New Books in Latino Studies

By Marshall PoeSociety & Culture History

New Books in Latino Studies episodes

September 30 Ilan Stavans on Building Restless Books and Publishing in Translation
How does an independent press survive by publishing the books the Big Five overlook? Amherst College professor and Spanglish scholar Ilan Stavans joins Sarah Russo to talk about Restless Books, the press he founded to champion immigrant writers, literature in translation, and the books that live between languages. Ilan shares the origin of Restless Books (including the investor who told him to take a finance course first), the creation of the Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature, and why he considers Spanglish one of the great creative forces in American English. Ilan and Sarah dig into the practical side of publishing in translation: finding the right translator, editing hybrid-language manuscripts, and navigating the politics around a single project. Ilan also offers advice for immigrant and early-career writers, and makes the case that small presses are doing some of the most important work in publishing today.
For more information on Ilan and Restless Books, please visit the website.
Books mentioned in this episode[1] :
“People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much,” by Sofi Stambo

“A Nation Wrestles with God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands,” edited by Ilan Stavans

“The People’s Tongue,” edited by Ilan Stavans

“Cecil the Lion Had to Die,” by Olena Stiazhkina, translated by Dominique Hoffmann

“Daniel and Ismail,” by Juan Pablo Iglesias and illustrated by Alex Peris

“Fictional Translations,” by Ilan Stavans

Also mentioned: Don Quixote, Frankenstein, and The Odyssey
Key Moments
2:02 - How a Midlife Crisis Turned Into a Publishing House 📚
Ilan's candid story of the investor who told him to take a finance course before he'd give him a dime.
5:31 - The $10,000 Bet That Became an 11-Year Literary Prize 🏆
How the Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature grew from a scrappy idea into a career-launching institution.
8:16 - Editing a 100-Voice Anthology on Faith in America ✝️
The Lilly Endowment project that brought Obama, Du Bois, Sontag, Ginsberg, Dickenson, Rushdie, and many others into one book.
11:15 - Why Spanglish Isn't a "Broken" Language 🗣️
Ilan on the creative, mestizo identity behind Spanglish, and why he believes there's no single version of it.
19:52 - The Trilingual Children's Book That Took 3 Years to Publish 🌍
Finding an Arabic and a Hebrew translator willing to share a byline was "sheer torture."
24:09 - His Best Advice for Immigrant and First-Time Writers ✍️
Why Ilan refuses to call anyone's English "broken," and what he tells writers drowning in drafts.
[1]not sure if you want to mention the classics he cites at the end: Don Quixote, Frankenstein, and The Odyssey (we sort of have a lot here already)

