Latin American and Latino Studies

Latino and Chicano Studies examines how people of Latin American descent living in the United States navigate questions of identity, belonging, and cultural continuity against the backdrop of colonialism, migration, and ongoing racial and gender dynamics. Scholars in this area draw on history, literature, anthropology, and sociology to understand how Latino communities form, transform, and assert themselves within American society — and how that process is shaped by forces that long predate any individual's arrival or birth. A central tension in the work concerns who gets to define Latino identity and on what terms, particularly as the category encompasses enormously diverse national origins, languages, and histories. Active research directions include tracing how colonial legacies persist in everyday cultural life, how gender and sexuality intersect with ethnic identity, and how recent migration patterns are reshaping community formation in regions with little prior Latino presence.

Works

127,405

Total citations

458,088

Keywords

LatinoChicanoIdentityCultureGenderColonialism