Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat Disappointing
Review: Although the title makes it sound more legit and/or serious than The Complete Idiot's Guide to Latino History and Culture, this is by far the inferior product. It isn't organized nearly as well, and the questions in the Q&A format are written ... well, stupidly ... no one would ask some of these questions and if they would, they wouldn't ask them like, "What kind of food do Puerto Ricans like?"
The author has an obvious political/racial bias beneath his transparent attempt to appear the objective historian. That might be okay, if he didn't make sweeping generalizations and cheap jabs at certain groups of people.
Having said all that - though it's not the best book on the subject, if you can get past the irritating characteristics, it might be a good buy if you can get it used ... or from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything You Need To Know About Latino History
Review: Himilce Novas is excellent- a superb writer who captures all that encompasses the Latino culture. His writing is phenomenal, I will be reading this book more than once!
Rating: 
Summary: Useless book and an insult to Latinos
Review: I bought this book back in September of 2002 and perused it lightly, but I never read it through. Now that I have taken a course on Latin American History at UNC-CH, I must say that this book is completely useless as a historical source. My major problem with Novas' novel is the fact that nine out of ten entries contain some relevance to the United States. Apparently nothing happened in Mexico without some direct causation from the United States. I'm not denying the fact that the EEUU played a role in Mexican History, but Novas overemphasizes every single link the two have shared since the two cultures first met. Morever, she hardly does the job of covering Latin American History in the first place. Apparently, the radical and incredibly important Mexican Revolution of the 1910's can all be explained within a few paragraphs. The secession from Díaz all the way to the Constitutionalist takeover is convered in 3 sentences. Novas doesn't even attempt to explain the peasant situation of Mexico that precipitated the war, which is carefully tied to the motives of Villa and Zapata. (They didn't want power, they simply wanted land). This is just one example (of many) of Novas' shotty attempts to be a historian. I would not advise buying this book under any circumstances. If you are truly interested in a primer, I recommend the considerably better written "Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America".
Rating:
Summary: Author deals with an important topic carelessly
Review: I read this book for a culture class as an undergraduate at a New York State University. Of course I had the objective of learning about Latino culture as well as history from an academic perspective but was truly disappointed at several things. First, the author dealt with many important controversial topics from a bias standpoint. While trying to unravel or undo prejudice, (which is a worthy goal for an author) she instead shows her predjudice and closed mindedness. Second, she deals with many topics in a trival and non professional way. She just states her opinion too much rather than facts, and her opinion is stated many times without the research and explanation of evidence that would lead her to her conclusions or opinions. The book does contain a lot of factual errors. I was expecting more from someone as accomplished as Novas.
Rating:
Summary: really good book
Review: I read this book in my 12th grade history class. I learned lots of stuff I didn't know about all the Latinos (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, etc.) from this book. A previous reviewer didn't like the book because it concentrates on the U.S and not Latin America, but he misses the point completely. This book is about America and Americans with Latin American roots. It's not about Latin America and Latin Americans. I just want to add that I gave my mom this book to read and she really like it too.
Rating:
Summary: An unfair and unbalanced hack at Latino history
Review: I was assigned this book for a graduate course in counselling Latino clients. It's possibly the worst book I've ever come across on the subject. Novas is either remarkably ignorant or cynically pursuing an agenda, I can't guess which. I'm tilting towards the latter, since the most egregious examples of bias come in her chapter on "Cuban Americans".
In her introduction, Novas claims to be "taking a poke at a few stereotypes" with her book. In reality, though, she is
interested only in replacing one set of stereotypes with another.
