CHLS
department chairman’s book honored
By
Jane Park
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Department chairman of chicano and Latino studies (CHLS) at Cal State Long
Beach Victor Rodriguez received an honorable mention for his book “Latino
Politics in the United States: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class in the Mexican
American and Puerto Rican Experience,” from the Gustavus Myers Center
for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights at the 2005 Myers Outstanding Book
Awards in December for books on the topic of discrimination.
The book was recognized for two reasons: the way it depicts the colonization
patterns and the process of classifying Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans
and Rodriguez’s ideas to implement change after the U.S. bombing on Viequez,
Puerto Rico, in 2003.
Rodriguez did not expect the book to receive the attention as soon as it had,
though he is honored by the award. He sees the acknowledgment as a great honor,
because the book
ran against many other books written by accomplished writers, in his opinion.
The book covers race theory in U.S. history, social institutions, religion
and media. He focuses on the difference between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans
and how their races were socially constructed and then carried on in society
in the United States.
“
Race is less about biology than it is about the meaning our society places
on a cluster of physical characteristics assumed to represent a race,” Rodriguez
said.
He also wrote about racial events in the United States, such as the 1992 Los
Angeles Riots and the problems of Santa Ana politics.
Rodriguez also wrote about the struggle of citizens in Puerto Rico rioting
against the U.S.
Navy to close down all of its naval bases in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The city
was used as bases for explosives and other weapons experimentation, which caused
natives to suffer from cancer and other serious illnesses, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez’s goal in writing the book was to help readers and his students
understand racial stereotypes. He wrote the book from his personal experiences
as a Puerto Rican and United States citizen and through his research in sociology,
history and chicano and latino studies.
“
I lived in the South where things were black and white,” Rodriquez said. “There
weren’t many Latinos. People judged others based on skin color.”
Rodriguez took about five years to complete his book. The most difficult part
interviewing people from the United States and the Caribbean. His schedule
as a department chairman also kept him busy.
“
Chairing a department at CSULB is a highly demanding job with mentoring, bureaucratic
and leadership demands,” Rodriguez said. “I hardly have time to
prepare for the courses I teach. Writing and research becomes a task one does
at the expense of family and personal time.”
Rodriguez uses his book in his lectures in chicano and latino politics, because
it provides students with current information on politics.
Susan Hidalgo, sophomore major in chicano and latino studies and business administration,
was a student of Rodriguez’s last fall. She thought the book was very
helpful.
“Reading his book made me understand my culture better, the background
and history of Mexican Americans,” said Hidalgo. “It was a real eye-opener.”
Other CHLS professors refer to his book in their lectures as well.
Former chicano and latino studies professor Jose Lopez used Rodriguez’s
book because of Rodriguez’s comparison of the Mexican American and Puerto
Rican’s experience of coming to the U.S.
“
He connects the policies of the country with Chicanos and Latinos,” Lopez
said. “He makes students become more empathetic towards the subject.”
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