Inside the Latin@ Experience

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Inside the Latin@ ExperienceA Latin@ Studies Reader

Edited by Norma E. Cantú and María E. Fránquiz

inside the latin@ experienceCopyright © Norma E. Cantú and María E. Fránquiz, 2010.

All rights reserved.

First published in 2010 byPALGRAVE MACMILLAN®in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s PressLLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

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First edition: May 2010

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DOI. 10.1057/9780230106840

A toda nuestra gente with love

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Contents

List of Figures ix

List of Tables x

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xvMaría E. Fránquiz

Part I Historical Roots and Contemporary Realities

1 Changing the National Ethos or Just Being American? Latin@ Political Participation 3

Sylvia Manzano and Arturo Vega2 State-Federal Relations Concerning Latin@ Civil Rights in

the United States 23 Norma V. Cantú3 Latin@s in the U.S. Military 37 Jorge Mariscal4 The “Swirl” Migration of Mexican-Origin Students:

A Cross-Border Analysis Using the Mexican and U.S. Censuses 51

Stella M. Flores and Germán Treviño

Part II Popular and Traditional Cultural Expressions

5 Making, Buying, Selling, and Using the Umbrella: Recognizing the Nuances of Latin@ Popular Culture 75

Patricia Marina Trujillo6 Traveling on the Biliteracy Highway: Educators Paving a

Road toward Conocimiento 93 María E. Fránquiz7 Traditional Cultural Expressions: An Analysis of the

Secular and Religious Folkways of Latin@s in the United States 111

Norma E. Cantú

8 Language and Identity of Immigrant Central American Pentecostal Youth in Southern California 129

Lucila D. Ek

Part III Performance Arts and Literature

9 Staging the Self, Staging Empowerment: An Overview of Latina Theater and Performance 151

Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz10 Literary Currency: Coined Contributions of Latin@

Literature in the United States 173 Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs11 Politics of Aesthetics: Mariachi Music in the United States 193 Russell C. Rodríguez12 From Boricua Dancers to Salsa Soldiers: The Cultural

Politics of Globalized Salsa Dancing in Chicago 211 Frances R. Aparicio

Epilogue: A Final Look at the Latin@ Experience: Past, Present, and Future 227Norma E. Cantú

Bibliography 235

List of Contributors 253

Index 259

viii CONTENTS

List of Figures

1.1 Difference in volunteerism by race/ethnicity, GSS 1996, overall volunteer mean: 1.293 12

4.1 Mexican states with the highest percentage of households with a member migrating to the United States, 1995–2000 55

4.2 Mexican states with the highest percentage of children aged six to fifteen migrating to the United States, 1995 and 2000 56

4.3 School-age migrants by the size of locality of origin 57

4.4 Migration of school-age children to the United States, by month 58

4.5 Total Mexican-born migrant population in the United States, 2000 59

4.6 States with the highest number of Mexican-born residents not in the United States in 1995 60

4.7 States with the highest percentage of Mexican-born children under eighteen years of age, 2000 61

4.8 States with the highest percentage of noncitizen Mexican-born children under eighteen years of age, 2000 62

4.9 School-age “swirl” migrants’ return to Mexico, by year 66

4.10 Return of school-age children to Mexico, by month 67

7.1 Circles of experience and of influence 117

List of Tables

1.1 Frequency distribution of volunteerism, 1996 GSS 10

1.2 Volunteerism, ethnicity, and SES-GSS 1996 12

1.3 Predicting civic participation: Ethnicity and SES, GSS 1996 12

1.4 Latino political participation: Volunteering and political activities 13

4.1a New Mexican-origin migration states, 2000 63

4.1b Traditional Mexican-origin migration states, 2000 64

4.2 Point of origin and destiny of migrant populations by size of locality 67

5.1 List of subject fields from the Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture’s “Entries by Subject” 82

Yo soy la sangre del indio soy latino soy mestizo, somos de todos colores y de todos los oficios y si contamos los siglos aunque

le duela al vecino somos más americanos

(“Somos más Americanos,” Los Tigres del norte)

