Cambridge University Press Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism

In the spring of 2006, millions of Latinos across the country participated in the largest civil rights demonstrations in American history. In this timely and highly anticipated book, Chris Zepeda-Millán analyzes the background, course, and impacts of this unprecedented wave of protests, highlighting their unique local, national, and demographic dynamics. He finds that because of the particular ways the issue of immigrant illegality was racialized, federally proposed anti-immigrant legislation (H.R. 4437) helped transform Latinos' sense of latent group membership into the racial group consciousness that incited their engagement in large-scale collective action. Zepeda-Millán shows how nativist policy threats against disenfranchised undocumented immigrants can provoke a political backlash - on the streets and at the ballot box - from not only 'people without papers', but also naturalized and US-born citizens. Latino Mass Mobilization is an important intervention into contemporary debates regarding immigration policy, social movements, and racial politics in the United States. Review 'Chris Zepeda-Millán delivers an instant classic … Latino Mass Mobilization will serve as the most complete account of immigration activism that has ever been developed across the social sciences. … Zepeda-Millán provides an in-depth and contextually situated account for where, why, and how the immigration marches of 2006 marked the dawn of contemporary Latino politics. This book is truly exceptional and its conclusion is clear - anti-immigrant rhetoric, policy, and attitudes will not be tolerated by the Latino community. There is no sleeping giant, but instead today there is a woke community engaged in protest and marches, navigating bilingual media, both old and new, registering and voting.' Matt A. Barreto, University of California, Los Angeles'In a stirring account of the organization and impact of the immigrant rights protest wave, Zepeda-Millán upends our previous understandings of Latino politics and forces us to rethink the very factors that led to political mobilization and subsequent demobilization. The book advances a powerful and generative analysis of the relationship between race, protest, policy reform, and electoral politics.' Michael Omi, University of California, Berkeley, co-author of Racial Formation in the United States'Zepeda-Millán's book locates a 'politics from below,' revealing unprecedented political activism in sometimes unlikely places. Highly original, deftly analyzed, and centering the voices and experiences of immigrants and their families, Zepeda-Millán's book is both timely and timeless. It should be close at hand for those who are eager to learn about modern movements for immigrant rights, racial justice, identity formation, and forms of political agency and expression amidst political threats.' Vesla Mae Weaver, Yale University, Connecticut Vesla Mae Weaver, Yale University, Connecticut'Combining insights from social movement, racial politics, and immigration studies, Zepeda-Millán's book exposes multiple levels of meaning from the 2006 immigrant rights protest wave, through an examination of key episodes of collective action in California, New York, and Florida. Though zeroing in on a single moment of time, his book reveals lessons for the politics of racialization and immigrant rights in America today.' Sidney Tarrow, author of Power in Movement'Zepeda-Millán approaches the collective vehicle of group consciousness and identity, as well as group-linked fate, as critical elements for successful mobilization and outreach to members of the affected communities … an expansive view of how and why this 'unexpected' segment took to the streets for rights, social justice, and power.' Perspectives on Politics'This exceptional book should be close at hand for anyone who seeks to understand contemporary American immigration politics. The many contributions of this work - theoretical, subst