Constituting Central American–Americans

"Constituting Central American-Americans breaks new ground and brings new insights to the fields of Latinx studies and ethnic studies."

“This book is a must read for Latinx Studies scholars. Lucidly written, it offers us multiple cultural and discursive approaches from which to understand the collective centrality of Central Americans in the diaspora, their transnationalities, the politics of recognition and de-recognition, and the relationalities to hegemonic Mexicanidades. Maritza Cárdenas argues for a more complicated understanding of Central American Americans as new diasporic ethnic sociocultural subjects in the United States. I most welcomed the author’s relational analysis of Central Americans passing for Mexican in Los Angeles, one that sets a high bar for future studies of interlatino/a power differentials and horizontal hierarchies.”

"Maritza Cardenas’s deeply engaging book provides an authoritative account of the reimagination of Central America by those displaced subjects presently ensnared in US immigration politics, and still seeking validation in their new home. Her examination of the diasporic nostalgia of US Central American cultural practices traces a complex history dating back to the nineteenth century. Cardenas has written the best explanation I have ever read of these thorny issues now at the center of present-day national politics. This book is certainly an academic tour de force."

"Maritza E. Cárdenas’ Constituting Central American-Americans offers an exploration of the complexities of Central American imaginaries, both within the isthmus and within the U.S. diaspora, that is both instructional and revitalizing."

"Constituting Central American-Americans represents an important, well-theorized intervention in Latina/o Studies by challenging the erasure of Central Americans by their Latino counterparts and the broader mainstream culture in the United States."