AMCS 248 Latinoa Experiences in the U'S' www'artsci'wustl'eduesrepiceamcs248

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AMCS 248Latino/a Experiences in the
U.S.www.artsci.wustl.edu/esrepice/amcs248

• Eric Repice
• Ph.D. Candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology
• American Culture Studies Program

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• Hispanic or Latino/a?
• Whats in a name?

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Hispanic or Latino?

• Naming a people, a culture, a community, and
  identities that mean different things to
  different people
• Who does this include and exclude?
• War of words or real issues at stake?
• Attitudes, interpretations, and positions point
  to pressing social, cultural, and political
  issues

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Hispanic or Latino?

• Increasing numbers and deepening impact on U.S.
• Is there a case for a collective identity?
• What is identity anyway?
• There is perhaps as much diversity w/in
  categories as between

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Hispanic or Latino?

• Interior and exterior perspectives (labels can be
  imposed or fashioned)
• If Latinos are an Imagined Community who is
  doing the imagining?
• Outside representations dominate in the U.S.
• Will examine issues of self-representation and
  cultural expression as well

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Approaches to Latino unity and diversity

• 1. Demographic
• 2. Analytic
• 3. Imaginary
• I would suggest that by distinguishing between
  these approaches it is possible effectively to
  complicate and deepen our understanding of
  cultural expression, identity, and politics
  without becoming paralyzed by the sheer
  complexity and contradictoriness of it all
• -Juan Flores

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Demographic approach

• An aggregate, numerical presence Count them,
  therefore they exist
• Hispanics are the fastest growing minority . . .
  
• Dominant in popular discussions
• Usually Hispanic (Census)
• Instrumental (data used to identify consumers and
  voters, etc)

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Analytic approach

• Breaks down and identifies constituent parts
• i.e. Latino populations, groups, communities
• Assumes we get closer to Latino reality by
  recognizing/tabulating diversity of Latino groups
  and experiences
• Positive Can help fight stereotypes
• Negative Fails to differentiate kinds and levels
  of difference (i.e. in immigration studies
  country of origin, generation, education status,
  place of settlement seen as only meaningful
  units of analysis)

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Imaginary approach

• But Latinos are social agents and not just
  objects of analysis
• Guided above all else by lived experience and
  historical memory (factors downplayed by
  demographic and analytic approaches)
• A cultural, historical approach to diverse and
  changing Latino realities
• Not the not real a community represented for
  itself, a unity fashioned creatively on shared
  memories

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The Latino Imaginary

• The Latino historical imaginary refers to
• Home countries
• Passage to and from El Norte
• Colonial/economic/political relations
• An alternative ethos an ensemble of cultural
  practices created in its own right and to its own
  end

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Hispanic or Latino?

• Settling on a name never comes easy . . . But
  the search for a name, more than an act of
  classification, is a process of historical
  imagination and a struggle over social meanings
  at diverse levels of interpretation . . . It is
  also a search for a new map, a new ethos, a new
  America.
• -Flores

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Source Material

• Flores, Juan. 2000. The Latino Imaginary
  Meanings of Community and Identity, From Bomba
  to Hip-Hop Puerto Rican Culture and Latino
  Identity. (On ERES)