About America Now! Viva Latinx America!
There are more people speaking Spanish at home in the US than ever before, and some estimates put the proportion of Americans with Hispanic heritage at over 25 per cent by 2060. The place of Latinx peoples, languages and cultures in the USA goes to the heart of current reckonings of race and nation in America, yet the complexity, diversity, and tensions within this vast swathe of US society are not always fully understood. New York’s Stateside Puerto Ricans, Florida’s Cubans, and the Mexicans of Texas and California have very different histories, cultures and politics from each other – and each Latinx community is itself a complex and sometimes contradictory social formation. Join our panel of experts for a discussion of this vital and fascinating part of the American story.
Your support
The British Library is a charity. Your support helps us open up a world of knowledge and inspiration for everyone. Please consider adding a donation to your basket.
Stephanie Lewthwaite
Stephanie Lewthwaite is Associate Professor in American History at the University of Nottingham.
More
Her books include Race, Place, and Reform in Mexican Los Angeles: A Transnational Perspective, 1890-1940 (University of Arizona Press, 2009), A Contested Art: Modernism and Mestizaje in New Mexico (University of Oklahoma Press, 2015) and Scarred Landscapes: Place, Trauma, and Memory in Caribbean Latinx Art (University of Arizona Press, 2025).
Josephine Metcalf
Josephine Metcalf is Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Hull, UK.
More
She is the co-founder and co-director of the Cultures of Incarceration Centre and Programme Director for the MA in Incarceration Studies. Her books include The Culture and Politics of Contemporary Street Gang Memoirs (University Press of Mississippi, 2012) and the co-edited collection The Life, Literature and Legacy of Luis J Rodriguez: In the Long Run (edited with Ben Olguín, Edinburgh University Press, 2025).
About the America Now! series
The event is part of America Now!, a series of live events exploring the current state of the USA and its place in the world. In a world of hot takes these discussions offer some much-needed deep dives, giving expert insight into some of the most pressing or peculiar aspects of modern American life – from the Supreme Court to Cowboy Carter, and from the politics of the White House to the politics of The White Lotus.
You might also like
President Gabriel Boric of Chile in Conversation
with Isabel Hilton.
Baldwin: A Love Story
Nicholas Boggs and Bernardine Evaristo discuss how profoundly James Baldwin’s personal relationships shaped his life and work.
The General Strike of 1926 Britain at a Standstill
Jonathan Scheer and David Torrance examine how nine days in May 1926 reshaped the country.