Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration Is Transforming America

I first read STRANGERS AMONG US: LATINO LIVES IN A CHANGING AMERICA, by Roberto Suro, as a college student in a Chicano Studies course. Though, our class had "Chicano" in the title, it wasn't completely centered specifically on the Chicano/Mexican American experience. We also took a wider look at the experience of Latin Americans, in general. Writer Roberto Suro, the American-born son of Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican parents, brings insight and sensitivity to the plight of Latinos immigrants (be they South or Central American, Mexican or Caribbean). Keep in mind that this book was written prior to 9/11, and Suro's take on the xenophobic attitude toward immigrants doesn't examine our terrorism-infused view of foreigners, in the United States (and throughout the globe). I do believe that this book still remains very insightful and engaging, because Suro is a very good writer because he is inclusive toward readers who aren't familiar with the various plights resting on the heads of Latinos (particularly, the young, under age eighteen crowd who feel the pressure of gang violence, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and an epidemic of youth dropping out of high school). I definitely reccomend this!

Mr. Suro went beyond the statistics and the fear to provide an objective and humanistic view on the problem of immigration. I strongly recommend this book if you want to hear the other side of the story.

This is an excellent book, in a journalistic style but extremely sensitive and not sensationalist, about the life and struggles of most of immigrants from Latin America. It also gives a realistic vision of the changing demographics of the US and how this immigration will shape positively or negatively the future of the country depending on how the Government and the society deals with it in terms of education and equal opportunities to get through and succeed and reach the American dream. A great book for everybody: those who are trying to discover the Latino culture and conflicts and also those who have a Latino heritage and are trying to go to their roots to understand their communities, their parents and themselves better. I recommend this book to everyone.

One of the great drawbacks of a lot of contemporary American social science is that you never hear/see/touch any of the real people who make up the aggregated statistics. A skillful journalist and story-teller like Suro shines a light on the stats. It's the only way to understand how that dry abstract thing called "policy" is experienced by living people. Whether you are generally sympathetic to an open door immigration policy, or hostile to it, you'll find plenty that is informative, provocative, enlightening and moving in this book.

I picked up this book to help develop my "big picture" of the huge influx of Latino immigrants during the past couple of decades. Mr. Suro certainly delivers an enlightening account, but what I didn't expect was that the smaller, very real portraits Suro conveys are deeply moving, personalizing the Latin diaspora in a manner that can ideally help bring the currently-politicized public forum on the issues into more accurate, more humane focus. This is as much an intriguing page-turner as it is an outstanding reference book.