Southern California has its own unique racial makeup, not just in urban areas, but in the suburbs. While most suburbs in the rest of the US are dominated by whites, here in the greater Los Angeles area, immigrant communities can dominate. The most striking case in point is the San Gabriel Valley which is home to two major groups: Asian Americans and Latinos.

A new book by Arizona State University Professor Wendy Cheng, examines the confluence between these two communities in the San Gabriel Valley in terms of how they have interacted with one another over home ownership, public schools, and even intermarriage. The book is entitled The Changs Next Door to the Diazes: Remapping Race in Suburban California.

We continue our coverage of the way in which Latino and Asian American communities interact with one another in Southern California by turning next to Gilda Ochoa, a Professor of Sociology and Chicano/a-Latino/a Studies at Pomona College. Based on interviews with a plethora of students, staff, faculty, and parents, at one public high school in Los Angeles, Ochoa demonstrates in her new book, the ways in which stereotypes of Asian Americans and Latinos play out in our education system. The book is called Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian Americans, and the Achievement Gap.