Latinos and the U.S. South

In the last ten years, the growing Latino population in the United States has been attracting a great deal of attention that has focused on the social, political, economic, cultural, and linguistic transformations that communities across the country are undergoing due to the influx of Latin American immigrants. Particularly affected by these recent arrivals have been towns and cities that have been traditionally unaccustomed to significant numbers of foreign nationals in their area. Latinos and the U.S. South delves into the commonalities and dissimilarities between the varieties of Latino and U.S. Southern cultures, proposing that the manner in which these areas adapt to the challenges posed by the arrival of these most recent Hispanic residents heralds the present and future conduct of other communities receiving nontraditional Latino immigration in the United States today.

Through an analysis that incorporates historical research, existing legislation, and economic trends and statistics, and explores U.S. Southern and Latin American literatures, religious customs, the construction of a U.S. Southern identity, current events such as Hurricane Katrina, present tensions, and personal experience, Latinos and the U.S. South offers a window into how Latinos are adapting to an emblematic yet often overlooked region of the United States and the possible parallels between the two.

José María Mantero is Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages at Xavier University. He has published a monograph on the Argentinean writer Marta Traba, La voz política de Marta Traba (1995), an anthology of recent Nicaraguan poetry, Neuvos poetas de Nicaragua (Antología) (2004), and numerous journal articles on Latin American literature that center on the creation of a national identity through poetry and autobiographical texts such as testimonials or memoirs. He has presented at conferences in the United States, Spain, Nicaragua, Panama, Belize, and Guatemala, and currently continues to research Spanish and Latin American literature, particularly texts that have contributed to the mythification and the formation of a national identity.