The Making of Latin London : Salsa Music, Place and Identity

This book interrogates recent debates about globalisation and cultural identities by focusing on how Latin American people and cultural practices have moved from one continent to another, and specifically to London.

What does Latin culture mean when it is dislocated from its point of geographical reference?

How do Latin Americans experience this process and what part do different people play in the re-making of a Latin identity in the neighbourhoods, parks, bars and dance clubs of London?

This work approaches these issues by bringing together theoretical insights drawn from some of the key contemporary debates in the human and social sciences and combining this with information derived from detailed research and involvement in London's Latin community and music scene.

Through critical engagement with contemporary theories of globalization, the geography of power, cultural identity and the transformation of places, the book explains how the formation of Latin identities is directly related to wider social, economic and political processes. The book argues that most "micro" movements of people - through a shopping mall or practicing dances in the intimate environment of a nightclub - are directly connected to the most "macro" of global processes involving the regulated movement of citizens, sounds and images across national boundaries and through cities.

The work represents an important contribution to our understanding of global processes by highlighting and exploring the inter-relationships between nation and migration, the identity of places and the performing body.