This Land Is Our Land: Immigrants and Power in Miami

by Alex Stepick, Guillermo Grenier, Max Castro

For those opposed to immigration, Miami is a nightmare. Miami is the de facto capital of Latin America; it is a city where immigrants dominate, Spanish is ubiquitous, and Denny's is an ethnic restaurant. Are Miami's immigrants representative of a trend that is undermining American culture and identity?

Drawing from in-depth fieldwork in the city and looking closely at recent events such as the Elián González case, This Land Is Our Land examines interactions between immigrants and established Americans in Miami to address fundamental questions of American identity and multiculturalism. Rather than focusing on questions of assimilation, as many other studies have, this book concentrates on interethnic relations to provide an entirely new perspective on the changes wrought by immigration in the United States. A balanced analysis of Miami's evolution over the last forty years, This Land Is Our Land is also a powerful demonstration that immigration in America is not simply an "us versus them" phenomenon.

196 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Ellie Botoman · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - Interesting premise, however I did find that a lot of the book was very repetitive in the points it was trying to convey about immigration. While I understand why the book focuses on Miami's different immigrant communities from the 1980s and onwards, I do wish there had been more discussion about historical trends in immigration to the area since that context would be helpful. I also felt like the book's connecting of Miami's circumstances to big-picture American ideas about immigration and assimilation and more national trends, while valuable insights, could have been condensed since the same observations get regurgitated with each chapter.