At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the Latino minority, the biggest and fastest growing in the United States, is at a crossroads. Is assimilation taking place in comparable ways to previous immigrant groups? Are the links to the countries of origin being redefined in the age of contested globalism? How are Latinos changing America and how is America changing Latinos? The Oxford Handbook of Latino Studies reflects on these questions, offering a sweeping exploration of Latinas and Latinos' complex experiences in the United States.

Edited by leading expert Ilan Stavans, the handbook traces the emergence of Latino studies as a vibrant and interdisciplinary field of research starting in the 1980s, assessing the current state of the discipline while suggesting new paths for exploration. With its twenty-three essays and a conversation by established and emerging scholars, the book discusses various aspects of Latino life and history, from literature, popular culture, and music, to religion, philosophy, and language identity. The articles present new interpretations of important themes such as the Chicano Movement, gender and race relations, the changes in demographics, the tension between rural and urban communities, immigration and the US/Mexico border, the legacy of colonialism, and the controversy surrounding Spanglish. The first handbook on Latino Studies, this collection offers a multifaceted and thought-provoking look at how Latinos are redefining the American identity.

About the Author:
Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, publisher of Restless Books, and host of NPR's show "In Contrast." His books include On Borrowed Words (2001), Spanglish: The Making of a New American language (2003), Dictionary Days (2008), Gabriel García Márrquez: The Early Years (2010), Singer's Typewriter and Mine (2012), A Critic's Journey (2013), Quixote: The Novel and the World (2015), and The Seventh Heaven: Travels through Jewish Latin America (2019). He is general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2011). He has translated Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, and Juan Rulfo into English, Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop into Spanish, and Cervantes and Shakespeare into Spanglish. His work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted into film, radio, TV, and theater.