In Learning to Be Latino, sociologist Daisy Verduzco Reyes paints a vivid picture of Latino student life at a liberal arts college, a research university, and a regional public university, outlining students’ interactions with one another, with non-Latino peers, and with faculty, administrators, and the outside community. Reyes identifies the normative institutional arrangements that shape the social relationships relevant to Latino students’ lives, including school size, the demographic profile of the student body, residential arrangements, the relationship between students and administrators, and how well diversity programs integrate students through cultural centers and retention centers. Together these characteristics create an environment for Latino students that influences how they interact, identify, and come to understand their place on campus.
 
Drawing on extensive ethnographic observations, Reyes shows how college campuses shape much more than students’ academic and occupational trajectories; they mold students’ ideas about inequality and opportunity in America, their identities, and even how they intend to practice politics.  

DAISY VERDUZCO REYES is an assistant professor in the department of sociology and El Instituto: The Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. 

"Selected New Books in Higher Education"

"With an engaging writing style, this well-researched book has a lot to offer a general audience and is a great addition to courses on the Latino experience, race and higher education, and political socialization."

“Reyes artfully weaves the personal narratives of her subjects into an engaging and clear argument about the role of institutional contexts and organizations for shaping student perspectives and actions.”
 

"Learning to Be Latino serves as an example of how we can learn about institutions of higher education and a sociology of higher education in general by way of Latino students, although, to be sure, many findings are distinct to Latino students. Through Learning to Be Latino, Reyes questions taken-for-granted ideas and concepts in the sociology of race and higher education such as student groups, the critical consciousness of racially marginalized groups, and even college itself."

"In Learning to be Latino, Daisy Reyes contributes to the exciting 'campus turn' in higher education research. Going deep into the texture of three universities, Reyes shows how institutional context influences Latino students’ understandings of their lives and politics, and their broader interpretations of the world."