Why do people become involved in social movements? This is the question Professor Leonard G. Ramírez attempts to answer in his book, “Chicanas of 18th Street: Narratives of a Movement from Latino Chicago” (University of Illinois Press 2011), an ethnographic study of sorts. The Pilsen community is revealed through the stories of six self-identified Chicanas or Mexicanas rejecting the hyphenated “Mexican-American” label. The interviews occurred mainly in 1998 but continued through 2008.As the professor tells the story, the …