Located a mere fifteen minutes from Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley is an incubator for California's new ethnic politics. Here, Latinos and Asian Americans are the dominant groups. Politics are Latino-dominated, while a large infusion of Chinese immigrants and capital has made the San Gabriel Valley the center of the nation's largest Chinese ethnic economy. The white population, meanwhile, has dropped from an overwhelming majority in 1970 to a minority in 1990. 

Leland T. Saito presents an insider's view of the political, economic, and cultural implications of this ethnic mix. He examines how diverse residents of the region have worked to overcome their initial antagonisms and develop new, more effective political alliances. 

Tracing grassroots political organization along racial and ethnic lines, Race and Politics focuses on the construction of new identities in general and the panethnic affiliation "Asian American" in particular.

Introduction: Race, Ethnicity, and Politics i
i. Monterey Park and the San Gabriel Valley: Regional, National,
and International Trends 17
z. Reasserting Whiteness: Racial Privilege and the Transformation
of History and Architecture 39
3. Asian American Politics: Identity and Political Mobilization 55
4. Asian American Political Issues 88
5. On Common Ground: From Agricultural Struggles to Urban
Politics among Latinos and Asian Americans x25
6. The Case of Redistricting: The Growing Organizational Scale
of Politics and Interracial Alliances i58
Conclusion: Progress? 181
Appendix: An Overview of the Analytical Framework 197
Notes 207
References 223
Index 241