This book offers a historical and comparative overview of the evolution of racial classifications in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The Hispanicization of America is precipitating a paradigm shift in racial thinking in which race is no longer defined by distinct characteristics but rather is becoming synonymous with ethnic/cultural identity.
Traditionally, assimilation has been conceived of as a unidirectional and racialized phenomenon. Newly arrived immigrant groups or longstanding minority/indigenous populations were "Americanized" in confining their racial and ethnic natures to the private sphere and adopting, in the public sphere, the cultural mores, norms, and values of the dominant cultural/racial group. In contrast, the Hispanicization of America entails the horizontal assimilation of various groups from Spanish-speaking countries throughout the Western Hemisphere and Caribbean into a pan-ethnic, Hispanic/Latino identity that also challenges the privileged position of whiteness as the primary and exclusive referent for American identity.
Instead of focusing on one Hispanic group, ethnic identity, or region, this book chronicles the development of racial identity across the largest Hispanic groups throughout the United States.

Patricia Reid-Merritt is Distinguished Professor of Social Work and Africana Studies at Stockton University, in Galloway, New Jersey.

Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 From Whence We Come?
Chapter 3 Mexican Americans and Ethno-Racial Identity
Chapter 4 Puerto Rico: "También Somos Americanos"
Chapter 5 Cuban Americano
Chapter 6 Dominican and American
Chapter 7 Costa Ricans and Racial Exceptionalism
Chapter 8 Ethno-Racial Identity and the Colombian Experience of Mestizaje
Chapter 9 Guatemalan Americans
Chapter 10 Race, Ethnicity, and the Future of Hispanic Identity
Bibliography
Index