In the open­ing chap­ter titled “Empires,” the author reflects on the sto­ries of empire and injus­tice that shape the expe­ri­ences of their chil­dren and the Lati­no com­mu­ni­ty in the Unit­ed States. Grow­ing up in the Unit­ed States, chil­dren are immersed in tales of pow­er­ful empires, often framed as hero­ic strug­gles against oppres­sive forces. These sto­ries, whether told through movies or books, tap into a col­lec­tive mem­o­ry of migra­tion and cul­tur­al era­sure that res­onates with the expe­ri­ences of mar­gin­al­ized groups, par­tic­u­lar­ly Lati­nos, in Amer­i­ca.

The author illus­trates how the his­to­ry of Euro­pean con­quests, racial ide­olo­gies, and forced migra­tions have shaped the Lati­no iden­ti­ty in the U.S. Tales of his­tor­i­cal events, such as the arrival of enslaved Africans or the U.S. gov­ern­men­t’s treat­ment of Indige­nous peo­ples, become amal­ga­mat­ed into pop­u­lar cul­ture, dis­till­ing com­plex his­to­ries into digestible nar­ra­tives that often over­look the harsh truths of colo­nial­ism.

In the con­text of Los Ange­les, a city large­ly defined by its Lati­no pop­u­la­tion, the author exam­ines how the film indus­try cap­i­tal­izes on these nar­ra­tives, shap­ing per­cep­tions of Lati­no iden­ti­ty in pop­u­lar media. The char­ac­ter­i­za­tions often fail to reflect real­i­ty and rein­force stereo­types, pro­mot­ing a nar­row under­stand­ing of Lati­no cul­tures and his­to­ries.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, the author con­nects the phys­i­cal bar­ri­ers faced by Lati­no fam­i­lies, such as the U.S.-Mexico bor­der, to the larg­er impe­r­i­al forces at play. The imag­ined iden­ti­ty imposed from out­side nar­ra­tives cre­ates a deep sense of melan­choly and fear among Lati­no communities—the con­stant threat of depor­ta­tion and sep­a­ra­tion from fam­i­ly is ever-present.

The nar­ra­tive also touch­es on per­son­al sto­ries, show­cas­ing the emo­tion­al weight of migra­tion and the strug­gles for dig­ni­ty with­in the frame­work of an empire. The author shares poignant anec­dotes from stu­dents, reveal­ing how their fam­i­lies’ his­to­ries are punc­tu­at­ed by loss, trau­ma, and resilience.

Over­all, the chap­ter argues that the real expe­ri­ences of Lati­no peo­ple in Amer­i­ca are over­shad­owed by the sim­pli­fied, often roman­ti­cized accounts of empire in main­stream media. The truth of their exis­tence is a com­plex inter­play of strug­gle, resilience, and the quest for belong­ing with­in an empire that seeks to ren­der them invis­i­ble.