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30 min
September 12 Isabela Seong Leong Quintana, "Urban Borderlands: Multiracial Histories and Gendered Borders in Los Angeles" (UNC Press, 2026)
Los Angeles in the late nineteenth century was bustling with the rise of industrialization, but the growing labor force that propelled it, mostly consisting of Mexican and Chinese men, was met with exclusion policies and deportation campaigns. Nevertheless, Chinese and Mexican women, children, and men built vibrant residential and business districts—until they were all but eradicated in the 1930s. In her compelling and textured history, Urban Borderlands: Multiracial Histories and Gendered Borders in Los Angeles, Dr. Isabela Seong Leong Quintana unearths the entwined stories of Chinatown and Sonoratown through the everyday lives of their residents.
In this conversation, we talk about the significance of comparative Latinx and Asian American Studies, the importance of spatial analysis in urban history, and the methodological challenges of locating Mexican and Chinese women and children in the archives.
Dr. Quintana is an Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine, with affiliations in Culture & Theory and Chicané/Latiné Studies. Her work explores the interconnected histories of Asian Americans and Chicanés/Latinés, centering women and children within U.S. borderlands and recovering unarchived voices. Quintana also co-directs The Five Chinatowns Project at the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, a community-based research initiative documenting Chinese American Los Angeles through oral histories, archival creation, and youth mentorship. She is the author of Urban Borderlands: Multiracial Histories and Gendered Borders in Los Angeles (University of North Carolina Press, 2026).
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47 min
July 19 Gabriella Soto, "Border Afterlives: Migrant Deaths, Forensic Investigations, and the Politics of Haunting" (U Arizona Press, 2026)
Border Afterlives: Migrant Deaths, Forensic Investigations, and the Politics of Haunting (University of Arizona Press, 2026) begins
with the undocumented individuals who die crossing the U.S.-Mexico
border—deaths that are both preventable and politically produced. Moving
between the practical and the philosophical, forensic anthropologist
and author Gabriella Soto asks what it means to care for the dead and
what society owes to those who die in its name. Through the lens of
haunting, she explores how the dead continue to shape the living, not as
objects of horror but as moral agents whose presence demands justice.
Centered primarily in Arizona and South Texas, Border Afterlives
offers a border-scale comparative account of forensic practices,
critiques the limits of “best practices” in under-resourced systems, and
calls for a re-imagining of forensic humanitarianism grounded in
reciprocity and dignity, beyond human rights. This is a book that
insists on remembering the dead.
In this conversation, we discuss
the difficult interplay between federal immigration policy and local
practices of death care on the border, the implications of policies that
cause increased death tolls, the politics of humanitarian immigration
reform, and, finally, how allowing ourselves to be haunted by the slow
mass casualties of the border can and should inspire us to act.
Gabriella
Soto is a contemporary archaeologist who examines the material world to
understand pressing social issues. Integrating ethnographic methods,
GIS technology, and archival research, she specializes in migration
materialities, focusing on Latinx migration and security at the
US-Mexico border. Her work analyzes the material footprints of transit,
forensic death investigations, and security and humanitarian
infrastructure. An ACLS fellow whose work has also been funded by the
Wenner-Gren Foundation, Soto is a research affiliate at the Binational
Migration Institute and holds faculty affiliations at Arizona State
University’s School of Transborder Studies, School of Interdisciplinary
Forensics, and the Latinx Oral History Lab. Her research has appeared in
American Anthropologist and Political Geography, and her article on
migrant material culture won the American Anthropological Association’s
Gordon R. Willey Paper Prize. Dr. Soto is the author of Border
Afterlives: Migrant Deaths, Forensic Investigations, and the Politics of
Haunting (University of Arizona Press, 2026).
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1 hr 3 min
July 08 Becoming the System
In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick sits down with Dr. Nelson Flores to discuss his 2024 book entitled Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era, published by Oxford University Press.
In his book, Dr. Flores examines the ways that institutionalizing bilingual education in the post-Civil Rights Era in the United States has served to maintain rather than challenge racial hierarchies. He and Brynn discuss the lasting legacies of this institutionalization within neoliberal ideologies for Spanish-English bilingual education in the United States from the post WWII era to today.
For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here.
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49 min
June 26 Gina M. Pérez, "Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities" (NYU Press, 2024)
In her latest book, Sanctuary People: Faith Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities (NYU Press, 2024), Dr. Gina Perez explores sanctuary practices in Ohio, locating them in broader local and national efforts to provide refuge and care in the face of the challenges facing Latina/o communities in a moment of increased surveillance, migrant detention, displacement, and economic and social marginalization. Pérez argues for a conceptualization of sanctuary that is capacious, placing support of Puerto Ricans displaced in the wake of Hurricane Maria within the broader practices of sanctuary and expanding our understandings of the movement that addresses the precarious conditions of Latinas/os beyond migration status.
Based on four years of ethnographic research and interviews at the local, state, and national levels, Sanctuary People offers a compelling exploration of the ways in which faith communities are creating new activist strategies and enacting new forms of solidarity, working within the sometimes conflicting ideological space between religion and activism to answer the call of justice and live their faith.
Dr. Gina Perez is a cultural anthropologist and chair of the Department of Comparative American Studies at Oberlin College. She is the author of two award-winning books—The Near Northwest Side Story: Gender, Migration and Puerto Rican Families (2004, University of California Press) and Citizen, Student, Soldier: Latina/o Youth, JROTC and the American Dream (2015, New York University Press). Pérez's research interests include Latinas/os, youth, militarism, gender, migration, urban ethnography, and faith-based organizing. Her new project focuses on sanctuary movements and multiethnic faith-based organizing among Latina/o communities in Ohio.
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47 min
June 11 Sarah McNamara, "Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South" (UNC Press, 2023)
Decades before Miami became Havana USA, a wave of leftist, radical,
working-class women and men from prerevolutionary Cuba crossed the
Florida Straits, made Ybor City the global capital of the Cuban cigar
industry, and established the foundation of latinidad in the
Sunshine State. Located on the eastern edge of Tampa, Ybor City was a
neighborhood of cigar workers and Caribbean revolutionaries who sought
refuge against the shifting tides of international political turmoil
during the early half of the twentieth century.
In Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South
(University of North Carolina Press, 2023), Historian Sarah McNamara
tells the story of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas/os who organized
strikes, marched against fascism, and criticized U.S. foreign policy.
While many members of the immigrant generation maintained their
dedication to progressive ideals for years to come, those who came of
age in the wake of World War II distanced themselves from leftist
politics amidst the Red Scare and the wrecking ball of urban renewal.
This portrait of the political shifts that defined Ybor City highlights
the underexplored role of women’s leadership within movements for social
and economic justice as it illustrates how people, places, and politics
become who and what they are.
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1 hr 15 min
June 10Michael Staudenmaier, "White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago" (UNC Press, 2026)
Independent
historian Michael Staudenmaier joins Michael Stauch to discuss his new
book about “becoming Puerto Rican” in Chicago. Staudenmaier’s book, White, Black, Brown: Becoming Puerto Rican in Chicago (University of North Carolina Press, 2026), describes how generations of Puerto Rican organizers and activists,
facing persistent exploitation, discrimination, and marginalization in
the postwar United States, drew on competing versions of nationalism to
challenge the racial order in one of America’s most segregated cities.
Highlights include:
A description of the historical process of “becoming Puerto Rican” as a racial project;

