Nuestra America? Latino Presidential Hopefuls and the Quest for La Casa Blanca

• In Event: Poster Session: Race, Ethnicity, and Politics

Abstract

To date, four Latino men have run for the nation’s highest office and each with varying emphasis on their Latino identity. This variation in identity-strategies and representational styles mirror the larger question of contemporary Latino identity in United States, described by Beltrán (2010) as “inescapably fragmented” (2010, 19). The inherent heterogeneity of the Latinx population in the U.S. means that Latino candidates for president are tasked (often unfairly) with coalescing various ethnic groups under a unifying message that speaks across multiple immigrant generations, languages, regions, and experiences. It is at this complicated political terrain of identity that this project intervenes by answering the following research questions: How have Latino presidential candidates navigated the gaze of white voters? How have Latino candidates for President employed their self-conceptions of Latinidad in ways that manage the expectations of Latinx voters? Which elements of Latinidad do Latino candidates choose to foreground and background in their presentations of self to appeal to voters on a national stage? In order to answer these questions, I conduct a critical discourse analysis of primary debate stage statements, candidate webpages, and the four memoirs of each Latino presidential candidate. Results from initial analyses suggest that Latino presidential candidates respond to the processes of othering embedded in the Latino Threat Narrative (Chavez 2008) that seeks to delegitimize the presence of Latinos by presenting race-neutral immigrant family stories. These narrational and rhetorical strategies cast Latino identity as one rooted in immigration and subsequent generational mobility as opposed to cultural distinctiveness and ethnic marginalization. Yet, while all four rely on the immigrant narrative of their families to craft a sense of belonging, Latino candidates deploy the discourse of immigration differently and provide distinct visions for the understanding of anti-Latino discrimination.

Author

• Alvaro Jose Corral, The College of Wooster