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Acknowledgments

Primeramente, gracias to all who supported us in this endeavor: a Roberto Con Davis who first approached me with the idea of such a collection of essays; that project was not to be, but we found a home for it at Palgrave. To my coeditor, mi querida amiga, María Fránquiz, and all the contributors whose presence and work enrich my life and my scholarship, mil gracias! Thank you to the University of Texas at San Antonio whose support pro-vided the superb research assistance of, first, Cordelia Barrera, and, in the final stages, of Magda García and Christina Gutiérrez, and to my niece Vanessa Cantú for her help one particularly busy week. To the contribu-tors for not giving up on the project and to the various readers along the way—they are too many to list, but they know who they are—we thank you for the insight and recommendations. To the copyeditors and staff at Palgrave, especially to Julia and Samantha, mil gracias. Finally, al universo, as always, gracias!

Norma E. Cantú

Este libro me llena de felicidad—it is truly a labor of love precisely because it represents the sweetness and beauty of insiders’ perspectives, not all of whom are authors in this book. En primer lugar I extend my thanks to Tony and Dora Fabelo, who made it possible for Norma and I to discuss the book en mi querido Puerto Rico. For three summers we met in the house where Tony was raised in Santurce to discuss revisions of chapters and the reorganization of ideas. With us in these summer writing retreats were Cinthia Salinas and Elvia Niebla, who nurtured our spirits as we kneaded and twisted and shaped the pandulce creations of the other twelve chefs that helped us bake this wonderful feast of insider conocimiento. Mil gracias Tony, Dora, Cinthia, and Elvia for your generosity, patience, and encouragement as this project expanded to life.

María E. Fránquiz

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Introduction

María E. Fránquiz

Inside the Latin@ Experience: A Latin@ Studies Reader1 was compiled while contrasting events were impacting the lives of Latin@s in the United States and beyond. First was the fact that a 1,952-mile fence was being built along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to constrain or eliminate undocumented immigration through Mexico into the United States. This fence impacts the millions of adults and children living in the shadows of the fourteen-foot-high steel wall and the conscience of all Americans—in the United States and elsewhere in the Americas—including but not limited to educators, lawyers, political and social scientists, military pro-fessionals, artists, and researchers. As editors of this project, Norma and I invite you to come up with more humane ideas toward a dignified and nonviolent solution to social challenges such as the mobility of humans, precisely because the contemporary social and political reality of Latin@s in the United States owes much to the transnational movements of people back and forth between the United States and Latin America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

In stark contrast to the concerns of border protection and undocu-mented immigration during the first decade of the twenty-first century are other noteworthy national events that reflect positive views about what persons of color can and do contribute to mainstream life in the United States, the Americas, and the world. In January 2009, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the first African-American president of the United States. The month before taking office he nominated Hilda L. Solis to serve as the Secretary of Labor. Given the recognition that she had earned in promoting the rights of workers and justice for the environment during her tenure as a House representative for the 32nd Congressional District in California, Solis was confirmed in February 2009 as the first Latina

xvi INTRODUCTION

secretary of labor in U.S. history. Then, in July 2009 President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter in the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court. Her broad legal experi-ence as a New York assistant district attorney, an international corporate litigator, trial judge in the U.S. District Court, and appellate judge in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, proved that she was supremely qualified. Thus, she was the first among Latin@s to be nominated to and confirmed in this capacity—a historic landmark. To have Hilda Solis, a Mexican-American from a working class background—both her mother and father were blue-collar union members—as the Secretary of Labor and to have Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican who grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx, with appointments at the highest levels of U.S. government marks achievements with remarkable potential for the recog-nition of other valuable resources within Latin@ communities.

