Sueños Americanos Summary

Sueños Americanos Book Review

In Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities, Julio Cammarota studies Latina/o youth who live in El Pueblo, and talks about how Proposition 187, the anti-immigrant law, is affecting Latina/o youth in California (Cammarota, 2008, p. 3). In this book review, I will write about the two main points the author is trying to get across. The two main points I will be writing about are how Proposition 187 is affecting the Latina/o community, and about how Latina/o youth are copping in the El Pueblo barrio. Afterward I write about the two main points the author is trying to get across, I will write a brief description of the author and write about the author’s strengths and weaknesses.

How

Proposition 187 is Affecting the Latina/o Community
Many believe that Latinas/os “lack success in mainstream institutions” because they hold on to their old traditions and “resist assimilation” (Cammarota, 2008, p. 9). However, Cammarota argues against this theory, and states that California created hostile policies and laws, like Proposition 187, that hold back the Latina/o community (Cammarota, 2008, p. 9). Cammarota states that these aggressive policies and laws targeted and isolated the Latina/o community. Thus, created discrimination and hate toward the Latina/o community.
Cammarota states that these policies and laws were a result of a political economy that denies Latina/o families livable wages, confines them to low-wage jobs, and denies them educational opportunities (Cammarota, 2008, p. 10). Therefore, Latinas/os do not “lack success in mainstream institutions” because they hold on to their old traditions (Cammarota, 2008, p. 9). Latinas/os “lack success in mainstream institutions” because of the hostile policies and laws aimed towards the Latina/o community (Cammarota, 2008, p. 9).

How Latina/o Youth Cope in the El Pueblo Barrio
Cammarota studied Latina/o youth, who lived in the barrio, El Pueblo, located on the California coast (Cammarota, 2008, p. 4). Most of the Latina/o youth that he studied had parents who were first-generation immigrants, born in Mexico (Cammarota, 2008, p. 4). Cammarota’s main objective of this study was to find out how Latina/o youth coped with economic and political hostility (Cammarota, 2008, p. 4).
During this study, Cammarota found out that Latinas/os in El Pueblo were faced with an overwhelming amount of racism and discrimination. Cammarota wrote that after Proposition 187 was passed, there was an increase in police presence and harassment (Cammarota, 2008, p. 12). Cammarota states that the police “randomly and unreasonably pull over Latinas/os in their cars and check to verify that they have the appropriate documents” (Cammarota, 2008, p. 12). If they did not have their driver’s license with them, then the police would impound their car for thirty days (Cammarota, 2008, p. 13).
After Cammarota finished conducting his study, he found that young Latinas/os creatively drew “…from a variety of cultural resources and strategies to maintain their dignity and positive sense of self” (Cammarota, 2008, p. 13).
A Brief Description About the Author
According to the Iowa State University website, Dr. Julio Cammarota received his Ph. D. in Social and Cultural Studies in Education from the University of California in 2001 (Cammarota, 2014, p. 1). Afterwards, according to the article New Iowa State Professor gets Latino Students Excited about Education, Cammarota spent 13 years teaching at the University of Arizona (Campbell, 2015, p. 1). While he was there, he wrote his first book in 2008 called Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities. In Sueños Americanos, Cammarota wrote about the discrimination and injustice that the Latina/o youth faced in California.
However, a couple years after he published his first book, Arizona passed a bill banning Mexican American studies (Campbell, 2015, p. 1). As this controversial law was making headlines, Cammarota fought vigorously for the return of the Mexican American studies program. After intense scrutiny about the Arizona law, the case was sent back to the federal court to see if it was under violation of the Constitution (Campbell, 2015, p. 1).
Today, that case is still being looked at to see if the law is unconstitutional, but Cammarota remains hopeful that the law will be lifted. Now, Cammarota is “…an associate professor of multicultural education at Iowa State University” (Cammarota, 2014, p. 1). He is a researcher, who focuses mainly on Latina/o youth and social justice (Cammarota, 2014, p. 1). He also researches about different ways schools can improve education for the marginalized youth (Cammarota, 2014, p. 1).
How I Felt About the Author & This Book
As I was reading Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities, I could not believe that an anti- immigrant law, like California’s Proposition 187, was passed in the contemporary era, and that there was still so much racism and discrimination going on in the United States. I believe that one of Julio Cammarota’s strengths in this book was retelling the personal experiences of Latinas/os, who lived in El Pueblo.
For example, Cammarota interviewed Arturo Chavez, a resident in El Pueblo, about the increase in police harassment (Cammarota, 2008, p.

12). Then Cammarota retold Chavez’s story in his own words and made it come to life. That is why I believe that one of Cammarota’s biggest strengths in this book was retelling other people’s experiences.

After reading Sueños Americanos, I believe that Julio Cammarota is a great writer, who taught me something worthwhile. That being said, I could not find a weakness in his writing without being nitpicky. I thought he was an amazing writer, whose ideas were well developed and organized. Therefore, I do not believe he had any weakness in his writing.

All in all, Julio Cammarota was a great man, who was not afraid to question the law. He took a stand and wrote Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities, which was about how the Latina/o community delt with overwhelming racism and discrimination in California. Sueños Americanos not only gave a voice to the Latina/o community, but also encouraged more Latinas/os to go to school and get an education. Sueños Americanos is a wonderful book that tells how it is really like growing up in America being

Mexican.