In the spirit of the conference theme, “promiscuity, incivility, and undisciplinarity”, this panel challenges the long-established national segmentations that still characterize our field. Most Latino Studies scholarship... [ view full abstract ]
In the spirit of the conference theme, “promiscuity, incivility, and undisciplinarity”, this panel challenges the long-established national segmentations that still characterize our field. Most Latino Studies scholarship examines specific national communities without accounting for interlatino social relations. The four approaches to relational latinidades represented in the panel highlight new theoretical paradigms from which to examine power differentials among U.S. Latino/as, a historical reflection on interlatino interactions before 1965, and two case studies of relational power dynamics among the Latino elderly in Chicago and within Mexican/New Mexican families in New Mexico.
Aparicio's paper, entitled "Horizontal hierarchies: Theorizing interlatino/a power differentials", proposes that Interlatino relations require a new framework in order to understand the multiple and simultaneous power differentials among Latino/as of various nationalities. Given the different national profiles in major urban centers in the United States, horizontal hierarchies vary across regions. “Horizontal hierarchies” brings together the verticality of power with the horizontal axis of our national communities in order to unfold the relational and situational power differentials among Latino/a national communities in Latino Chicago.
Merida Rua's presentation, "Relational Latinidades in a Low-Income Senior Housing Complex in Chicago, challenges mainstream research on the urban older adults (i.e. “white” elderly) that debunks theories of social isolation and disengagement by showing how elders construct community and negotiate identities, as they also assert independence, albeit within certain constraints. Mainstream scholarship also explores the notion of “aging in place,” studies of elders who remain in their own homes and communities. But oftentimes one’s ability to stay or move, particularly in old age, is not a choice, especially for persons further marginalized because of race and class. Few have explored the lives of those with little choice but to age in troubled urban places. To date, little research has centered on the aging of minority populations (for exceptions see Freidenberg 2000; Newman 2003). This presentation examines everyday negotiations of aging and latinidad among Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Guatemalan women and men in a low-income senior housing site in Chicago.
Natalia Molina's paper, “Mexican” as a default Pan-Latino identity in 1950s and 60s Los Angeles" examines a predominantly Mexican and Mexican American pre-1965 community in Los Angeles and their various interactions with Cubans and Dominicans, some residents, some just passing through, in order to demonstrate how a majority Mexican demographic in the city shaped Latino identity in the pre-1965 period. Through interviews and newspaper research in the United States and Mexico, I demonstrate how a varied group of people who, despite differences, shared enough characteristics to feel comfortable together, socializing in shared public spaces. I also examine the tensions athat existed within these groups when “Mexican” served as the default Pan-Latino identity.
Lillian Gorman's presentation, "Ethnolinguistic Contact Zones: Theorizing Mixed Identities of Mexican-Nuevomexicanos" explores the power differentials that Mexican-Nuevomexicano families negotiate informed by notions of linguistic correctness and cultural authenticity. This paper deploys theories of Latinidad to illuminate these internal relational power dynamics and illuminates new and re-semantified identity categories under the larger rubrics of "Mexican" and "Hispanic."
