Book Launch | Barrio America

NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge and the Cities Collaborative at NYU invite you to join us for a conversation with Andrew Sandoval-Strausz on his new book Barrio America, the compelling history of how Latino immigrants revitalized the nation’s cities after decades of disinvestment and white flight. Thirty years ago, most people were ready to give up on American cities. We are commonly told that it was a “creative class” of young professionals who revived a moribund urban America in the 1990s and 2000s. But this stunning reversal owes much more to another, far less visible group: Latinx newcomers.

Barrio America shows how Latinx immigrants made cities dynamic, stable, and safe by purchasing homes, opening businesses, and reviving street life.

A. K. Sandoval-Strausz is Director of the Latinx studies program at Penn State University, and former Princeton Mellon Fellow, he specializes in urban, legal, architectural, and Latino history. His first book, Hotel: An American History (2007), explored the origins and development of one of the most common building types on the national landscape. It won the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association’s book prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal.

This event is co-sponsored by Program in Metropolitan Studies, Latinx Project, and Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics.