Full name: Latino USA: A Cartoon History

Author: Ilan Stavans Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Graphic Novels, History, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780465082216 9780465082506 0465082211 0465082505

Latino USA represents the culmination of Ilan Stavans's lifelong determination to meet the challenges of capturing the joys, nuances, and multiple dimensions of Latino culture within the context of the English language. In this cartoon history of Latinos, Stavans seeks to combine the solemnity of so-called "serious literature" and history with the inherently theatrical and humorous nature of the comics. The range of topics includes Columbus, Manifest Destiny, the Alamo, William Carlos Williams, Desi Arnaz, West Side Story, Castro, Guevera, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Neruda, Garcia Marquez, the Mariel Boatlift, and Selena. Stavans represents Hispanic civilization as a fiesta of types, archetypes, and stereotypes. These "cliche figurines" include a toucan (displayed regularly in books by Garcia Marquez, Allende, and others), the beloved Latino comedian Cantinflas (known as "the Hispanic Charlie Chaplin"), a masked wrestler, and Captain America. These multiple, at times contradictory voices, each narrating various episodes of Latino history from a unique perspective, combine to create a carnivalesque rhythm, democratic and impartial. For, as Stavans states, "History, of course, is a kaleidoscope where nothing is absolute." Latino USA, like the history it so entertainingly relates, is a dazzling kaleidoscope of irreverence, wit, subversion, anarchy, politics, humanism, celebration, and serious and responsible history. Similar books: Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez The Murder of Abraham Lincoln by Rick Geary Tetris by Box Brown Divas, Dames & Daredevils by Mike Madrid Raid of No Return by Nathan Hale The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua Belonging by Nora Krug Moonbound by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling by Sabrina Jones The Unwanted by Don Brown Fax from Sarajevo by Joe Kubert The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone The Supergirls by Mike Madrid The League of Regrettable Superheroes by Jon Morris Letting It Go by Miriam Katin Dead Wake by Erik Larson The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson