A groundbreaking study of Latinization in the urban US landscape, a demographic and cultural revolution with extraordinary implications

Winner of the 2001 Carey McWilliams Award

A CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC, Magical Urbanism focuses on how Latinos are attempting to translate their urban demographic ascendancy into effective social power. Mike Davis chronicles the Dickensian underworld of day labor in New York, tracks the development of new ecologies and levels of development along the border, and examines the shifting realities of life and work for Latinos in US cities. The cosmopolitan result of the Latinization of America's cities "is a rich, constantly evolving" culture that has the potential, argues Davis, to
become a radical new American counterculture.

"Another contemporary classic of urban studies from Davis. A wake-up call for anyone who cares about the future of American cities." - Kirkus Reviews

"Fans of Mike Davis's slash-an-burn prose and take-no-prisoners credo will not be disappointed ... His new book about citified Latinos serves up more helpings of the elegant muckraking that thrilled the readers of City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear." - Bookforum

"Ricky Martin, Sammy Sosa, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera - something is happening to American popular culture. Mike Davis pulls together the startling facts, identifies the underlying trends and...brings his characteristic energy, eye for detail and exhaustive research to bear on an important phenomenon that remains mostly unexplored." - In These Times

"A non-romantic, optimistic view of the role Latinos will play in revitalizing dead urban areas and a dying American Left." - San Francisco Bay Guardian

"This well-researched, well-written book is driven by powerful feelings of indignation at the hardships Latinos are suffering in the United States today." - Washington Post Book World