I edited a similar anthology, Race and Class in Latin America (Columbia Univ. Press, 1970), which contained papers from a conference that had taken place five years earlier. When reviewing the present book, I naturally asked myself, “How much have the perspectives on ‘race’ and Latin American society changed since 1965?” The black/white racial dichotomy prevailing in the United States renders it hard for North Americans to understand Latin America’s fluid multiethnicity. Our 1965 conference presenters, including scholars such as Florestan Fernandes and Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, were largely Latin American, and so that did not have to be explained. While their colleagues in 2003 seem to be all North Americans, they do, in fact, agree that “there are no essential races” (p. 32), just categories based on cultural as well as physical characteristics. The basic importance of mestizaje is recognized by all. They also stress the more recent concept of...
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