The Price of Poverty: Money, Work, and Culture in the Mexican American Barrio (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520238893)

Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in two impoverished California communities-one made up of recent immigrants from Mexico, the other of U.S.-born Chicano citizens-this book provides an invaluable comparative perspective on Latino poverty in contemporary America. In northern California's high-tech Silicon Valley, author Daniel Dohan shows how recent immigrants get by on low-wage babysitting and dish-cleaning jobs. In the housing projects of Los Angeles, he documents how families and communities of U.S.-born Mexican Americans manage the social and economic dislocations of persistent poverty. Taking readers into worlds where public assistance, street crime, competition for low-wage jobs, and family, pride, and cross-cultural experiences intermingle, The Price of Poverty offers vivid portraits of everyday life in these Mexican American communities while addressing urgent policy questions such as: What accounts for joblessness? How can we make sense of crime in poor communities? Does welfare hurt or help?

Author: Dan Dohan
ISBN-10: 0520238893
ISBN-13: 9780520238893
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 12/01/2003
Pages: 295
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.79d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2004 pg. 193
Multicultural Review 12/01/2004 pg. 79