From an interdisciplinary perspective, Inside the Latin@ Experience: A Latin@ Studies Reader specifically explores the varied and unique Latinidades, or Latin@ cultural identities, that reside in the United States. Each author in the anthology is an insider of the Latin@ community, and together the authors deploy various theoretical tools to present the condition of Latin@s living in the United States. Its appeal lies in the inclusion of essays that cross several disciplines, and it thus postulates a view of Latin@s in the United States that is different from the merely social science or literary or popular culture arenas. The underlying vision for Inside the Latin@ Experience was grounded in the fact that the U.S. Latin@ population is the fastest growing group and that it will soon become the largest ethnic minority in the country; therefore, a collection of essays that seeks to render the lived reality of this population seemed critical for a better understanding by both insiders and outsiders of Latin@ communities.

Inside the Latin@ Experience is organized into three parts with each part containing four chapters. The first part presents the historical roots and contemporary realities of Latin@ communities. This part identi-fies salient historical trends that have impacted the relations of Latin@s with each other and with other groups in the United States. The second part focuses on popular and traditional cultural expressions as found in schools, churches, and the wider Latin@ communities. One challenge of this section is the monolithic idea of a pan-Latin@ identity that sells in the marketplace but is typically not helpful in the identity formation of insiders represented by the term Latin@ (for example, Salvadorian, Puerto Rican, Mexican-American, Panamanian, Argentinean, etcetera). The final chapters provide perspectives on the performance arts and literary pro-ductions of Latin@s, including theater, music, and dance.

INTRODUCTION xvii

As a brief introduction to the contributions made in each of the three sections the following paragraphs offer an outline of a wide panoramic view of the Latin@ condition as presented by the authors in this reader. The authors who come from various disciplines and theoretical perspectives use specific methodologies, including empirical, ethnographic, linguis-tic, literary, and textual analyses, along with cultural studies and other appropriate approaches. This diversity is seen in the contributions from various disciplines and the distinct perspective each contributes to the research and study of the Latin@ community. In the following sections a summary of the content of each part and the essence of each chapter is captured in an effort to provide you, our reader, with a guide, of the book’s contents.

Historical Roots and Contemporary Realities

In the first part, Historical Roots and Contemporary Realities, the authors present demographic data, including transnational migration patterns, as well as the history of how Latin@s promoted their own civil rights in the United States. Important economic avenues for immigrant and work-ing class Latin@s, such as their participation in military service and their political attitudes and perceptions, are examined. Large databases such as the Pew Hispanic Center / Kaiser Family Foundation 2002 National Survey of Latinos and the U.S. Decennial Census of 2000 are used to evaluate residence patterns, attitudes toward immigration, and views on the role of government, among others. These chapters use the disciplinary tools of political science, law, and sociology to present compelling information needed for considering directions for a new decade and era.

Chapter 1 of Part I by Sylvia Manzano and Arturo Vega discusses the influences of U.S. Latin@ civic participation. Manzano and Vega employ the 1996 General Social Survey (GSS) and the Pew Hispanic Center / Kaiser Family Foundation 2004 National Survey of Latinos to examine the relation-ship between socioeconomic variables and civic participation across ethnic groups. They consider the influence of Latin@ participation, specifically volunteerism and political activity. They demonstrate that Latin@s vary along dimensions of political and economic incorporation, but this fact is no indication of “American-ness”; rather the distribution of resources within a highly diverse ethnic community explains participatory patterns.

As a civil rights lawyer, Norma E. Cantú continues the discussion begun in Chapter 1 regarding Latin@ political participation in local and national affairs. In her chapter, “State-Federal Relations Concerning Latino Civil Rights in the United States,” she provides a historical overview of ways Latin@s in the United States promoted their civil rights. Remarkably,

xviii INTRODUCTION

Latin@s did not bring federal court cases to the U. S. Supreme Court until the second half of the twentieth century. The author includes a report of the resistance by states to federal intrusion into states’ rights as well as an enlightened overview of the pervasive tension between the federal and state governments. The author’s own position as a lawyer and an educator is woven into her analysis of the effects of the No Child Left Behind legisla-tion in the field of education. The interaction of federal and state laws in the United States is highly relevant to members of “minority groups” who are caught between inconsistent governmental practices and interpreta-tions of civil rights laws.

