Latino Voices in New England

Compelling stories and striking photographs illustrate the challenges and highlights of Latino/a life in Portland, Maine.

Compelling stories and striking photographs illustrate the challenges and highlights of Latino/a life in Portland, Maine.

Latinos-those born in the United States as well as those who immigrated later in life-are not only transforming the country and cities, they are also transforming themselves in a difficult process of community making. This book tells the story of how a diverse group of immigrants have adapted to dramatic changes in the largely Anglo setting of Portland, Maine, building bridges instead of walls. The Latino storytellers included here address multiple challenges of discrimination, language barriers, cultural retention and adaptation, and speak of their strengths-strong family ties, a connection to the environment, and an expanding sense of home-to illustrate how they have emerged not only with hopes and dreams intact, but also with a resilience built upon fluid and flexible identities.

At the University of Southern Maine, David Carey Jr. is Associate Professor of History, and Robert Atkinson is Professor of Human Development, Director of the Life Story Center, and Senior Research Fellow in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute National Resource Center. Carey is the author of Engendering Mayan History: Kaqchikel Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875–1970, and Atkinson is the author of The Beat of My Drum: An Autobiography (with Babatunde Olatunji) and The Life Story Interview.

"The personal tone of the narratives and the compelling, engaging stories are a strong complement to scholarship about Latinos in the United States." — Daniel D. Arreola, author of Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province