The Midwest’s Latino population has risen rapidly in the past 20 years, both in urban and rural areas. As elsewhere in the country, the shift in demographics has come with mixed reception and controversy.

Ruben Martinez, the director of Michigan State University’s Julian Samora Research Institute and editor of the book Latinos in the Midwest, discusses the ways in which an increase in the Latino population has impacted the Midwest culturally, economically, educationally, and politically.

This event is part of a year-long examination of polarization in American society, E Pluribus Unum? Missouri and the Fractured Society, made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and conducted in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council.