Assistant Professor of American Studies at SUNY Old Westbury Llana Barber’s new book “Latino City: Immigration and Urban Crisis in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1945-2000” explores the history of the first Latino-majority city in New England, and the transformation and challenges it faced in the late twentieth century.
Published by the University of North Carolina Press, the 352-page book culminates years of Barber’s research, and includes oral history interviews and data to provide readers an intimate view of the experiences of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in postindustrial New England. Throughout “Latino City,” Barber interweaves the histories of urban crisis in U.S. cities and imperial migration from Latin America.
“Pushed to migrate by political and economic circumstances shaped by the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America, poor and working-class Latinos then had to reckon with the segregation, joblessness, disinvestment, and profound stigma that plagued U.S. cities during the crisis era,” said Barber.
The book is available in hardcover and paperback, and may be purchased on Amazon or through the publisher.
Barber lives in Queens, NY and teaches “Urban History,” “Immigration History,” and “American Empire” among other classes at Old Westbury. She earned her Ph.D. at Boston College, and a B.A. from University of California at Berkeley.