It’s good enough as an introduction

This book is a well written examination of the role of the increasingly-prominent Latino populations in the cities of the United States, but ultimately is nothing new. The fact that it is an old book on an issue that seems to fundamentally evolve from year to year is no fault of the author, but nonetheless, a book that cites census data taken 20 years ago is probably not the most timely selection. Some of his anecdotes, particularly on the potential for the rise of Latino populism as a major political movement in US cities, were interesting, but the book as a whole disappointed me. Also, the title seemed to imply a greater emphasis on cultural / artistic influence on urban life, which was discussed far less than I was led to believe. Mike Davis has written better accounts of this narrative in other volumes.

Mike Davis is one of my favorite writers. His exhaustive research, casual style, sharp humor, disregard for disciplinary boundaries, and clear political analysis is heroic. But this book isn’t among his best. The thesis that Latinos are reinventing U.S. cities is a rich one, but the book’s short length and disjointed chapters causes “Magical Urbanism” to be less than an amazing piece of writing.

A qualification to my disappointment is that the book was written in 2001 and I read it in 2010. Published right after the 2000 Census results and a few years before the resurgence of the immigrant rights movement and resurrection of May Day, Davis’ book has less of an impact on me than it would have had a decade ago.

Like Davis’ other works, one of this book’s strengths is its expertise. Seamlessly, Davis floats between anthropological dissections of identity, urban planner’s synthesis of city data, Marxists readings of history, and cultural theorist critiques of media reports.

I learned a lot from the “Siamese Twins” chapter, in which he deftly illustrates what urban theorists have described as transnational space. Davis discusses the “binational metropolises” of El Paso / Ciudad Juarez and San Diego / Tijuana. Besides the fascinating opening of transnational space via kinship structures, telecommunications, remittance-funded urban development, and cross-border electoral activity, Davis tells us how ecological destruction (often from one twin infecting the other), is tying cities’ destinies together:

“Because they share these indivisible ecological problems, the borders’ Siamese twins are slowly being compelled to integrate and transnationalize their urban infrastructures.” In 1998 Mexican and US officials opened up the $440 million International Wastewater Treatment Plant which treats Tijuana’s excess sewage on the San Diego side of the border, the first facility of its kind in the world” (36).

As other writers have since done, Davis expertly takes on disastrous policy-making and enforcement, including the “Drug War,” the militarization of the border, the regulation of labor, and the criminalization of Latino youth. The flight of the wealthy from U.S. cities, the disinvestment of public goods and infrastructure, particularly education, and the attack on Latino culture, especially through the form of English-only propositions, holds back our nation’s fastest-growing demographic group.

Besides levying critiques, Davis also prescribes action for progress. He argues how “the first step in any Latino urban agenda must be to remove La Migra from the front yard” (69). Latinos are in fact a revitalizing force to failing post-industrial cities, and the structural oppression of Latinos does not just hold the population back, but also the development of cities themselves.

Public space is the terrain for much of this fight, as day laborers seek to work on corners, vendors struggle to sell their food in parks, and Latino homeowners attempt to renovate their homes in Latino styles in the face of racist public policy and local ordinances. Just the working class is is disciplined by the hyperexploitation of immigrant workers (documented and undocumented alike), so do U.S. cities suffer from the marginalization of their Latino residents.

Davis ends with an appeal for good old fashioned social movements:

“As in the 1930s and the 1960s (but perhaps even more urgently in today’s post-liberal climate), substantive reform through electoral politics depends less on campaign maneuvering and bloc voting than upon resources and solidarities independently generated by struggles in neighborhoods and workplaces. Only powerful extra-electoral mobilizations, with the ability to shape agendas and discipline candidates, can ensure the representation of grassroots socioeconomic as well as ethnic-symbolic interests....Equally, if there is a renaissance of American labor close at hand, it will be a story in which Latinos, along with Blacks and other new immigrants, play a central” (164-165).

4.5 stars. dated but was so informative for me in a digestible and simple format that made great starting points for further exploration! put 2022 city council scandal in a lot of context for sure (and literally everything, ever) — (when r we dropping the in depth investigations on that? have i missed out?). love mike davis!

This anthropological history of Latinos in the US/ history of Latin immigration is so good.
This book is seriously captivating with short focused chapters and a cohesive theme and story. Davis writes about the Latino experience from 1930s to 2000 in the US. While this book is 25 years old it still totally applies to the modern political climate. Would recommend to anyone living on the western hemisphere with a pretty high reading level this is a toughie.

This was a self-powering read. I keep this book. It is near my bed and near my heart. Every Latino person should read it.

Maria F

Although now almost twenty years out of date, this is still a good read.

My 3rd Mike Davis book. Just as good as the others. Got this in providence Rhode Island at a fantastic used book shop.

Another excellent and well-researched series of essays from the best radical left writers. Davis explores the ecological disaster of the economic boom on the US-Mexican border and the ethnography of Chicano migration patterns. Whether Mexicans will be Anglofied like the Irish and Italians I can't say. Being more cynical than others in believing in the eventual Malthusian-Hobbesian meltdown of a Caucasian-Mestizo war, I am intrigued by the prospect of a revitalized economic nationalist movement built around emerging Latino labor movements in California. Oh the irony of the Sons of NAFTA leading to the trade barriers!

Super concise and informative ! Really interesting but didn’t rock my shit like some of the other nonfiction books I’ve read recently. Still really great journalism and a fascinating study of urban spaces and the Latino demographic

A brief but effective piece of work that sheds light on various aspects of the Latino experience in the United States. Reading this book whilst visiting Texas certainly illuminated aspects of a culture and people that I had not previously been exposed to significantly.

I also found it insightful in light of the recent class I have taken on urban design, which made passages of this book about economic restructuring and the cultural and economic limitations imposed by rigid zoning laws especially interesting. Davis does an excellent job of illuminating the ways in which the Anglo-majority have attempted to homogenise and Americanise Latino culture - his description of the eradication of bilingualism in the U.S. education system does this very well. More so, Davis presents a tragic picture of the U.S. immigration system and how it fails to adequately consider the humanity of those crossing the border.

Something that this book considers that I had wondered often when looking at maps of the border is how transnational cities operate. Not only on a physical level - like the border towns of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez - but the remittances, sojourners and a political system that increasingly connects the Latino diaspora in both Mexico and the United States.

There is a pertinent discussion of the role of Latinos in U.S. electoral politics; such as its revitalisation after 1990s' anti-Latino sentiment from the likes of politicians such as Ross Perot. I think that, as obviously with other aspects of the book such as immigration, there is a lot more to cover on this ground since the book's publication in 2000. Particularly interesting to see an account of here would be the rightward shift of the Latino community. Despite being two decades old, the book nonetheless maintains themes that are relevant today, and appears to me to be a good introduction to studies of the Latino community. Thanks Ed for this Christmas present!

Mind-blowing, in-depth look at what the actual situation between Mexico, USA, the border. A must read.