For a long time, but especially in the past couple of years, I’ve been frustrated by the superficial coverage of Latinos in the United States. We make up almost twenty percent of the U.S. population, and we and our ancestors were present in the Americas for hundreds of years before the founding of the United States.
Today, there is more reporting on, more books about, and more creative work by Latinos than ever before. Still, it seems like the only questions most (but not all) Americans are interested in asking about us are: will we vote for Democrats or Republicans, how we feel about “Latinx” or other labels, or what assimilation means to us, and when it’ll happen—as though many Latinos haven’t already assimilated.
As Congressman Joaquin Castro put it: “Americans Don’t Know Who Latinos Are.” The aim of “Latinos in Depth” is to help correct this problem; to teach Americans—including Latinos—about Latino history, culture, and politics by providing commentary and analysis in more than 160 characters, so that all can understand who Latinos have been in the past and who we are today.
I won’t be able to do this in every single newsletter. That would be impossible. But I hope that a multi-dimensional, nuanced, complex, panoramic, IN DEPTH perspective on Latinos will be the cumulative result.
How to contribute to a deeper understanding of Latinos: this is what I read, write, and think about every day. If you’re interested, I’d love for you to accompany me on this journey.
As a non-paying subscriber to Latinos in Depth—which I’ll send out twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays—you can read my short opinion essays, the questions that are on my mind (along with some tentative answers), and my musings about Latino identity, the changing demographics and growth of Latino communities across the United States, Latino ancestry (a new obsession), and opinion surveys, polls, and news stories about Latinos. I will certainly offer my thoughts about teaching Latino history, and dip, very occasionally, into the world of college basketball and higher education.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll probably get an idea or two for potential research papers or doctoral dissertations.
As you follow along, if you enjoy what you’re reading, and feel like you’re learning something, perhaps you’ll become a paid subscriber, in order to gain access to my Latino history reading recommendations and lesson plans for all ages, my reviews of books by Latino authors, interviews with some of my favorite Latino thinkers, and the chance to ask your own questions and have them answered. If Latinos in Depth grows, it will mean that more people know more about our community, and in greater depth than what’s available in most mainstream media. That has to be a good thing, no? The whole endeavor will be reader supported.
About me
I have written two books about Latino history: The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump (published by Ecco in 2020), and Standing on Common Ground: The Making of a Sunbelt Borderland (published by Harvard University Press in 2013).
I’m writing a third, tentatively titled A Thousand Bridges, which will offer a new interpretation of Latino history seen through the lens of colonialism. It will be published by Crown in 2026. I will report on some of my research for A Thousand Bridges here.
I am a Contributing Writer for The New Yorker. You can find my writing there and in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. I’ve been quoted by their columnists and reporters as well. I have appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, MSNBC, PBS, and C-Span.
More than anything else, I am a teacher. Because teaching is my job—it’s what I do day-in and day-out as a history professor at Northwestern University—I want “Latinos in Depth” to be educational, informative, thoughtful, and thought provoking.
Subscribe!
I would be honored if you would allow me to be your guide—or one of your guides, because there are many great ones—through Latino history, politics, and culture. Sign up for “Latinos in Depth,” and you will receive every new edition of the newsletter in your inbox—for FREE!
