“Latinos are not a monolith” is something that we hear almost every election cycle when politicians try to understand and court Latino voters. But arguably no one knows the nuances and realities of this  community more than Peruvian-American journalist and author Marie Arana. She recently wrote “LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority,” which explores the complexities, histories and culture of Latinos in the United States.

“This is a population that we need to pay attention to,” she said to Latino USA. “This is a young population, a burgeoning population. It is in many ways moving the country’s economy.”

Read the episode transcript here.

Across her decades-long career in journalism and media, Marie has established herself as a successful, versatile writer, tackling topics like Latino identity and history in her work. She’s penned fiction, a biography of Simon Bolivar, a history of Latin America, and an award-winning memoir, “American Chica.” She’s also been an editor at several publishing houses, wrote for the Washington Post’s Books section, and was the inaugural literary director at the Library of Congress. For “LatinoLand,” she conducted hundreds of interviews and spent countless hours researching and writing. The book is especially relevant today and in the coming years as the Latino population in the U.S. continues to grow.

“It’s bound to happen that people recognize us more and more,” she said. “This election was really interesting, in a way, because it was for the first time—what are Latinos going to do?”

It’s estimated that by 2060, over one in four Americans will be Latino. But Marie makes sure to emphasize that there are many ways to understand this diverse electorate.

“We differ politically, just like every other group differs politically,” she said. Nobody asks the same questions of the Irish. Nobody asks the same questions of the German Americans, the Jewish population, whatever, there’s going to be differences. Political is not the way to judge who we are.”

On this episode of Latino USA, Maria Hinojosa sits down with Marie Arana to discuss just how wide-ranging Latinidad is. They discuss Marie’s experiences as one of the few Latinas in elite literary spaces, unpack this community’s place in U.S. political history, and consider the role Latinos in the U.S. could play in shaping this country’s future.

Produced by Reynaldo Leaños Jr., edited by Alejandra Salazar and mixed by J.J. Querubin.

Featured image by Frank Schramm.