THE “HISPANIC” CHALLENGE AND THE RISE OF “LATINIDAD” IN THE US
The election of Barack Obama as President of the US put upon us the responsibility to rethinking, remapping and remaking what in 1995 US historian David Hollinger described as “The ethno-racial pentagon.” Certainly “reality” did not change in sixth months. What is changing are the terms of the conversation. This seminar examines the conditions under which Hispanic/Latinos/as label came into being, the present configurations of “ethnic existence” and what are the possible futures for Latino/as communities in the US as well as of their impact in higher education? But above all, it explores the risk and responsibilities that “all of us” have in building a future economically democratic society beyond discrimination and injustice.
In 2005 noted Harvard political scientist, Sammuel Huntington, published an influential article, "The Hispanic Challenge" that then became part of his book, Who Are We? What constitute the Hispanic Challenges? Why the challenge for Huntington was Hispanic and not Latin(o/a). What is the challenge: former attorney General Alberto González; migrant workers; the uprising of April and May of 2006? And for whom the challenge is a challenge? The transformation of knowledge and understanding of ourselves and the society we are living in, that Hispanics, Afro-Caribbean, Native Americans, Women of Color, Asian-Americans, Muslim communities and intellectuals, etc., are introducing?
The seminar you are engaging in is an attempt to introduce you to an understanding of the historical foundation of racism (and its relationship with knowledge, politics, economy and ethics) through the emergence of Hispanics and Latinas in the US in the 1970's. Who is Latino/a or what is Latinidad; that is the question. Indeed, where are Hispanics or Latinas coming from? And what is the meaning of Latinidad say, next to Anglicidad or Africanidad? How do they fit into the ethno-racial pentagon (White, Native Americans, Afro-Americans and Asian Americans?). And what are the connections between the ethno-racial pentagon in the US and globalization? Where, indeed, is Latinidad coming from since Latinos/as are not a “race”? Is Latinidad understood and defined in contradistinction with Anglicidad? And what about religion--are Latinas Catholic and Anglo Protestant? Why we do not have programs of Anglo-Studies as we have programs of Latino/as, Afro-American, Native Americans, Muslim, etc., studies? Who is “studying” whom and what and what for? The seminar explores, also, the interconnections between identity, knowledge and politics, distinguishing identity politics from identity IN politics.
|
