American Value: Migrants, Money, and Meaning in El Salvador and the United States
Book by David Pedersen, University of California, San Diego
Reviewed by Milton R. A. Machuca-Gálvez, Swarthmore College
Winter 2015
Milton R. A. Machuca-Gálvez of Swarthmore College reviews American Value: Migrants, Money, and Meaning in El Salvador and the United States. In this book, Pedersen David deconstructs the hierarchies of power that have governed this exercise in storytelling, choosing which narratives will be foregrounded and which will be marginalized and eventually forgotten. He repeatedly questions the dominant narratives associated with this story, emphasizing instead the multifaceted composition of the Intipucá-DC connection. The book demonstrates that seemingly simple phenomena have a deeper meaning than established views have allowed.
Read the book review at https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12235.