The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Latino History and Culture - Tapa blanda

In the 2000 U.S. Census, 12.5% of Americans (more than 22 million people) identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, with the vast majority of Mexican descent. (As a matter of fact, by 2006 Hispanics are expected to overtake blacks as the largest ethnic group in the country, with their culture expected to greatly influence the greater U.S. culture.) The fascination with things Latino--from margaritas and Cinco de Mayo to salsa music, the poems of Pablo Neruda, and the mambo and tango--continues unabated. The Complete Idiot's GuideA (R) to Latino History and Culture brings the Latino universe to life, in a grand exploration of 400 years of Hispanic influence in the New World.

Danilo H. Figueredo is the director of the Library and Media Center at Bloomfield College, in New Jersey and has served as executive director of the New Jersey Library Association as well as Latin American bibliographer in the New York Public Library's Reference Libraries. He has a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Literature as well as a Masters in Library Science. He has taught Latino literature courses at Bloomfield College and Montclair State University. He is the author (under the name D. H. Figueredo) of Cuba: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, which will be published by Greenwood in 2002. His work has been published in anthologies and journals and he has lectured at universities and conferences in the New York metropolitan area on Latin American culture and literature. Figueredo is a consultant on Latin American literature to the Boston Public Library, Collier's Encyclopedia, and a number of universities and publishers.