Constructions of Identity, Community, and a Diasporic Imaginary: El círculo de lectura in the New Latino Diaspora

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Abstract

New immigrant settlement patterns in the United States fall within what Wortham et al. (2009) term the New Latino Diaspora, which they define as “areas without traditional Latino presence to which Latinos have increasingly moved over the past 15 years” (p. 389). These diasporic sites are unique spaces where immigrants engage in the complex processes of identity construction, imagining new cultural geographies, without locally entrenched pre-determined ideas of who the immigrant population is. Within Marshall, this new settlement trend creates complex and multilayered dynamics and has challenged residents to make sense of immigrants’ place (Wortham et. al., 2009).

In response to the needs of the changing community, the past decade has seen a growth in Latino focused community organizations designed to support both children and adults alike. One such organization is Arts Org. Founded in 2008 to “empower the Hispanic community through the promotion of culture, art, education and work training,” Arts Org provides weekly programming for youth and adults. Starting in January of 2014, an adult Spanish reading circle—referred to here as the círculo—was founded collaboratively by the program director and community members. This círculo is the first of it’s kind in the region in both it’s target audience—predominately Latino adults in the Marshall area—and its format—experientially as opposed to academically focused, entirely in Spanish, and inclusive of a transnational community who participate via social media.

This paper stems from ethnographic research of the círculo as site in which Mexican adults within the New Latino Diaspora engage in cultural construction and identity formation informed by their experiences as immigrants, trans-migrants, and individually situated social actors. This research explores the círculo as a form of third space construction, and is of particular importance in helping to understand the changing landscape of being an immigrant in a context where borders—physical, cultural and otherwise—are extremely salient, while simultaneously contested and nebulous. During círculo meetings and on related social media identities as “immigrants” or “migrants” were constructed and deployed, as was the related idea of “community.” As is true for all groups of people, experiences, understandings, and objectives are heterogeneous. Thus much of this analysis has to do with contested definitions and positionings within the group related to the themes mentioned above.

The círculo provides a space for members to locate themselves within what I am calling a diasporic imaginary of immigration. Lukose (2007) explains diaspora as “focused on the imaginative worlds and cultural productions of migrants, whether they actually and continually traverse these boundaries, after initial migration” (p. 409). The production of imaginative worlds is salient within the círculo. Participants use individual experiences, memories, and personal positioning to navigate discussions around literature. The identity production surrounding (im)migrant life is complex, multi dimensional, and not solely located in experiences of the geographic homeland. Rather, within the círculo, the narratives deployed are a composite of boundaries that are traversed between here and there—making up an unbounded space/place of the experiences of migration.

Author

• Briana Nichols, University of Pennsylvania