ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical perspectives and sociological tool kits that Latina/o scholars have employed in the study of Latina/os. It also provides the historical context in which whiteness became an asset for US citizenship along with the racialization of Latina/os and summarizes the contemporary context in which Latina/os live. Sociologists who study the Latina/o population use a variety of methodological tools to conduct their research. The sociology of Latina/os can expand the human rights paradigm given Latina/os status as the largest US minority group, their diversity, and their transnational lives, which create a gray area between the human and citizenship rights paradigms. Alien citizenship ensued from the US legal racialization of people based upon their national origins. Accordingly, the use of racial categories for inclusion and exclusion from the United States dates to the nation's first immigration and naturalization laws of 1790, which limited eligibility for naturalization to free, white aliens.
