“A place where the work ethic of America
is being reborn in the hands of southerners
who happen to speak Spanish.

With little snow and 85 degree summers,
close to everything including major cities.

This not so Pleasantville is being transformed
by Latinos who dared to live the dreams advertised
by the same people professing no dogs
and no Mexicans allowed.”

~Excerpt from the poem “Dalton” in Of Jíbaros and Hillbillies (2010) by Ricardo Nazario y Colón

In 2025, the Pew Research Center reported that Latinx peoples comprised 20% of the U.S. population, resultant from a near-doubling of the U.S. Latinx population between 2000 and 2024. As the population of Latinx people in the U.S. has increased, so too have their numbers in the U.S. South. In the 2020s, widespread economic precarity, cost-of-living increases, rent and housing rate increases, and low job growth in some urban centers of the U.S. Northeast and the West Coast have led to significant in-migration toward several states in the U.S. South, including Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The economic prospects for much of the U.S. South are perceived as more advantageous to many working class Americans, along with offering increased housing availbility, more space, and a stronger sense of community, especially in more rural areas. Finally, many industries in the U.S. South, such as carpet manufacturing in Dalton, GA, or farm labor in FL, have actively courted Latinx migrant laborers to the region, both historically and in the contemporary. The U.S. South is a complex, vibrant, and large area with many sub-regions and unique cultures in which Latinx peoples have and continue to contribute to greatly. From some of the earliest European presence in the continent during the era of Spanish conquest, through the contempory moment of diverse ethno-racial cohabitation and cultural co-construction, the U.S. South and Southeast have been much more than a cultural melange of Anglo and African American cultural traditions with a remainder of some Native traditions. Rather, Latinx peoples have been a constant presence in the region that makes any study of the U.S. South without them radically incomplete.

The themes, listed below, serve as aids that assist in providing the titles of books, articles, podcasts, presentations, essays, and other resources. In addition to this, there are also links to community organizations, libraries, and school archives that help bring to light Latinx experiences across the Southeastern United States.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis defines the Southeast as comprising the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Southeast is a unique region insofar as it maps uneasily onto other regional conceptualizations. For example, in regards to the South broadly, most of the South Atlantic states (Delaware, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia) are included in the Southeast except for those italicized; all East South Central States (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee) are included in the Southeast; but only half of the West South Central States (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) are included in the Southeast. Other sub-regions assocated with the Southeast overlap, such as the Appalachian South and the Upland South (both comprising all of West Virginia, as well as parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia); or the Deep South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas) and the Mississippi Delta (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi). Some sub-regional areas that differ from both the Southern mountains and the Deep South or Delta include the vast arable tracts of land in the Piedmont South (Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia) and coastal regions of the South Atlantic like Virginia’s Tidewater, North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and the Sea Islands bordering the Southeast from South Carolina to Florida. Southern Louisiana’s history imbues it with French cultural traditions that make it unlike much of the rest of these Souths, while Peninsular Florida’s history of Spanish conquest and settlement foregrounds a different imperial past than that experienced in much of the rest of the U.S. Southeast.

In order to reflect the historical complexity and contemporary diversity of the U.S. Southeast, this resource guide is divided into sub-regional categories, while only including resources about the States in those sub-regions considered part of the Southeast (for example, it does not include resources on Deep South and Delta writers from Oklahoma or Texas, or South Atlantic writers from Delaware or Maryland). Sub-regional division also enables the user of this guide to more quickly find resources related to their specific area of focus. Joshua Cody Ward, for example, created this source in an effort to find, catalog, and make available a database of resources on the Latinx presence in the Appalachian or Upland South. We hope it will prove a useful starting place for the study of other sub-regional Latinx Souths: the more particular, the better.

Regions

Southeast

Websites:

Academic Books:

Latino Workers in the Contemporary South (2001) edited by Arthur D. Murphy, Colleen Blanchard, and Jennifer A. Hill
The American South in a Global World (2005) edited by James Peacock, Harry L. Watson, and Carrie R. Matthews
The New Latino South: The Context and Consequences of Rapid Population Growth (2005 Pew Report) by Rakesh Kochhar, Roberto Suro, and Sonya Tafoya
Latinos in the New South: Transformations of Place (2006) edited by Heather A. Smith and Owen J. Furuseth
Latinos and the U.S. South (2008) by José María Mantero
Other Souths: Diversity and Difference in the U.S. South, Reconstruction to Present (2008) edited by P. Holloway
Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South (2009) edited by Mary E. Odem and Elaine Cantrell Lacy
Global Connections & Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration to the Southeastern United States (2009) edited by F. Ansley and J. Shefner
Building Black-Brown Coalitions in the Southeast: Four African American-Latino Collaborations (2009 Report for Atlanta: Southern Regional Council) by Joel Alvarado and Charles Jaret
Just Neighbors? Research on African American and Latino Relations in the United States (2011) edited by Edward Telles, Mark Sawyer, and Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America & the American South (2011) by Sandra A. Gutierrez
New Destination Dreaming: Immigration, Race, and Legal Status in the Rural American South (2011) by Helen B. Marrow
Broken Souths: Latina/o Poetic Responses to Neoliberalism and Globalization (2013) by Michael Dowdy
Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South (2013) by Robin Beck
Strange Career of Juan Crow: Latinxs and the Making of the U.S. South, 1940-2000 (2016 Dissertation) by Cecelia Márquez
Nuevo South: Latinas/os, Asians, and the Remaking of Place (2017) by Perla M. Guerrero
US Latinization: Education and the New Latino South (2017) by Spencer Salas and Pedro R. Portes
El Nuevo Bajio and the New South: Race, Region, and Mexican Migration since 1980 (2018 Dissertation) by Yuridia Ramirez
The Browning of the New South (2019) by Jennifer A. Jones
Red States: Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, and Southern Studies (2020) by Gina Caison
Making the Latino South: A History of Racial Formation (2023) by Cecelia Márquez

Articles:

“Latino Southerners: A New Form of ‘Mestizaje’” (1998) by Marcos McPeek Villatoro
“Latino/White and Latino/Black Degregation in the Southeastern United States: Findings from Census 2000” (2003) by Robert A. Yarbrough
“Hispanics in the American South and the Transformation of the Poultry Industry” (2004) by William Kandel and Emilio A. Parrado
“Disrupting the dichotomy: ‘Yo soy Chicana/o?’ in the new Latina/o South” (2004) by Bernadette Calafell
“Changing Politics of Race and Region: Latino Migration to the US South” (2005) by Jamie Winders
“The New Latino South and the Challenge to American Public Education” (2006) by Andrew Wainer
“Bringing Back the (B)Order: Post 9/11 Politics of Immigration, Borders, and Beloning in the Contemporary US South” (2007) by Jamie Winders
“‘We’re here to stay’: Economic restructuring, Latino migration and place-making in the US South” (2008) by Barbara Ellen Smith and Jamie Winders
“Latino Migrant Music and Identity in the Borderlands of the New South” (2009) by David S. Margolies
“The Formation of a Hispanic Enclave in Nashville, Tennessee” (2010) by James Chaney
“New Pasts: Historicizing Immigration, Race, and Place in the South” (2010) by Barbara Smith and Jamie Winders
“Re-Placing Southern Geographies: The Role of Latino Migration in Transforming the South, Its Identities, and Its Study” (2011) by Jamie Winders
“New Directions in the Nuevo South” (2011) by Jamie Winders
“The Emerging Geographies of a Latina/o Studies Program” (2011) by María DeGuzmán
“Latino Migration and Neoliberalism in the U.S. South: Notes Toward a Rural Cosmpolitanism” (2011) by Jeff Popke
“Representing the Immigrant Social Movements, Political Discourse, and Immigration in the U.S. South” (2011) by Jamie Winders
“Black americans and Latino Immigrants in a Southern City: Friendly Neighbors or Economic Competitors?” (2011) by Paula D. McClain, Monique L. Lyle, Niambi M. Carter, Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, Gerald F. Lackey, Kendra Davenport Cotton, Shayla C. Nunnally, Thomas J. Scotto, Jeffrey D. Grynaviski, and J. alan Kendrick
“We Play Too: Latina Integration Through Soccer in the ‘New South” (2011) by Paul Cuadros
“Latino/as in the South: Immigration, Integration and Identity” (2012) by Suzanne Oboler
“Transforming Democracy: African Americans and Latinos’ Fight for First-class Citizenship in the South” (2012) by Saket Soni
“Bible Belt Immigrants: Latino Religious Incorporation in New Immigrant Destinations” (2012) by Laura López-Sanders
“Excepting/accepting the South: New Geographies of Latino Migration, New Directions in Latino Studies” (2012) by Jamie Winders and Barbara Ellen Smith.
“Buenas Dias, Y’all: Latinos in the South” (2012) by James Lamare, J.L Polinard, and Robert D. Wrinkle
“New Southern Neighbors: Latino Immigration and Prospects for Intergroup Relations between African-Americans and Latinos in the South” (2012) by Néstor Rodríguez.
“Dispatches from the ‘Viejo’ New South: Historicizing Recent Latino Migrations” (2012) by Julie M. Weise
“Foreign-Born Latino Labor Market Concentration in Six Metropolitan Areas in the U.S. South” (2013) by Sara Gleave and Qingfang Wang
“Gulf ‘alter-latinas’: Cross-dressing Women Travel Beyond the Gulfs of Transnationality and Transexuality” (2014) by Raquel González Rivas
“El Sur Profondo: Alternative Soundings of the South” (2015) by Dolores Flores-Silva, Keith Cartwright, and Rosemary Mulligan
“Weapons of the (Not So) Weak: Immigrant Mass Mobilization in the US South” (2016) by Chris Zepeda-Millán
“Chicana/o History as Southern History: Race, Place and the US South” (2016) by Perla M. Guerrero
“The Social Construction of Latino Childhood in the New South” (2017) by Rolf Straubhaar and Pedro R. Portes.
“The Difference a Decade of Enforcement Makes: Hispanic Racial Incorporation and Changing Intergroup Relations in the American South’s Black Belt (2003-2013)” (2017) by Helen B. Marrow
“Defying Indian Slavery: Apalachee Voices and Spanish Sources in the Eighteenth-Century Southeast” (2018) by Alejandra Dubcovsky
“(Re)Learning to Teach: Using rasquachismo in the South” (2018) by Timothy Monreal
“Juan Crow and the Erasure of Blackness in the Latina/o South” (2019) by Cecelia Márquez
“Introduction: New Directions of the Latina/o South” (2019) by Perla M. Guerrero
“A Not-So Nuevo Past: Latina Histories in the U.S. South” (2019) by Sarah McNamara
“A Legacy of Exclusion: The Geopolitics of Immigration and Latina/os in the South” (2019) by Yalidy Matos
“Tomatero Circuit of Southern Appalachia-South Florida” (2019) by Mary Elizabeth Schmid
“To Belong Aquí y Allá” (2020) by Maggie Loredo and Perla M. Guerrero
“‘No te Tratan Bien Porque Eres Mexicana’: Intersectional Systemic Violence and Precarity in Latina Adolescent Life in the US South” (2020) by Gwendolyn Ferreti, Mercedes M. Morales-Alemán, and Carlos E. Alemán
“Los Autobuses del Sur: Mexican Migrant Routes and Economies in the US South” (2022) by Iliana Yamileth Rodriguez
“Does Policy Threat Mobliize? 287(g) and Latino Voter Registration in North Carolina and Florida” (2022) by Eroll Kun
“Boots Firm on the Ground: Latinx Immigrants’ Critical Positioning in the Future of US Southern Agriculture” (2025) by Juan Quinonez Zepeda

Popular Sources:

“The New Latino South: The Context and Consequences of Rapid Population Growth” (2005) by Pew Research Center
“Latinos, The American South, and the Future of US Race Relations” (2007) Presentation by George Sanchez for Southern Spaces
“Latino Immigration in the South: Emerging Trends and Critical Issues” (2009) by Manuel A. Vásquez
“The new Latino South” (2024) by Tina Vasquez and Roderico Yool Díaz
“The Latino South” (2025) Podcast discussion by Anisa Khalifa and Jerad Walker

Appalachian South

Websites:

Writers:

Judith Ortiz Cofer (Puerto Rican author, spent most of her career at UGA in Athens, GA)
- The Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry (1993)
- Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (2006)
- Peach Pit Corazón: A Judith Ortiz Reader (2025) edited by Rafael Ocasio
Ada Limón (Past Poet Laureate, Adopted Kentucky Native)
- Bright Dead Things: Poems (2015)
- The Hurting Kind (2022)
- You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World (2024)
Marta Miranda-Straub (Cubalachian writer and Affrilachian)
- Cradled by Skeletons (2019)
- Mermaid Musings: Diving in the Margins (2025)
Ricardo Nazario y Colón (Puerto Rican, Nuyorican, and Affrilachian poet and administrator)
- Of Jíbaros and Hillbillies (2010)
- The Moor of the Bronx (2023)
Marcos McPeek Villatoro (Salvadoran and Appalachian, spent time growing up in TN)
- They Say That I Am Two (1997)
- The Holy Spirit of My Uncle’s Cojones (1999)
- Home Killings (2001)
- On Tuesday, When the Homeless Disappeared (2004)
- Speak of It: Memoir (2023)

Academic Books:

Creating the Modern South: Millhands and Managers in Dalton, Georgia, 1884-1984 (1992) by Douglas Flamming
Industry, Social Regulation, and Scale: The Carpet Manufacturing Complex of Dalton, Georgia (1998 Dissertation) by James Denton Engstrom
The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South (2003) by Leon Fink
The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Exploration of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566–1568 (2005) by Charles Hudson
Voices from the Nueva Frontier: Latino Immigration in Dalton, Georgia (2009) edited by Donald E. Davis, Thomas M. Deaton, David P. Boyle, and Jo-Anne Schick
Nashville in the New Millennium: Immigrant Settlement, Urban Transformation, and Social Belonging (2013) by Jamie Winders
Canciones de los Apalaches: Latinx Music, Migration, and Belonging in Appalachia (2021- Dissertation) by Sophia M. Enriquez
Appalachia as Contested Borderland of the Early Modern Atlantic, 1528-1715 (2021) by Kimberly C. Borchard
Boerderlands and Mestiza Consciousness in Appalachia: Latina Undergraduate Experiences in a Predominately White Institution (2022 Dissertation) by Susana Mazuelas Quirce
Understanding the Experience: Latinx Transfer Students from the Appalachian Region (2023 Dissertation) by Porscha Street Elton
Food as a Method of Placemaking for Latin American and Middle Eastern Immigrants in the US South: A Case Study Examination of a Neighborhood in South Nashville, TN (2024 Thesis) by Justin Luckner
Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia (2024) edited by Katrina M. Powell
Teresa Martín & Luisa Menéndez: Indigenous Women from Appalachia in the Spanish Colonial Record (2025) edited by Melissa D. Birkhofer and Paul M. Worley

Articles:

“‘Making Carpet by the Mile’: The Emergence of a Mexican American Immigrant Community in and Industrial Region of the U.S. Historic South” (2000) by Rubén Hernández-León and Víctor Zúñiga
“Lives of Appalachian and Latina Textile Mill Workers in Southern Appalachia” (2001) by Rosemarie Mincey
“Latino Hillbilly: An Interview with Marcos McPeek Villatoro” (2001) by Jim Minick
“Mexican Immigrant Communities in the South and Social Capital: The Case of Dalton, Georgia” (2002) by
Rubén Hernández-León and Víctor Zúñiga
“¿Un Paso Adelante? The Politics of Bilingual Education, Latino Student Accommodation, and School District Management in Southern Appalachia” (2002) by Edmund T. Hamann
“Appalachian Diversity: African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and Other Populations” (2004) by Wilburn Hayden Jr.
“Appalachia Meets Aztlán: Mexican Immigration and Intergroup Relations in Dalton, Georgia” (2005) by Víctor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández-León
“Illnesses and Injuries Reported by Latino Poultry Workers in Western North Carolina” (2006) by Sara A. Quandt, Joseph G. Grywacz, Antonio Marin, Lourdes Carrillo, Michael L. Coates, Bless Burkes, and Thomas A. Arcury
“The Spanish Conspiracy of the Trans-Appalachian Borderlands, 1786-1789” (2007) by Kevin T. Barksdale
“Substance Abuse in Immigrant Latino Youth in Appalachia: Preliminary Findings” (2007) by Andres J. Pumariega, Udema Millsaps, Leonardo Rodriguez, Michele Moser, and Joanne B. Pumariega
“The Emergence of New Hispanic Settlement Patterns in Appalachia” (2007) by Holly R. Barcus
“Hola Y’all: Latinos Speak from Affrilachia” (2008) by Beth Newberry
“Sleuthing Central American Identity and History in the New Latino South: Marcos McPeek Villatoro’s Home Killings” (2008) by Yajaira M. Padilla
“Inside the Gilded Cage: The Lives of Latino Immigrant Males in Rural Central Kentucky” (2008) by Benjamin J. Schultz
“La Familia Fernandez: Recalling a Spanish Family in Clarksburg” (2009) by Raymond Alvarez
“Ana Romero and Death Prisons for the Innocent” (2010) by Brian L. Rich
“Going South, Coming North: Migration and Union Organizing in Morristown, Tennessee” (2011) by Fran Ansley and Anne Lewis
“One Region Responds: The Emergence of Hispanic Workers in Appalachia” (2011) by Adam Crawford, Adrianne Meade, Shane Spiller, and Charles Stamper
“Latino Healthcare in Southern Appalachia: A Community-Engaged Examination” (2011) by Cameron D. Lippard and Jammie Price
“Living Across Borders: Guatemala Maya Immigrants in the US South” (2011) by William Brown and Mary Odem
“Curanderismo in Appalachia: The Use of Remedios Caseros Among Latinos in Northeastern Tennessee” (2011) by Anthony Canvender, Vivan Gonzales Gladson, Jorja Cummings, and Michele Hammet
“Taquerias and Tiendas in the Blue Ridge: Viewing the Transormation of Space in a Globalized Appalachia” (2012) by David S. Margolies
“The Latino Pastoral Narrative: Backstretch Workers in Kentucky” (2012) by Gabriela Nuñez
“The Price of the Ticket: Latino Immigrants and the Challenge of Community in Appalachia” (2012) by Barbara Ellen Smith
“Hillbilly Norte: Latino Communities and Institutions in Change in Rural East Tennessee” (2012) by Chris Baker
“‘Andando Entre Dos Mundos’: Towards an Appalachian Latino Literature” (2012) by Michael Dowdy
“When Latinos are Not Latinos: The Case of Guatemalan Maya in the United States, the Southeast and Georgia” (2012) by Alan LeBaron
“Mexican Immigrant Experiences With Discrimination in Southern Appalachia” (2014) by Cameron D. Lippard and M. Graham Spann
“Racializing Undocumented Immigrants in the Age of Color-blindness: Millennials’ Views from Kentucky” (2016) by M. Cristina Alcalde
“The Unsung Latino Entrepreneurs of Appalachia” (2018) by Eric Franklin Amarante
“‘Penned Against the Wall’: Migration Narratives, Cultural Resonances, and Latinx Experiences in Appalachian Music” (2020) by Sophia M. Enriquez
“Enterprising Women of Mexican American Farming Families in Southern Appalachia” (2020) by Mary Elizabeth Schmid
“Evaluating Food Access and Nutrition Education Needs among Food Pantry Clients from a Latinx Micro-community in Rural Appalachia” (2021) by M. Gutschall, A. Farris, A. Hege, and A. Collins
“Race and Radicalism in Appalachian Poetics” (2022) by Michael Dowdy
“‘She Said that Saint Augustine is Nothing Compared to Her Homeland’: Teresa Martín and the Méndez Cancio Account of La Tama (1600)” (2023) by Melissa D. Birkhofer and Paul M. Worley
“‘Mexican or Something’: Reading the Novels of Mexicanesque Appalachia” (2023) by Michael Dowdy
“Ecofeminism in Mesha Maren’s Sugar Run (2019): Familiar Territory, Intersectional Pathways, and Fresh Trails” (2025) by Deedee Abbott
“Joe Troop, From Bluegrass to Activism and Latingrass” (2026) by Yndiana Montes Fogelquist

Popular Sources:

“Hispanic Appalachia” (2013) Photography project by Megan G. King
“The Latino Experience in Appalachia” (2014) NPR
“Latinx Musicians in Appalachia” (2020) by Sophia Enriquez
“The music of our Hispanic hollers: 3 great Appalachian-Latin fusion bands” (2022) by Bethany I.
“7 Latino Artists Shaping Asheville’s Creative Scene” (2025) at Asheville
“The New Face of Appalachia: How Latino Growth is Reshaping the Region” (2025) by Jim Branscome

Deep South and the Mississippi Delta

Websites:

Writers:

Daniel Alarcón (Peruvian, Alabaman)
- War by Candlelight (2005)
Noelia Cerna (Costa Rican, Arkansan)
- Las Piedrecitas (2024)
Emilio Gonzales-Llanes (Ybor City native and artist)
- Cigar City Stories: Tales of Old Ybor City (2012)
Linett Luna Tovar (Louisianan)
- Poetry featured in Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (2024)
Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés (Educated in Miami, Professor and writer in Orlando)
- Marielitos, Balseros, and Other Exiles (2009)
- Oye What I’m Gonna Tell You (2015)
Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué (Floridian, Cosmopolitan)
- Losing Miami (2019)
C.T. Salazar (Mississippian)
- Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking (2022)
Jose Yglecias (Ybor City, Florida native and prolific writer of testimonio)
- A Wake in Ybor City (1963)
- The Truth About Them (1971)
- Home Again (1987)

Academic Books:

Don Vicente Martínez Ybor, the Man and His Empire: Development of the Clear Havana Industry in Cuba and Florida in the Nineteenth Century (1977 Dissertation) by L. Glenn Westfall
Spanish St. Augustine: The Archaeology of a Colonial Creole Community (1983) by Kathleen Deagan
Emigrants and Society: Extremadura and Spanish America in the Sixteenth Century (1989) by Ida Altman
Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959–1994 (1996) by María Cristina García
The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885–1985 (1998) by Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta
De Aquí, de Allá: Race, Empire, and Nation in the Making of Cuban Migrant Communities in New York and Tampa, 1823–1924 (2001 Dissertation) by Nancy Raquel Mirabal
More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa (2002) by Susan D. Greenbaum
La Pollera: Latin American Poultry Workers in Morton, Mississippi (2003 Thesis) by Anita Grabowski
From Comitancillo to Carthage, Mississippi: Activist Research, Transnationalism, and Racial Formation in a Community of Guatemalan Mam Poultry Workers (2005 Thesis) by David Mandel-Anthony
Mapping the Mississippian Shatter Zone: The Colonial Indian Slave Trade and Regional Instability in the American South (2009) edited by Robbie Ethridge and Sheri M. Shuck-Hall
Impacting Arkansas: Vietnamese and Cuban Refugeees and Latina/o Immigrants, 1975-2005 (2010 Dissertation) by Perla M. Guerrero
Being Brown in Dixie: Race, Ethnicity, and Latino Immigration in the New South (2010) edited by Cameron D. Lippard and Charles A. Gallagher
Discovering Florida: First-Contact Narratives from Spanish Expeditions along the Lower Gulf Coast (2014) edited and translated by John Worth
Rhythms of Race: Cuban Musicians and the Making of Latino New York City and Miami, 1940–1960 (2015) by Christina D. Abreu
Casablanca of the Caribbean: Cuban Refugees, Local Power, and Cold War Policy in Miami, 1959–1995 (2015 Dissertation) by Mauricio Castro
Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South Since 1910 (2015) by Julie M. Weise
Cubans and the Caribbean South: Race, Labor, and Cuban Identity in Southern Florida (2015 Dissertation) by Andrew Gómez
Hispanic and Latino New Orleans: Immigration and Identity Since the Eighteenth Century (2015) by Andrew Sluyter, Case Watkins, James P. Chaney, and Annie M. Gibson
“Cubans Vote Cuban”: Local Politics and Latino Identity in Miami (2016 Dissertation) by Jeanine Navarrete
Scratching Out a Living: Latinos, Race, and Work in the Deep South (2016) by Angela Stuesse
Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 (2017) by Julio Capó Jr.
Latino Orlando: Suburban Transformations and Racial Conflict (2020) by Simone Delerme
Gulf Gothic: Mexico, the U.S. South and La Llorona’s Undead Voices (2023) by Dolores Flores-Silva and Keith Cartwright
Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South (2023) by Sarah McNamara

Articles:

“ ‘La Resistencia’: Tampa’s Immigrant Labor Union” (1965) by Durward Long
“The Radical Latino Island in the Deep South” (1977) Jose Yglesias
“Cubans in Tampa: From Exiles to Immigrants, 1892–1901″ (1978) by Louis A. Pérez Jr.
“‘The Miami Sound’: A Contemporary Latin Form of Place-Specific Music” (1983) by James R. Curtis and Richard F. Rose
“Afro-Cubans in Exile: Tampa Florida, 1886–1984” (1985) by Susan D. Greenbaum
“Tampa Cigarworkers and the Strugle for Cuban Independence” (1985) by Gerald E. Poyo
“On the Edge: Blacks and Hispanics in Metropolitan Miami since 1959” (1990) by Raymong Mohl
“Remembering Ybor City: The Life and Work of Jose Yglesias” (1996) by Robert P. Ingalls
“¡No Pasarán! The Spanish Civil War’s Impact on Tampa’s Latin Community, 1936–1939″ (1997) by Ana Varela-Lago
“ ‘We Had to Help’: Remembering Tampa’s Response to the Spanish Civil War” (1997) by Ana Varela-Lago
“From Factory to Footlights: Original Spanish-Language Cigar Workers’ Theatre in Ybor City and West Tampa, Florida” (2000) by Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez
“Latinization in the Heart of Dixie: Hispanics in Late-Twentieth-Century Alabama” (2002) by Raymond A. Mohl
“Globalization, Latinization, and the Nuevo New South” (2003) by Raymond A. Mohl
“Surviving the Florida Straits” (2005) by Roberto Morales
“Nicaraguans in Miami-Dade County: Immigration, Incorporation, and Transnational Entrepreneurship” (2006) by Ana Margarita Cervantes-Rodriguez
“Religion and Social Capital Among Mexican Immigrants in Southwest Florida” (2007) by Philip J. Williams and Patricia Fortuny Loret de Mola
“Preserving the Memory of Ybor City, Florida” (2009) by Cameron LeBlanc
“Queering Mariel: Mediating Cold War Foreign Policy and U.S. Citizenship among Cuba’s Homosexual Exile Community, 1978–1994” (2010) by Julio Capó Jr.
“The Declining Symbolic Significance of the Embargo for South Florida’s Cuban Americans” (2010) by Chris Girard, Guillermo J. Grenier, and Hugh Gladwin
“An interview with Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés” (2011) with Kevin Meehan
“‘Better than White Trash’: Work Ethic, Latinidad and Whiteness in Rural Arkansas” (2012) by Miranda Cady Hallett
“Denaturalized Identities: Class-based Perceptions of Self and Others among Latin American Immigrants in South Florida” (2012) by Elena Sabogal
“Latinization, Race, and Cultural Identification in Puerto Rican Orlando” (2013) by Patricia Silver
“Ybor City Goes to War: The Evolution and Transformation of a ‘Latin’ Community in Florida, 1886–1950” (2014) by Gary R. Mormino
“A Tenuous Welcome for Latinas/os and Asians: States’ Rights Discourse in Late Twentieth-Century Arkansas” (2014) by Perla M. Guerrero
“North Florida in the Cuban Literary Canon: Contact Zone, Chronotope, and Liminal Space” (2014) by Gregory Helmick
“The Politics of Expulsion: A Short History of Alabama’s Anti-Immigrant Law HB 56” (2016) by Raymond A. Mohl
“‘Porque Tenían Sangre de “NEGROS”‘: The Exclusion of Mexican Children from a Louisiana School, 1915-1916” (2017) by Rubén Donato and Jarrod Hanson
“Señoritas and Cigarmaking Women: Using ‘Latin’ Feminine Types to Rebrand and Market Ybor City, 1950–1962″ (2017) by Brad Massey
“Southern Voices, 65th Infantry Veteran’s Park: Contested Landscapes and Latinization in Greater Orlando” (2017) by Simone Delerme
“Spanish Anarchism in Tampa, Florida, 1886–1931″ (2018) by George E. Pozzetta
“Café Conversations in Miami”(2018) by Eduardo A. Gamarra
“Latin Place Making in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Cuban Émigrés and Their Transnational Impact in Tampa, Florida” (2018) by Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez
“Investigating Intra-ethnic Divisions among Latino Immigrants in Miami, Florida” (2018) by Marie L. Mallet and Joanna M. Pinto-Coelho
“Expressing Similarities and Differences: Latin@ Voices from Metropolitan Miami” (2018) by Sarah J. Mahler, Jasney Cogua-López, and Mayurakshi Chaudhuri
“Monolith or Mosaic? Miami’s Twenty-first-century Latin@ Dynamics” (2018) by Sarah J. Mahler
“‘La Polimigra’: A Social Construct behind the ‘Deportation Regime’ in the Greater Northwest Arkansas Region” (2018) by Juan José Bustamante and Eric Gamino
“Now We Work Just as One: The United Farm Workers in Florida Citrus, 1972-1977” (2019) by Terrell Orr
“Before Exile: Unearthing the ‘Golden Age’ of Cuban Theater in Tampa” (2019) by Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez
“Introduction: Immigration History and the End of Southern Exceptionalism” (2019) by Julie M. Weise
“ ‘Now We Work Just as One’: The United Farm Workers in Florida Citrus, 1972–1977” (2019) by Terrell Orr
“Borderland Unionism: Latina Activism in Ybor City and Tampa, Florida, 1935-1937” (2019) by Sarah McNamara
“A State’s Right to Make Race through Local Policy: Hispanics, Immigrants, and the Shifting Colour Line” (2021) by Nicole Trujillo-Pagán
“The Southeast Florida Surface Urban Heat Island and Hispanic Ethnic Exposure Inequalities” (2024) by Kevin Cresswell
“‘We Need More!’: Mexican Immigrants’ Tacit Knowledge and Mississippi’s Beef Cattle Industry” (2025) by Juan Quinonez Zepeda

Popular Sources:

“The State of Latinos in the Deep South: Being Visible by Piercing the Stigma Veil, Latino Commission on AIDS” (2015) CHLP
“Latinos in Central Florida: The Growing Hispanic Presence in the Sunshine State” (2016) by John A. Gutierrez
“Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Mississippi Delta” (2017) by Julie Weise
“15 Facts About Latino Well-Being in Florida” (2022) by Taemin Ahn, Hector De Leon, Misael Galdámez, Rocio Perez, Denise Ramos-Vega, Lupe Renteria Salome, and Jie Zong
“Mississippi’s growing Latinx population creates space to celebrate” (2023) by Lacey Alexander

Coastal and Piedmont Souths

Websites:

Writers:

Mario Bencastro (Salvadoran-Virginian novelist)
- Odyssey to the North (1998)
Raúl Carrillo-Arciniega (Professor in at Charleston, SC)
- Tenesí Ríver (2015)
Paul Cuadros (Professor of Journalism at UNC)
- A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America (2006)
Mayra Cuevas (Atlanta, GA based writer)
- How to Fake a Southern Gentleman: A Novel (2026)
Nicole Cecelia Delgado (Puerto Rican, Virginian)
- Objetos encontrados/ Found Objects (2019)
Ariel Dorfman (Argentinian, North Carolinian writer at Duke)
- Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey (1999)
Gustavo Pérez Firmat (Cuban-American, Miami-educated, Professor at UNC)
- Bilingual Blues: Poems, 1981-1994 (1995)
- Next Year in Cuba: A Cubano’s Coming-Of-Age in America (2006)
- Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way (2012)
- A Cuban in Mayberry: Looking Back at America’s Hometown (2014)
Meg Medina (Latinx Virginian)
- Author of several children’s books

Academic Books:

The Georgia Project: A Binational Attempt to Reinvent a School District in Response to Latino Newcomers (1999 Dissertation) by Edmund Tappan Hamann
Neighborhood Voices: New Immigrants in Northeast Central Durham/ Voces del Barrio: Nuevos Immigrantes en Noreste Central de Durham (2001) edited by Jill Hemming, Alicia J. Rouverol, Angela Hornsby, with Katushka Olave and Jacqueline Wagstaff
The New North State: Effects of Latino Immigration on Native Communities in Piedmont North Carolina (2002 Dissertation) by Karla Anne Rosenberg
The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on the State of North Carolina (2006, UNC Report) by John D. Kasarda and James H. Johnson Jr.
Going to Carolina del Norte: Narrating Mexican Migrant Experiences (2006) by Hannah E. Gill and Todd Drake
The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State (2010) by Hannah E. Gill
Carolina del Norte: Geographies of Latinization in the South (2011)–Guest edited issue of Southeastern Geographer– by Altha J. Cravey and Gabrela Valdivia
North Carolina: A State of Change, A Changing State (2013)–Special Edition of North Carolina Literary Review
The Sounds of Latinidad: Immigrants Making Music and Creating Culture in a Southern City (2015) by Samuel K. Byrd
Hispanic & Latino Heritage in Virginia (2016) by Christine Stoddard
The History of Latinx Students at Duke University (2018 Thesis) by Elizabeth Barahona
Constructing Mexican Atlanta, 1980-2016 (2020 Dissertation) by Iliana Yamileth Rodriguez
Industrialization and Immigration: Latino and Hispanic Immigrants in the South Carolina Upstate (2025 Thesis) by Matthew D. Girardeau

Articles:

“North Carolina Communities in Transition: The Hispanic Influx” (1996) by K.D. Johnson-Webb and J.H. Johnson
“The Changing South: Latino Labor and Poultry Production in Rural North Carolina” (1997) by Altha J. Cravey
“Profile of North Caroina Hispanics” (1999) by J.H. Johnson, K.D. Johnson-Webb, and W.C, Farrell
“Housing, Hispanics and Transitioning Geographies in Charlotte, North Carolina” (2004) by Heather Anne Smith and Owen J. Furuseth
“Origins and Closure: An Interview with Ariel Dorfman” (2004) by Robert Siegel
“Rural Industry and Mexican Immigration and Settlement in North Carolina” (2005) by David Griffith
“Global Lives, Local Struggles: Latin American Immigrants in Atlanta” (2006) by Mary Odem
“Racial Distancing in a Southern City: Latino Immigrants’ Views of Black Americans” (2006) by Paula D. McClain, Niambi M. Carter, Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, Monique L. Lyle, Jeffrey D. Grynaviski, Shayla C. Nunnally, Thomas J. Scotto, J. Alan Kendrick, Gerald F. Lackey, and Kendra Davenport Cotton
“Geographies of Hope and Despair: Atlanta’s African American, Latino, and White Day Laborers” (2007) by Terry Easton
“Latino Settlement, Service Provision and Social Justice in Charlotte, North Carolina” (2007) by Heather A. Smith
“Unfinished Migrations: From the Mexican South to the American South–Impressions on Afro-Mexican Migration to North Carolina” (2007) by Bobby Vaughn and Ben Vinson III
“Spain and the Founding of Jamestown” (2011) by William S. Goldman
“African American and Hispanic Self-Employment in the Charlotte Metropolitan Area” (2011) by Qingfang Wang
“Borders, Border-Crossing, and Political Art in North Carolina” (2011) by Gabriela Valdivia, Joseph Palis, and Matthew Reilly
“An ‘Incredible Number of Latinos and Asians’: Media Representations of Racial and Ethnic Population Change in Atlanta, Georgia” (2011) by Eileen Diaz McConnell
“Mexican Families in North Carolina: The Socio-historical Contexts of Exit and Settlement” (2011) by Krista M. Perreira
“Black Attitudes and Hispanic Immigrants in South Carolina” (2011) by Monica McDermott
“Carolina del Norte: An Introduction” (2012) by Altha Cravey and Gabriela Valdivia
“Implications of Racial and Ethnic Relations for Health and Well-being in New Latino Communities: A Case Study of West Columbia, South Carolina” (2012) by Clare Barrington, DeAnne K. Hilfinger Messias, and Lynn Weber
“‘Juan Crow’ in the Nuevo South? Racialization of Guatemalan and Dominican Immigrants in the Atlanta Metro Area” (2012) by Irene Brown and Mary Odem
“Blacks May Be Second Class, But They Can’t Make Them Leave: Mexican Racial Formation and Immigrant Status in Winston-Salem” (2012) by Jennifer A. Jones
“A Cuban in Mayberry” (2013) by Gustavo Pérez Firmat
“Carolina Outlier: An Interview with María DeGuzmán” (2013) by Joan Conwell
“Countering Anti-Immigrant Discourses in the New Latino South: ‘Nos mascan pero no nos tragan'” (2015) by Shanan Fitts and Greg McClure
“Voices from the Southern Oral History Program: New Roots/Nuevas Raíces: Stories from Carolina del Norte” (2016) by Jaycie Vos, Maria Silvia Ramirez, Laure Villa-Torres, Hanna E. Gill, Pedro J. Carreño, Michelle Carreño, Rodolfo Toledano García, Emilio Vicente, Daniel Correa, Luis Acosta, Alma Islas, Kayla Schliewe, Ana Laura Medrano, Elise Stephenson
“The Deferred Ation for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program in North Carolina: Perspectives from Immigrants and Community-Based Organizations” (2017) by Hannah E. Gill and Sara Peña
“Beyond Latin Night: Latinx Musicians and the Politics of Music in Charlotte” (2018) by Samuel K. Byrd
“A South in Every North: Diego Camposeco’s Utopian Vision” (2020) by Jeff Whetstone
“Integrating Hispanic Immigrant Youth: Perspectives from White and Black Americans in Emerging Hispanics Communities and Schools” (2020) by Krista M. Perreira, Stephanie Potochnik, and M. Priscilla Brietzke
“Experiences and Perceptions of Relativity among Latinos and non-Latinos in the US Southeast: Lessons from Community Dialogues in an Evolving Immigrant Gateway City” (2021) by Johanna Claire Schuch and Susan B. Harden
“Chicken Doctors and the Trials of Transcendence: Unveilling Gallinera/o Illness Narratives” (2023) by Geovani Ramírez
“Race, Nation, and Migration: An Analysis of Black Racial Identification Among Afro-Mexicans in Winston-Salem, North Carolina” (2025) by Roberto Rincon

Popular Sources:

“The Unlikely Long History of Latinos and Latin Music in North Carolina” (2019) by David Garcia
“Hispanics and Latinos in Virginia” (2025) by Christine Stoddard
“South Carolina’s Hispanic and Latino Population Keeps Growing” (2025) by Macon Atkinson
“This Statewide Survey of NC Latinos is the first of its kind. Here’s what it found” (2025) by Aaron Sánchez-Guerra
“Hispanic Heritage Month in Virginia” at Virginia.gov

If you would like to recommend a book, essay, article, or website to the database, or have suggestions for the database, please email Dr. María DeGuzmán (deguzman@email.unc.edu), Director of the Latina/o Studies Program, or Joshua Cody Ward (codyward@unc.edu).

Most of the articles referred to in this guide come from the following journals: Appalachian Journal, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Latino Studies, North Carolina Literary Review, Southeastern Geographer, Southern Cultures, Southern Literary Journal and South, and Southern Spaces.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to Joshua Cody Ward, researcher and compiler, for their extensive work in making this database possible.

*Indicates a dead link with no access online. Email us for access suggestions.

The U.S. Latinx Southeast- A Resource Aid

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