uruguayan writer eduardo galeano has described us and latin american culture as continually hobbled by amnesiaunable or unwilling to remember the influence of mestizos and indigenous populations in mestizos come home author robert con davisundiano documents the great awakening of mexican american and latino culture since the 1960s that has challenged this omission in collective memory he maps a new awareness of the united states as intrinsically connected to the broader context of the americas at once native and new to the american southwest mexican americans have come home in a profound sense they have reasserted their right to claim that land and us culture as their ownmestizos come home explores key areas of change that mexican americans have brought to the united states these areas include the recognition of mestizo identity especially its historical development across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the reemergence of indigenous relationships to land and the promotion of mesoamerican conceptions of the human body clarifying and bridging critical gaps in cultural history davisundiano considers important artifacts from the past and present connecting the casta caste paintings of eighteenthcentury mexico to modernday artists including john valadez alma lpez and luis a jimnez jr he also examines such community celebrations as day of the dead cinco de mayo and lowrider car culture as examples of mestizo influence on mainstream american culture woven throughout is the search for meaning and understanding of mestizo identity a largescale landmark account of mexican american culture mestizos come home shows that mestizos are essential to us national culture as an argument for social justice and a renewal of americas democratic ideals this book marks a historic cultural homecoming