Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation

Having studied the Spanish language in junior high school and high school and having close friends of various Latino ancestries, I thought I knew the Latino American history. Was I so wrong!In this book, Ray Suarez taught me invaluable insights about the United States of America, a nation that owes its birth to immigrants from the world over, and our brothers and sisters of Latin heritage. Mr. Suarez is right: when I was in high school, I learned about the great Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement; and even about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, but nothing about the tremendous contributions of the Puerto Ricans, Mexican immigrants and Americans of Mexican heritage.American politicians of all stripes, colors and genders should read this book because most of what they say publicly about Latino Americans reflect the shallowest of knowledge about American history and the vast and important contributions of Latinos then, now and our future. The rhetoric of American politicians who staunchly oppose Latino immigration exposes how utterly ill-conceived such rhetoric is. I hope this book, or a similar one, becomes required reading for American high school seniors and college freshmen.What I am certain is that Corporate America and overseas companies that import their goods and services to America need to understand and appreciate the history that Mr. Suarez teaches in this exceptionally well written book, which amazingly captures 500 years of AMERICAN history in 200 pages, albeit the focus is largely on Latino Americans!Mr. Suarez poignantly notes: "We Americans often forget history. That makes whatever happened today the best and the biggest and the worst . . . and the first." Since we now live in the instantaneous communications age, it is even more crucial that we all understand and appreciate the historical lessons captured so succinctly, objectively, honestly and elegantly in this book. Remember, we Americans are all either immigrants or children or great, great grandchildren of immigrants. Tragically, there are but only a few people who are indigenous in the United States of America!The criticism I have for this book is how it concludes. The first 5 of 6 chapters captivated and captured my attention and imagination and fed my insatiable need to learn. Honestly, the last chapter (6), entitled "Where Are We Going", held my attention only for about 10 pages, after which I simply flipped through the rest of this book. But by then, Mr. Suarez had already fulfilled the promises he made at the beginning of the book to me, as a reader. Mission accomplished! Going forward, let's hope we view and perceive Latino Americans the same way we view and perceive ourselves. We share our American destiny with them.

As a senior citizen American who was given a white-man-is-supreme dose of history in public school--Native Americans being "Indians" who took scalps of the "good" white guys--I knew so little about the real America. For the past many years I have lived in south Florida, in a county where 80% of the people speak Spanish as their native language. So this book, written by one of the NewsHour journalists, Ray Suarez, of Puerto Rican descent really interested me. I had no idea that Latinos have been here and part of our culture in ways that should have seemed more obvious.The book is very clear and filled with fascinating little pieces of information including the difficulties citizens of Puerto Rico, for example, had when their island became part of the United States after the Spanish-American War. They couldn't enter the mainland even though they were technically American citizens until one woman took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.And here's another, one that is somewhat personal for me. My 9th great grandfather, William Bradford, was the leader of the so-called first settlers, the Plymouth Colony ones. But well before 1620, St. Augustine, Florida, was settled by the Spanish and would remain a Spanish-speaking city well into the 19th century. The name Florida, of course, comes from the Spanish word for flowers: flora. So when Span-o-phobes (my term) speak about preserving English as the only language, they should be reminded that in Florida Spanish was spoken well before the English arrived to settle it. That is a little piece of history that, in my opinion, should be used more often when discussing immigration issues, for example.For a person who would like to learn more about this important element of American history, this is just the book for you. So readable. And by the way, PBS is doing a documentary series based on this book.It is just a wonderful book to read--and Mr. Suarez is a really good writer.

The title says it all: How Latinos became Americans (they were always Americans in Spanish, but not supposedly in the "American" (as in US) sense of the word.I LOVE this book (and I have not yet finished it) but I have learned so much already! Nuggets of information that I never even imagined and many of which happened not too far away from where I live. It is written in a manner that educates as well as entertains and makes one want to delve deeper. One fact that amazes me is that Isabel de Tolosa was the grand-daughter of Hernán Cortés and the great grand-daughter of Moctezuma, which demonstrates just how Cortés took advantage of the people he "conquered." A perfect example of the blend that is LatinoAmerica, like it or not.Get the book and the DVD of the PBS program and settle down to appreciate some facts that will blow your mind! I purchased both!

The Manifest Destiny game was to justify the wealthy white invasion of the American continents occupied by native explorers where givers, not takers, like Trump, the ultimate taker. It will take time and patience to brew the ultimate stew with its unique new flavors unknown by most today. It will be like creating a new DNA that moves humanity where all are created equal. This book has given me a new perspective and understanding what I need to do to really love unconditionally.

The book is well worth the purchase. It goes along nicely with the documentary.

Needed the book for a class, and it’s great! Only problem is, some of the pages didn’t print for chapter 5? Other than that, everything is fine.

Brings to light Many historical parallels and historical facts that provide a more complete history of how came to this moment in time.