Hispanas de Queens - (Anthropology of Contemporary Issues) by Milagros Ricourt & Ruby Danta (Hardcover)

About the Book

What happens when persons of several Latin American national groups reside in the same neighborhood-- Milagros Ricourt and Ruby Danta consider the stories of women of different nationalities--Colombian, Cuban, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Puerto...

Book Synopsis

What happens when persons of several Latin American national groups reside in the same neighborhood-- Milagros Ricourt and Ruby Danta consider the stories of women of different nationalities--Colombian, Cuban, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Uruguayan, and others--who live together in Corona, a working-class neighborhood in Queens. Corona has long been an arrival point for immigrants and is now made up predominantly of Spanish-speaking immigrants from the Caribbean and South and Central America, with smaller numbers from Asia, Africa, and Europe. There are also long-established populations of white Americans, mainly of Italian origin, and African Americans.The authors find that the new pan-Latin American community in Corona has emerged from the interactions of everyday living. Hispanas de Queens focuses on the places where women gather in Corona--bodegas, hospitals, schoolyards, and Roman Catholic and Protestant churches--to show how informal alliances arise from proximity.Ricourt and Danta document how a group of leaders, mainly women, consciously promoted this strong sense of community to build panethnic organizations and a Latino political voice. Hispanas de Queens shows how a new group identity--Hispanic or Latino--is formed without replacing an individual's identification as an immigrant from a particular country. Instead, an additional identity is created and can be mobilized by pan-Latino leaders and organizations.

Review Quotes

Hispanas de Queens documents a vibrant community among immigrants from various Latin American countries, especially the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Peru, and Ecuador.... Instead of lamenting the erasure of national by pan-ethnic identities, Ricourt and Danta propose that both can coexist and complement each other.

Hispanas de Queens is a welcome addition to our understandings of Latino pan-ethnic affiliation. The book's importance for Latino Studies lies in its recognition of the pivotal roles played by women in the local production of latinidades.... The book's positive claims about Latina centrality in the forging of new identificatory possibilities and organizational links are backed up by the generous excerpts from the personal testimonies of the women who were the subjects of the initial fieldwork. Indeed, by allowing space for the women of Corona to speak about their sense of place and dynamic community involvement, Hispanas de Queens provides a timely antidote to the critical legacies of the culture of violence and/or poverty theses.

I strongly recommend Hispanas de Queens. This book about Latino pan-ethnicity as an ongoing production among the grass roots is engaging and important.

Readable and well researched (much of it is based on Ricourt's own experience as a Dominican living in Corona), Hispanas makes the case for the political potency of conviviencia diaria, or 'daily-life interaction'.

Ricourt and Danta acknowledge that their study of Latino panethnicity in Corona may be a unique case, due to the degree of diversity in a relatively small geographic area. However, their study contributes an important set of factors that result in the development of a panethnic identity, making it possible to replicate their research in other communities.

About the Author

Milagros Ricourt is Assistant Professor in the Department of Latin American Studies at City University of New York. Ruby Danta has served as coordinator of the Translation Service Program at Queens College and Director of the Latin American Cultural Center of Queens.