Rendón wins book award

Maria Rendon

“Stagnant Dreamers: How the Inner City Shapes the Integration of Second Generation Latinos" garners best book honors from the American Sociological Association

María G. Rendón’s book, “Stagnant Dreamers: How the Inner City Shapes the Integration of Second Generation Latinos”  has been named a winner of the 2020 Robert E. Park Award for Best Book from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.

Her book follows 42 young Latinos from two high-poverty Los Angeles neighborhoods as they transition into adulthood. It opens with the immigrant parents of the 42 men. The author captures their story of migration and settlement in Los Angeles during turbulent times — the peak years of urban violence. It describes the challenges her subjects face coming of age in the inner city and accessing higher education and good jobs. It demonstrates how family-based social ties and community institutions can serve as buffers against neighborhood violence, chronic poverty, incarceration and other negative outcomes.

Learn more from this Q&A feature with the author.

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