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Los Rusos tells the little-known story of the Russian diaspora in Southern California and Mexico. During the first half of the twentieth century thousands of Russians came to Mexico as refugees, spies, political exiles, and diplomats. These "rusos" included persecuted Russian sectarians who arrived in Los Angeles and migrated to Northern Baja in 1905-1906; Jews of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire who settled in Mexico City from the end of World War I, into the early 1930s, then after World War II; and Soviet communist activists with false passports and identities who came to Mexico after 1917 to foment revolution in Latin America and North America.

While relating the often-tragic experiences of these Russian immigrants, Andrew L. Jenks examines the processes by which they acquired new identities as they attempted to escape marginalization and persecution. The rusos struggled to adapt to a host society that sometimes embraced them and other times characterized them as a social and political threat. Los Rusos challenges the claim that migration from war and revolution was a tale of escape to freedom. The reality was often far more complex and involved human smuggling, indentured servitude, persecution by new host societies, and economic exploitation.