Latinos in the New South: Transformations of Place

Over the past decade, Hispanics/Latinos have emerged as one of the fastest growing ethnic populations in the traditional American South. In a region where cultural and class relations have for hundreds of years been constructed along black-white divides and there is only minimal experience with absorbing culturally or linguistically foreign immigrants, today a 'New South' is evolving. This book presents a contemporary and multi-disciplinary examination of the impacts and responses to Latino immigration into this region. Across these states which have been defined by their enduring biraciality, the rapid and large scale introduction of this community raises profound questions about the way in which new populations either force a rethinking of old precepts or lead to an entrenchment and extension of them. Drawing on theoretical perspectives as well as empirical research, it provides insights into the Latino experience in a range of state locales incorporating environments from rural to urban. Each chapter is centred around the nexus between the immigrant's experiences in adapting to the American South and the construction of new social, economic and political spaces.