An important component of any nation is the participation of its citizenry in the protection and maintenance of its national borders and worldviews. In Chapter 3, Jorge Mariscal presents his research in his chapter, “Latin@s in the U.S. Military.” He examines how Latin@ military service, sustained by a constant flow of new immigrants and relatively limited career opportunities for the native-born working class of color, has historically been the primary vehicle for assimilation, access to the full rights of citizenship, and the construction of “American” identities premised on traditional patriotism. He argues that Latin@s and other working class bodies—like the inexpensive Latin@ labor that continues to be used for building the national economy—have provided the raw mate-rial for U.S. military conflicts for over a century and a half. Noteworthy in this chapter is the fact that among all ethnic groups in the United States, Latin@s have won forty-one Congressional Medals of Honor, more than any other group, and to date thousands of new immigrants continue to believe that the “American Dream” can only be achieved through military service.

Part I concludes with a binational focus on cross-border flows of immigrants. Stella M. Flores and German Treviño indicate that surges in Latin American migration to the United States since the 1990s have led to an impressive increase in immigration research. In their study they specifically analyzed migration patterns between Mexico and the United States using the 2000 National Census questionnaire for each country: the XII General Census of Household and Population 2000 of Mexico and the U.S. Decennial Census. They evaluate migration patterns to, from, and in some cases back to the original residence area before migration of Mexican-origin individuals. Their study is particularly original in that it offers a cross-national analysis of migration patterns between these two countries for adults and school-age children. Additionally, they employ Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to visually explore migra-tion patterns of the states most likely to send, receive, and reincorporate Mexican-origin migrant populations in Mexico and the United States.

INTRODUCTION xix

Popular and Traditional Cultural Expressions in School, Church, and Community

The second part of the reader, “Popular and Traditional Cultural Expressions in School, Church, and Community,” looks at various forms of Latin@ culture, including the traditional arts as well as the fine and popu-lar arts, and the ways these are enacted in school, church, and community. Highlighting the stellar contributions of educators, scholars in cultural studies, and sociolinguists, this section also foregrounds how traditional artists have been a mainstay and a resource for many popular arts. While one chapter uses a highway metaphor to explain the influence of Latin@ children’s literature on knowledge production among young Spanish speakers, another chapter highlights the heterogeneity of Latin@ commu-nities in terms of socialization into language, culture, and religion.

The first chapter in this section of the reader is titled “Making, Buying, Selling, and Using the Umbrella: Recognizing the Nuances of Latin@ Popular Culture.” The author Patricia Trujillo argues that multiple negoti-ations can be made when encountering and interpreting cultural symbols in the mass market and media. In considering Latin@ popular art and cul-ture, she asks the following questions: Who is creating it? What images and symbols are being employed? How are they interpreted? By whom are they interpreted and for whom? She considers these questions important for a society that is becoming increasingly Latin@ and for a hegemonic popular culture that is increasingly influenced by these Latin@ communities. This growing phenomenon mandates that Latin@ art and culture be taken seriously as an economic and political influence that is able to inform and change what it means to be “American.” Accordingly, this essay provides a prefatory understanding of the various nuances of Latin@ popular and pop culture and serves as an introduction to a vast discourse. The essay also works to map out discursive signposts in the field but in no way claims to identify them all. Rather, in considering the ever changing nature of popular culture, this essay can be considered an entrance into a compli-cated, multifaceted, and dynamic field of study.

