E-book titled The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy (2021) - synopsis: Latine Catholics have used Our Lady of Guadalupe as a symbol in democratic campaigns ranging from the Chicano movement and United Farm Workers’ movements to contemporary calls for just immigration reform. Author Nichole M. Flores turns to Latine theological aesthetics and Catholic social thought to build a framework for interpreting religious symbols in our contemporary pluralistic and participatory democratic life. By offering a lived theology of Chicanx Catholics in Denver, Colorado, and their use of Guadalupe in the pursuit of justice in response to their neighborhood's gentrification, this book provides an important framework for a community of interpretation where members stand in solidarity to respond to justice claims made from diverse religious and cultural communities.
E-book titled Razabilly: Transforming Sights, Sounds, and History in the Los Angeles Latina/o Rockabilly Scene (2021) - synopsis: As a Los Angeles Rockabilly insider, Nicholas F. Centino pairs a decade of participant observation with interviews and historical research, exploring the reasons behind a Rockabilly renaissance in 1990s Los Angeles and demonstrating how, as a form of working-class leisure, this scene provides Razabillies with spaces of respite and conviviality within the alienating landscape of the urban metropolis. A nuanced account revealing how and why Los Angeles Latinas/os have turned to and transformed the music and aesthetic style of 1950s rockabilly, Razabilly offers rare insight into this musical subculture, its place in rock and roll history, and its passionate practitioners.