How class differences between activists and ordinary Puerto Ricans shaped distinct experiences of “becoming Puerto Rican”;

How the gendered experience of migration led one woman to collaborate with the FBI;

The effect of the 1966 Division Street Riot on Puerto Rican identity;

The rise of “panethnic Latinidad” and its possible futures.
Michael Staudenmaier
is an independent historian and serves on the Board of Directors of Dr.
Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School in Chicago.
Michael Stauch is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025.
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55 min
May 24 Shane Breaux, "Reverberations of Culture: Racialized Performance in Early Twentieth-Century Musical Variety by Just a Buncha Clowns" (Routledge, 2026)
Reverberations of Culture: Racialized Performance in Early Twentieth-Century Musical Variety by Just a Buncha Clowns (Routledge, 2026) by Dr. Shane Breaux examines musical variety clowns and the broad array of racial and ethnic impersonations they performed on four distinct touring circuits and apparatuses: the African American Theatre Owners Booking Association (TOBA), the Chinese American so-called Chop Suey Circuit, the Mexican and Mexican American carpas tours, and Country American barn dances.
This book explores the overlooked history of touring clown performers in early twentieth-century musical variety shows, addressing both their historical marginalization and their significant impact on popular entertainment. By examining these performers' widespread presences both on and off stage, the work challenges traditional historical narratives that have excluded diverse voices, particularly women and non-white performers. The research corrects a common misconception that racial impersonation in musical variety was exclusively the domain of white male performers. Instead, it reveals how performers and managers from various backgrounds actively challenged prevailing ideas about American identity, whiteness, and cultural inclusion. Through this lens, the book demonstrates that musical comedy performance and management were not exclusively white privileges, but rather spaces where diverse artists contributed significantly to early twentieth-century entertainment culture and beyond.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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44 min
May 12 Rachel Grace Newman, "The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite" (U California Press, 2026)
The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite (U California Press, 2026), by Dr. Rachel Grace Newman is a deep history of the politics of foreign education in Mexico, where many influential figures have degrees from European or US institutions. Reconstructing the history of student mobility from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century, Dr. Newman unveils the social hierarchies, political languages, and institutional mechanisms that created Mexico’s foreign-educated elite.
Study abroad began as a private phenomenon for young elites to acquire specific forms of knowledge and to preserve their status. But after the 1910 revolution, elites gradually convinced the Mexican state, under the guise of modernizing the nation, to underwrite their ambitions with merit-based scholarships. Student mobility naturalized the expectation that Mexico’s sovereignty and development required knowledge from elsewhere. For historians of Mexico and other countries with foreign-educated elites, this open-access book reveals the subtle, insidious processes by which states reinforce privilege through education policy.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/latino-studies

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56 min
May 03 Arely M. Zimmerman, "Contentious Citizenship: Salvadoran Activism and Belonging Across Borders" (U Arizona Press, 2026)
Contentious Citizenship: Salvadoran Activism and Belonging Across Borders (U Arizona Press, 2026) reshapes how we understand belonging, identity, and political participation in the context of migration. Drawing on decades of Salvadoran activism from the 1980s solidarity movement to the post–civil war era, Arely M. Zimmerman offers a powerful ethnographic account of how migrants challenge exclusionary state practices and redefine citizenship on their own terms using transnational networks and revolutionary politics that transcend borders.
Drawing on nearly fifty interviews with activists who fled El Salvador, Zimmerman traces how political refugees carried with them strategies of resistance and community organizing that shaped social justice movements in the United States. The book addresses the political turmoil and grassroots mobilizations in El Salvador, the sanctuary movement of the 1980s, contemporary activism, and the impact of women’s strategies and forms of resistance.
Essential reading for scholars and students of migration, Central American studies, and political movements, Contentious Citizenship is a bold intervention into contemporary debates on identity, legality, and resistance. Zimmerman’s work honors the ingenuity and resilience of Salvadoran activists and invites readers to consider what it means to belong.
This interview was conducted by Mary Reynolds, publicity manager for the University of Arizona Press. Her book, The Quake That Drained the Desert (forthcoming in 2026) investigates the 1887 borderlands earthquake that changed surface water and groundwater in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.
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22 min

About New Books in Latino Studies

From the publisher's feed

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.