A new ethnic identity is being constructed in the United States: the Hispanic nation. Overcoming age-old racial, regional, and political differences, Americans of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Spanish-language origins are beginning to imagine themselves as a single ethnic community-which by the turn of the century may become the United States' largest and most influential minority.

Geoffrey Fox has written two books for young readers, The Land and People of Venezuela and The Land and People of Argentina, as well as Welcome to my Contri, a collection of stories on relations between Anglo and Hispanic Americans. He lives near Detroit.

"In the most revealing book on Hispanic culture since Earl Shorris's Latinos, Fox examines how Spanish-language television, radio, newspapers, books, and magazines create a common set of images that reinforce certain values such as family loyalty. . . . His incisive portrait surveys the web of political, community and voluntary associations through which Hispanics are gaining clout, and also scans memoirs, novels, paintings and music that are helping to forge a sense of shared identity."—Publishers Weekly

"Fox poignantly documents the decline of spirituality in the Hispanic movement as it mirrors the rightward shift in the larger society, marked by a rampant and often mean-spirited mercantilism. . . . Fox is most effective in reporting the important ways the barrios are altering the profile and coloration of our inner cities."—Washington Post

"Hispanic Nation tracks a key identity shift . . . with important consequences for all Americans because, in merging their separate national backgrounds into a new identity, Hispanic Americans are inevitably challenging rigid black-and-white definitions of what it means to be an American."—Booklist