South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A.
Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Manuel PastorRace, place, and identity in a changing urban America
Over the last five decades, South Los Angeles has undergone a remarkable demographic transition. InSouth Central Dreams, eminent scholars Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Manuel Pastor follow its transformation from a historically Black neighborhood into a predominantly Latino one, providing a fresh, inside look at the fascinating―and constantly changing―relationships between these two racial and ethnic groups in California.
Drawing on almost two hundred interviews and statistical data, Hondagneu-Sotelo and Pastor explore the experiences of first- and second-generation Latino residents, their long-time Black neighbors, and local civic leaders seeking to build coalitions. Acknowledging early tensions between Black and Brown communities. they show how Latino immigrants settled into a new country and a new neighborhood, finding various ways to co-exist, cooperate, and, most recently, demonstrate Black-Brown solidarity at a time when both racial and ethnic communities have come under threat.
Hondagneu-Sotelo and Pastor show how Latino and Black residents have practiced, and adapted innovative strategies of belonging in a historically Black context, ultimately crafting a new route to place-based identity and political representation.South Central Dreamsilluminates how racial and ethnic demographic shifts―as well as the search for identity and belonging―are dramatically shaping American cities and neighborhoods around the country.