From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity

From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity. By Juan Flores. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. 265 pp. Cloth, $49.50, ISBN 0-231-11076-6. Paper, $17.50, ISBN 0-231-11077-4.)

Cultural identity is a constant theme in Juan Flores's work. The major Latino migrations to the United States, unparalleled in their diversity of race and national origin, are changing the racial and ethnic composition of the American population and moreover are redefining the social meanings of race, ethnicity, and American identity. The most important points of unification for Latinos have a historical dimension, according to Flores, and are shaped by the past events of European conquest and colonization, slavery, wars of independence, and United States imperialism. It is through this connective base, this singular unity, that one can better...