Omar Valerio-Jimenez, “River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands” (Duke UP, 2013)

New Books in Latino Studies · Jun 12, 2014 · 1h

Historically speaking, who you were depended on who your rulers were and the ethnic identity (including language, religion, and folkways) of “your” people. In the era of nation-states–that is, our era–these two characteristics have, for most people, been fused. Ethnic Germans live in Germany, ethnic Chinese live in China, ethnic Egyptians live in Egypt. The exceptions to this rule are two: ethnic minorities (e.g., Jews, Kurds, Uyghers, etc.) residing in nation-states and people who live in the shifting borderlands between nation-states.

Omar Valerio-Jiménez‘s fascinating book River of Hope…