Latino Fathers

Fatima Suarez is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is the author of Latino Fathers: What Shapes and Sustains Their Parenting.

"Fatima Suarez's Latino Fathers is a groundbreaking exploration of Latino fatherhood that dismantles stereotypes and uncovers nuanced and intersectional realities of parenting in contemporary U.S. society. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews, Suarez captures the joys, struggles, and complexities of fathers navigating cultural expectations, work demands, and shifting notions of masculinity. This deeply empathetic and rigorously researched project amplifies the voices of Latino fathers while carefully articulating what it means to father with resilience and care. The book should be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand family, fatherhood, and the intersections of race, class, and gender in the U.S. today." - Tristan Bridges, co-author of Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity and Change "Based on conversations with dozens of men, Latino Fathers explores their trials and triumphs, including how political economy and racism impact them as parents. We witness a range of Latino fathers expressing strong and mutually contradictory generalizations about Latino fathers. From the challenges of measuring up to legendary Latina motherhood to living down the 'unrelenting stereotype' of machismo, Suarez breaks new ground in the sociology of gender and Latinx studies." - Matthew Gutmann author of Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short "As the first book to center Latino fathers and the meanings they attach to parenting, work, migration, culture, and religion, Latino Fathers is a must-read for anyone interested in families, fathering, and masculinities. Suarez beautifully weaves fathers' stories with powerfully written and perceptive accounts of economic, social, and political forces that influence their individual lives. By focusing on what shapes and sustains contemporary Latino fathers' lived experiences, Latino Fathers incisively makes this crucial, but for far too long understudied, group of men more visible in scholarship, education, and policy beyond the topics of crime, poverty, and immigration that have previously limited our understandings of how Latino fathers think, feel, and engage with their families." - Jennifer Randles, author of Essential Dads: The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering "Using in-depth interviews, Suarez captures the lived experiences of Latino fathers, revealing complexities typically unacknowledged in popular depictions. She analyzes these men's social contexts, intergenerational perspectives, motivations, and emotions using sophisticated sociological frameworks that help us understand the nuances of family life in Latino communities today." - Scott Coltrane, co-author of Gender and Families