Here is yet another fascinating book to want, on race and sugar, and there is an issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies I should get, and many articles from this journal are available from TANDF for free — at least, they are to me as an ERIP member.
I should send sent my Cecilia proposal, the one already sent to the symposium here, to this edited collection.
I am not convinced at all about this book. It makes the point that the U.S. has long been mixed, which is well taken — not new, but not the dominant story, as this author points out. But is he suggesting mixture creates equality (he does remark that he is not saying anything so simple)?
I am always suspicious of the mixture-creates-equality thesis because it looks down on the unmixed — the darker side of mestizaje — and because I fear it is cover for deculturation. Not to mention that I know mestizaje and racism coexist.
Americans seem not to know this, which is the major difference between them and me, it seems. They also think Vasconcelos is a largely unknown figure, whereas I consider him famous and canonical.
