puerto Rican nationalism in Chicago serves as a critique of social inequality, colonialism, and imperialism, allowing barrio residents and others to challenge the notion that upward social mobility is equally available to all Americans-or all Puerto Ricans. Paradoxically, however, these activists' efforts also promote upward social mobility, overturning previous notions that resentment and marginalization are the main results of nationalist strategies.

Ramos-Zayas's groundbreaking work allows her here to offer one of the most original and complex analyses of contemporary nationalism and Latino identity in the United States.

Author: Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas
ISBN-10: 0226703592
ISBN-13: 9780226703596
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 07/15/2003
Pages: 303
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.91lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.00w x 0.66d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2004 pg. 1558