Making the Latino South

Cecilia Márquez is Hunt Family Assistant Professor of History at Duke University.
For more information about Cecilia Márquez, visit the Author Page.

"“Making the Latino South provides a nuanced historical analysis of the role of Blackness in the racialization of non-Black Latinos by the latter part of the 20th century. . . [and] is grounded by rich archival research across different Southern states and exceptional oral histories that highlight various perspectives histories from activists, veterans, migrants, and their children, among others.”—North Carolina Historical Review

"Wonderfully engaging. . . . Making the Latino South is thought-provoking and raises questions and potential new research threads for future scholars . . . [and] reminds its reader that the South is not a new destination for Latinas and Latinos. Instead, the South is significantly defined by its Latino presence. . . . [A] must-read for those interested in the US South and its history of race, civil rights, and immigration."—Journal of Working-Class Studies

“Márquez has recovered a fascinating history of racial formation that deserves a wide readership, both among specialists in Latino history, migration/immigration history, and southern history, but also more generally among historians of the US.”—Oral History Review

"Márquez significantly historicize[s] and spatialize[s] Latinx presence in the US South prior to the late twentieth century. . . . [Making the Latino South] call[s] on readers to reject a monolithic definition of latinidad, specifically by paying attention to histories and politics of ethnicity, race, gender, labor, geography, and generational cohorts."—Southern Spaces

"This is an important contribution to understanding the history of Latinidad in the US through the lens of southern history.. . . Márquez guides readers through the racial landscape of the South, offering a new history of race in the postwar US that uncovers the anti-Blackness and white supremacy embedded in the creation of Latina/o as a racial category."—CHOICE

"Marquez's field-changing history of the US South is the first to show us why racial diversity within categories such as 'Mexican' or 'Latino' matters for the region’s past and future."—Julie Weise, University of Oregon