A nuanced and personal look at the Latino art world in New York from the 1970s to the new millennium

In this deft interweaving of autobiography with the story of Latino art's place in the flourishing New York art scene, Edward J. Sullivan calls attention to the prominent influence of Latin American artists from the 1970s until today. Recounting his own journey from student and curator to one of the field's most celebrated scholars, Sullivan gives readers an insider's look at a time when Latino art went from the margins to the spotlight and the discipline of Latin American art emerged. Beginning in the wake of the Black Power, gay liberation, and second wave feminism movements, Latino artists exhibited their work everywhere from alternative art spaces to major museums and forged a community and a collective identity. As Latin American and Latino artists navigated crises from AIDS to 9/11, they established their art forms as central to academic study and made New York's institutions, museums, and galleries take it more seriously.

Sullivan offers his readers an intimate view of the people, places, and events that populated the world of Latino art in New York as he showcases Latin American art from ancient to modern times. Rufino Tamayo, Carmen Herrera, Pepón Osorio, Cecilia Vicuña, and Juan Sánchez are among the many personalities who populated the scene. The result is a compelling and often surprising tale of cultural, personal, and institutional activity, and, at times, the intrigues that result from their collaborations.