Angels Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and the Rhetorics of Everyday

by Ralph Cintron

As issues of power and social order loom large in Angelstown, Ralph Cintron shows how eruptions on the margins of the community are emblematic of a deeper disorder. In their language and images, the members of a Latino community in a midsized American city create self-respect under conditions of disrepect. Cintron's innovative ethnography offers a beautiful portrait of a struggling Mexican-American community and shows how people (including ethnographers) make sense of their lives through cultural forms.

Genres: Urbanism, Writing, Cultural

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jo Means · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read it for school but it was pretty good.

[Jaemes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only one other ethnography has ever been such an emotionally intense read for me: Jean Briggs' Never in Anger. Angels' Town had a very similar feel to it. An almost unbelievably good ethnography.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the open chapters in which Cintron introduces ethnography as a technique and his biases as he approaches his subject matter.

I thought I might enjoy this because of the focus on a community I don't know very well, but it was too academic / sociological for the stories to be engaging.

Wished it were more like Van Maanen's Tales of the Field.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good so far, but thick.