Rating: 
Summary: Latino History Lite
Review: The difference between the title and the content accounts for the low rating. I would be less disappointed in this book if it had been titled "A Primer on Latino History", or "Latino History for Dummies" or "The Least You Need to Know about Latinos in the United States". This book was assigned for my 8th grade daughter's humanities class, which uses the vehicle of the history of Latin America to explore world culture. It is appropriate for 8th grade readers--the language is simple, and the question-anwer format is a useful way for young students of history to grasp and organize a lot of data. However, the format gets repetitive and therefore boring after a while. The appropriateness of the book for middle school readers should give you a clue to the intellectual rigor and thoroughness with which the author covers the topic. Four of the more useful features of the book are: the author makes it plain that Latino culture is not monolithic; the author addresses the strains between various self-identified groups (say, Mexican-Americans and Cuban-Americans); and the many lists of high-achieving people of Latino ancestry, in many different fields; and the bibliography at the end. For the reader who has no grasp of the relations between the United States and the Spanish-speaking world, this is a good primer or place to start. It is by no means "Everything You Need to Know".
Rating:
Summary: Latino History Lite
Review: The difference between the title and the content accounts for the low rating. I would be less disappointed in this book if it had been titled "A Primer on Latino History", or "Latino History for Dummies" or "The Least You Need to Know about Latinos in the United States". This book was assigned for my 8th grade daughter's humanities class, which uses the vehicle of the history of Latin America to explore world culture. It is appropriate for 8th grade readers--the language is simple, and the question-anwer format is a useful way for young students of history to grasp and organize a lot of data. However, the format gets repetitive and therefore boring after a while. The appropriateness of the book for middle school readers should give you a clue to the intellectual rigor and thoroughness with which the author covers the topic. Four of the more useful features of the book are: the author makes it plain that Latino culture is not monolithic; the author addresses the strains between various self-identified groups (say, Mexican-Americans and Cuban-Americans); and the many lists of high-achieving people of Latino ancestry, in many different fields; and the bibliography at the end. For the reader who has no grasp of the relations between the United States and the Spanish-speaking world, this is a good primer or place to start. It is by no means "Everything You Need to Know".
Rating:
Summary: AN EYE OPENER! THE TRUTH BEHIND LATINOS! POWERFUL!
Review: THIS BOOK IS POWERFUL, REAL, INCREDIBLE. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT LATINOS ARE ALL ABOUT AND ALL THE STUFF THEY'VE DONE FOR THIS COUNTRY AND HOW THEY ARE REALLY PART AND PARCEL OF OUR ENTIRE CULTURE--FROM WHAT WE EAT TO THE MOVIES WE SEE AND THE MUSIC WE PLAY AND EVEN THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WE ENJOY--READ THIS BOOK. THEN PASS IT ON! IT'S A TOTAL BOMB. I READ IT ON THE BEACH AND IN THE BATHROOM AND DURING LUNCH AND COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. THE AUTHOR IS FANTASTIC. SINCE READING THIS BOOK, I'VE READ HER OTHER BOOKS AND REALLY THINK SHE'S GOT IT TOGETHER.
Rating:
Summary: EMPOWERING! TOTAL HISTORY IN A BOTTLE! IT'S A MYTH BUSTER!
Review: THIS BOOK TAUGHT ME MORE IN TWO HOURS THAN I LEARNED IN FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE HISTORY OF LATINOS FROM BEFORE COLUMBUS TO THE VERY PRESENT, AND IT'S DONE IN A QUESTION AND ANSWER FORMAT, AND DIVIDED BY SECTIONS UNDER THE DIFFERENT LATINO GROUPS (MEXICAN AMERICANS, PUERTO RICANS, CUBAN AMERICANS,ETC), AND THEN UNDER SUBHEADS LIKE "POLITICS" OR "THE TOP LATINOS IN THE ARTS" AND SO ON.NO GROUP IS LEFT OUT, AND THE INFORMATION AND CLARIFICATION OF ZILLIONS OF COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS AND OUTRIGHT LIES ABOUT LATINOS ARE GREAT. THIS BOOK IS A MYTH BUSTER AND A REAL BREATH OF FRESH AIR. AS A LATINO, I FOUND IT VERY EMPOWERING.
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