Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez

HARVEST OF EMPIRE by Juan Gonzalez is soon to be available in a revised and updated edition for 2022. The first two sections, Las Raíces (Roots) and Las Ramas (Branches), of this text provide a lengthy history of Latinos in America from roughly 1500 through the early 1900s. 

Gonzalez, a professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers University, has focused the majority of his revisions on the final section, La Cosecha (Harvest), which deals with economic, cultural/language, and political forces. He summarizes several main new trends (condensed and very loosely paraphrased as follows):

• Rise of anti-immigrant xenophobia and more racialized prison industrial complex;
• Growth of climate refugees from Central America and the Caribbean;
• Political unrest in Puerto Rico, with nearly 12 percent decline in its population;
• Growing ethnic, racial, and class diversity amongst the Latino migrant population;
• Resurgence of right-wing neoliberal regimes in Latin America;
• A new Chinese presence, particularly with grants and loans for infrastructure projects;
• Contributions to the arts and education from Lin-Manuel Miranda and other Latinx artists.

Although Gonzalez employs a rather scholarly tone, he addresses questions of interest to our students about why (and when) certain groups came, how they did (or did not) assimilate, and reaction to their presence. Gonzalez freely admits that “it has not been easy to separate my head from my heart as I sought to chronicle this story” and his anger, frustration, and biases are evident. Readers, however, will step away with new perspectives and knowledge about the key groups (Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, Columbians, and Panamanians) profiled in HARVEST OF EMPIRE. Accompanied by over seventy pages of notes and index, this text will be a valuable research tool.