Chapter 6, “Traveling on the Biliteracy Highway: Educators Paving a Road toward Conocimiento,” presents an argument for understanding the factors that support or constrain the development of Latin@ stu-dents’ biliteracy skills in U.S. classrooms. Data is presented on the ways in which teachers have created spaces for bilingual students to learn lan-guage, expand disciplinary knowledge, and experience powerful writing in their heritage or second language. Specifically, these teachers utilized two bilingual children’s books—Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del otro lado (Anzaldúa, 1993) and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y

xx INTRODUCTION

la llorona (Anzaldúa, 1995)—to show how conocimiento (reflective con-sciousness) about the topic of immigration can be achieved in elementary bilingual classrooms. Fránquiz argues that examining Latin@ children’s development of biliteracy and conocimiento in U.S. schools is significant because these skills augment intellectual possibilities, provide access to a broader range of social and cultural resources, and encourage teachers and children to place value on funds of knowledge from Latin@ homes and communities. She points out that the issue of immigration continues to be as critical today as when Gloria Anzaldúa wrote about her child characters Prietita and Joaquin in 1993 and 1995.

Norma E. Cantú in Chapter 7, “Traditional Cultural Expressions: An Analysis of the Secular and Religious Folkways of Latin@s in the United States,” writes about the contested area of the U.S.-Mexico border where a number of cultural expressions still exist that reflect the mestizaje of cul-tures that coexist in this geopolitical space. This chapter explores how reli-gious and secular cultural expressions, such as the coming-of-age ritual of the quinceañera and the veneration of religious icons and holy sites, have functioned as forms of contestation and resistance to the onslaught of U.S. hegemonic culture. The rituals are also hybrid expressions of cultural threads that show Christian and indigenous influences. Drawing from the particular site of the border, the author launches an analysis of the cultural expressions of the various groups and argues that groups that celebrate with parades and processions as well as with in-family or in-group rituals survive because the very act of celebrating assures survival.

Another site for cultural expression is the church. In Chapter 8, Lucila Ek uses theories of language and identity to examine the language uses, atti-tudes, and experiences of Central American Pentecostal youth in California. These youth are linguistically and culturally doubly subordinated, first by the mainstream European-American culture and the English language and second by the Mexican-American population that comprises the largest Latin@ group in California. Findings of her study include the centrality of the voseo2 in the construction and maintenance of a Central American linguistic and cultural identity, the Mexicanization or Chicanoization of Central Americans in Southern California, and the erasure of national identity in the church context. The author draws from a multiyear ethnog-raphy conducted in Southern California to highlight the heterogeneity of Latin@ communities in terms of language, culture, and religion.

Performance Arts and Literature

The chapters in Part III, Performance Arts and Literature, provide descrip-tive overviews of Latin@ contributions to theater, literature, the mariachi

INTRODUCTION xxi

musical form, and salsa dance. The role of the performance arts in Latin@ identity constructions and the predominant themes particular to dif-ferent Latin@ ethnicities (for example, Puerto Rican, Cuban-American, Mexicano, etcetera) during the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century are closely examined with lenses from liter-ary and/or cultural studies. Interestingly, the four authors whose work comprises this section are scholars who work more or less across the four directions of the United States—Urquijo-Ruiz from the South (Texas), Gutierrez y Muhs from the North (Washington), Rodriguez from the West (California), and Aparicio from the East (Illinois). Given that indigenous education is grounded in respect for the laws represented in the four direc-tions as the building blocks of creation, it is fitting to conclude the chapters in this reader with four perspectives on Latin@ creative performance.

In “Staging the Self, Staging Empowerment: An Overview of Latina Theater and Performance,” Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz begins with a brief over-view starting in the twentieth century and offers an example of an early type of performance. She then proceeds to focus primarily on the works created since 1980, briefly analyzing three Latina plays. The author focuses on the issues of self-representation and empowerment and at the same time attempts to contest the stereotypical and racist depictions that were historically created. Latina dramatic artists have chosen to voice their own concerns regarding issues of identity formation as subjects who constantly inhabit a liminal cultural space where multiple aspects of their cultures (mainstream and marginal) overlap. Furthermore, their contestation also addresses issues of gender and sexual discrimination from within their own ethnic groups, especially starting in the late 1970s when the first wave of Latina feminism produced empowering literary works that were later transformed and transferred to the stage. The chapter shows how Latina playwrights, in confronting the issues mentioned, insist on making their voices heard and on letting their “wild tongues” tell their own stories.

