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Latina/o Sociology
South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A.
Race, place, and identity in a changing urban America
Over the last five decades, South Los Angeles has undergone a remarkable demographic transition. In South 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 Dreams illuminates 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.
Over the last five decades, South Los Angeles has undergone a remarkable demographic transition. In South 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 Dreams illuminates 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.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2022
First, Latino immigrants are not assimilating to a white middle-class mainstream in South L.A.
Nor were they or their families, as segmented assimilation holds, downwardly assimilating into an African American “underclass” seemingly locked out of upward mobility.
So what were they doing?
The experience is one of departing the place where one was born and seeking to survive, thrive, and perhaps find a new home elsewhere. Approximately 258 million foreign-born people are now attempting to do that around the globe.
In South Central the blacks and LatinX cherry picked from each other’s culture. That’s why piñata’s are universal and mandatory at all South Central birthday parties. That’s why BarB-Q is mandatory at all community celebrations. That’s why mixed-race coupling is getting more common and accepted. Once children attend school, their hormones will take over and leave their first generation parents behind.
Unfortunately, those neighborhoods that remain bordered from outside influences, such as race, culture and generous acceptance of one another as human beings no matter their roots, remain prejudice. When one never gets to the point of seeing any person as someone like themselves, that spiritual gift lies cold and dormant inside one’s heart.
Why only three stars? This book sorely needed an editor. So obscured and encumbered with rabbit holes that did little to advance the narrative that half way through, it becomes laborious to read.
I have met one of the main authors (Louis Pasteur) and found him to be terribly kind and amusing. I imagine that the inclusion of many secondary and tertiary authors in this book were gifts given to his hard-working researchers from USC who did the intensely laborious work of qualitative research. And so the lack of ferreting out the meat from the delicious wine was overlooked. When people work hard, our tendency is to reward them. It’s only human.
Nor were they or their families, as segmented assimilation holds, downwardly assimilating into an African American “underclass” seemingly locked out of upward mobility.
So what were they doing?
The experience is one of departing the place where one was born and seeking to survive, thrive, and perhaps find a new home elsewhere. Approximately 258 million foreign-born people are now attempting to do that around the globe.
In South Central the blacks and LatinX cherry picked from each other’s culture. That’s why piñata’s are universal and mandatory at all South Central birthday parties. That’s why BarB-Q is mandatory at all community celebrations. That’s why mixed-race coupling is getting more common and accepted. Once children attend school, their hormones will take over and leave their first generation parents behind.
Unfortunately, those neighborhoods that remain bordered from outside influences, such as race, culture and generous acceptance of one another as human beings no matter their roots, remain prejudice. When one never gets to the point of seeing any person as someone like themselves, that spiritual gift lies cold and dormant inside one’s heart.
Why only three stars? This book sorely needed an editor. So obscured and encumbered with rabbit holes that did little to advance the narrative that half way through, it becomes laborious to read.
I have met one of the main authors (Louis Pasteur) and found him to be terribly kind and amusing. I imagine that the inclusion of many secondary and tertiary authors in this book were gifts given to his hard-working researchers from USC who did the intensely laborious work of qualitative research. And so the lack of ferreting out the meat from the delicious wine was overlooked. When people work hard, our tendency is to reward them. It’s only human.
May 8, 2023
i really appreciate that the authors employed a mixed methods approach. i feel like a lot of the work around communities of color (and south central in particular) rely on too much theorizing about statistics, so the extensive interview work that was included as a part of this book provided a much needed real-life intervention into this narrative. 'south central dreams' highlights the complexity of every day lived interactions between black & latino community members in a shared & ever changing geographical space. i appreciate that the authors don't shy away from the more negative aspects of these relationships, but that they also don't play these up to fit into dominant narratives of black/brown conflict. even when they highlight moments of shared commonality between these two groups, they don't project it into an easy and natural solidarity. that complicated view is carried into the future as the authors consider south central's uneasy future as development and gentrification loom in the horizon (especially with the olympics and the completion of the light rail lines). the book's timely account serves as a snapshot of a south central in flux. the graphs & teaching guide on the website were also super helpful in converting a lot of this information for my high schoolers & making it accessible.
October 31, 2022
good sociological work
July 3, 2022
its hard to know what to expect when you begin this book—i found myself wondering if this was akin to a peer-reviewed sociology article in the form of a book, a love letter to south la, a description of black-brown relations and organizing in a very unique setting…and it ended up being all of these things!
i read this book alongside my book club, which exists within an organization that works with young people from south central through longterm mentorship. many of our members are from different parts of california or even the country or world, and up until a few years ago, we were overwhemingly white (and some may say that is still the case). extensive knowledge about simply the historical aspects of south la, like the watts or the rodney king riots, or the demographic changes, or even the fact that south la is historically black, was unknown to a lot of our counselors (myself included), much less the deeper sociological aspects or even the spirit, love, and challenges that south la is so familiar with.
this book is fantastic in that it reveals that south la cannot be simply explained. it is neither the conflict ridden, bursting-to-riot warground that many still picture it to be, nor is it a case study on peaceful, utopic multiculturalism that others aspire to. i am grateful to this book for the information that it’s given to me. learning about south central is a process that stretches as far as you can see, wherever you’re at. along w the authors, its allowed me to feel love and a second-hand pride for the neighborhood, all its history, and where it’ll look to next.
i read this book alongside my book club, which exists within an organization that works with young people from south central through longterm mentorship. many of our members are from different parts of california or even the country or world, and up until a few years ago, we were overwhemingly white (and some may say that is still the case). extensive knowledge about simply the historical aspects of south la, like the watts or the rodney king riots, or the demographic changes, or even the fact that south la is historically black, was unknown to a lot of our counselors (myself included), much less the deeper sociological aspects or even the spirit, love, and challenges that south la is so familiar with.
this book is fantastic in that it reveals that south la cannot be simply explained. it is neither the conflict ridden, bursting-to-riot warground that many still picture it to be, nor is it a case study on peaceful, utopic multiculturalism that others aspire to. i am grateful to this book for the information that it’s given to me. learning about south central is a process that stretches as far as you can see, wherever you’re at. along w the authors, its allowed me to feel love and a second-hand pride for the neighborhood, all its history, and where it’ll look to next.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews