Resumen de Latin/o American City Life in Snapshots. A Review of (eds.) Richard Young and Amanda Holmes’ Cultures of the City: Mediating Identities in Urban Latin/o America (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.)

Inga Veksler

• As its title suggests, Cultures of the City: Mediating Identities in Urban Latin/o America, edited by Richard Young and Amanda Holmes, brings together work in Latin American urban cultural studies. However, as the editors admit in their introductory chapter, it does not offer any generalizations about Latin American cities, or their symbolic representation in cultural texts. Rather, the editors present the collection of articles as ephemeral “snapshots”—glimpses into a dozen cities. This lack of unified message, theme, or theoretical outlook allows for a diverse array of topics but is also the volume’s greatest detraction.