Perhaps it’s because we have a new Spanish teacher who has asked us to
acquire some new titles in her field. But for whatever reason we’ve been busy updating our collection in the distinct but overlapping areas of Latin American Studies, immigration policy, and globalization. Here are capsule reviews of a few of our recent acquisitions.
Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, Oxford University Press, 4th edition (F
ebruary, 2010). This highly regarded survey, revised and updated for 2010, examines Cuba’s political and economic development relative to its international relations and struggles for self-determination. Included are the latest research findings on Cuba’s internal situation as well as a fully revised and updated political chronology.
Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Immigration, 
Wiley (April, 2010). The author argues that immigration is not just an American issue. It is a global issue, too complex to be fully understood in solely legal terms. The corporate imperative for cheap labor and the human imperative to seek better economic opportunities are the rightful starting points for understanding this complex issue.
African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean, Oxford University 
Press, 2nd edition, (September, 2007). This title is an in-depth examination of the economic and social history of African slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. The focus of the book is on the Portuguese, Spanish, and French-speaking regions of continental America and the Caribbean.
Illegal: Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone, Lyons
Press (2010).
From the book jacket: “Arizona’s violent border is the busiest gateway for illegal immigration in America….No state is as hostile to the undocumented, and no city as unwelcoming as Phoenix. By profiling these undocumented people…the author exposes the dangerously tattered fabric of a divisive national crisis.”
A Nation
by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America, Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press (2006). This book offers a history of American immigration policies and the political and social factors that produced them. With rich detail and scholarship, the authors shows how America has struggled to shape the immigration process to construct the kind of population it desires.
Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields, Nation Books, 2010. From the book jacket:
“Bowden (the author) uses his tremendous talents to tell a haunting, darkly poetic story of a city’s horrifying descent into madness and anarchy.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Crawling with ghosts and demons, dripping blood, howling with rage and terror….Forget Baghdad, forget Kandahar: Hell is only 50 yards from your back porch.” — Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil’s Highway
Recent acquisitions not featured here include:
Latin American Art of the 20th Century
Latin American Art: Ancient to Modern
Handbook to Life in the Aztec World
Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People’s History of Mexico
The History of Mexico: From Pre-Conquest to Present
The Oxford History of Mexico
Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juarez
Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants
The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History
Illegals: The Unacceptable Cost of America’s Failure to Control Its Borders