With an emphasis on literature, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs provides a chapter that gives a glimpse of the predominant themes particular to each Latin@ ethnicity explored by more prolific writers in recent U.S. Latin@ literature. Organizing her chapter thematically and ethnically, the author examines the works of poets, novelists, and creative nonfiction writers that have all had a significant impact on U.S. Latin@ literature. The key themes in her analysis of literature continue to be identity, gender, inequality, racism, the importance and centrality of the Latino family, and the inscrip-tion of physical Latin@ representations of subjectivity, spirituality, and agency, as well as language. She cites exile as a theme that recurs continu-ously in Cuban-American literature. In Puerto Rican literature the themes of independence, territory, and nationalism, as well as invasions in all

xxii INTRODUCTION

metaphorical senses are central and well recognized. For non-U.S.-born Latin@s, issues of the reformulation of identity and in particular the fluctuations of social class are essential, adding many dialectical shifting side ladders to the bridge of immigration. For Chican@s in contemporary literature, spirituality, migration, sexuality, social consciousness, and death themes are the most prevalent. For both Chican@s and Puerto Ricans, the geographic attack on bilingualism is central.

In the penultimate chapter, “The Politics of Aesthetics” by Russell C. Rodríguez, a brief description of the mariachi musical ensemble of Mexico and two case studies exhibiting the diffusion of meaning and representation around the mariachi musical form are presented. Through ethnographic research the author describes the developments and transformations this musical form has endured due to its presence in new public spaces and the participation of new practitioners who diverge from the Mexicano working-class masculinity that signifies the “traditional” mariachi musi-cian. As a result of these shifts the central argument is that mariachi music has become a terrain of new understandings of aesthetics in which new repertoire, practice, and authority emerge, which are in turn affirmed, appropriated, and challenged. The concept of the “politics of aesthetics” is proposed to examine the intersection of race, gender, class, and culture, as integrated in an understanding of practice, performance, and aesthetics to clarify the dynamic of the developing mariachi space.

The final chapter moves from mariachi music to salsa music and dance. In “From Boricua Dancers to Salsa Soldiers: The Cultural Politics of Salsa Dancing in Chicago,” Frances Aparicio argues that despite the dominant discourses that the dancing industry and some scholars have used for promoting salsa dancing as a vehicle for intercultural understanding and racial harmony, social and popular dancing in the global city produces complex moments of intercultural conflicts and gender power dynamics that reveal the ongoing, colonialist anxieties over racial minorities in the United States. Through participant observation, the author explores the processes through which the globalization of salsa dancing has had a negative impact on the relationship that Puerto Rican women have had with salsa music and dancing as central forms of identity reaffirmation. Aparicio posits that the sense of displacement reflects the gradual ways in which the shift of dancers from Boricua individuals to what one woman she interviewed referred to as “salsa soldiers” has displaced previous Puerto Rican dancers from dancing venues and clubs in Chicago.

The twelve chapters that comprise Inside the Latin@ Experience: A Latin@ Studies Reader are followed by an epilogue where Norma E. Cantú presents ideas for future directions and possibilities for Latin@s in the United States. Taking into account the interconnectedness of trade,

INTRODUCTION xxiii

natural resources, health and scientific knowledge, technological advances, and diverse expressions of cultural traditions, the authors of this proj-ect propose ways for (re)considering the stronger integration of Latin@ insider perspectives in all the pathways that will provide a safe and caring world for the generations to come.

Notes

1. Latin@ is the term used by Latcrit (Latino critical race) theorists in the United States to identify persons of Spanish-speaking descent who designate themselves as being of Mexican-American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or other Hispanic origin (Franciso Valdés, “Under Construction—LatCrit Consciousness, Community, and Theory,” California Law Review 85 (1997): 1087–1142). We use the term Latin@ in this reader to acknowledge this wide intragroup diversity.

2. In Spanish grammar, voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos instead of tú.