Barrios Nortenos: St. Paul and Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century (University of Texas Press, 2000) has been selected for The Center for Great Lakes Culture 2002 Annual Book Award. The author, Dionicio Nodin Valdes, who is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota, is a leading scholar of this region, especially focusing on Mexican immigration and labor. The book, selected among a strong field of nominees, makes an important contribution to the mission of the Center for Great Lakes Culture to understand and interpret the cultural history and expressions of the diverse peoples, traditions, and customs of the Great Lakes region and the region's interactions with the world. According to Valdes, the two major objectives of the book are "to reconstruct the twentieth century history of Midwestern Mexican urban communities" and "to discuss group inequality." By examing the interactions of Mexicans and non-Mexicans, along with analyzing the role of geographic setting, Valdes offers a significant theoretical challenge to the Southwest-based geographic premises on issues of homeland, collective memory of conquest, employment patterns, and ethinic diversity. The book has been reviewed in a number of journals, including New Mexico Historical Review, Minnesota History, Agricultural History, and Journal of American Ethnic History.