Defining the “Latino” in Latino-Jew: How Class, Race and Religion Affect the Construction of Ethnic Identity

• In Event: 421 - Regular Session. Ethnic, Racial, and Other Social Group Formations among Latinos/as in the United States

Abstract

As the Latino population in the United States continues to grow in relative and absolute terms, Latinos are becoming a more diverse group. Today Latinos are much more likely to span socio-economic classes, racial groups and religious affiliation. This raises a number of questions surrounding Latino ethnicity and panethnicity, such as how class, race and religion affect the construction of a Latino ethnicity. Through an in-depth qualitative study of Latin American Jewish immigrants in the Northeastern United States (Latino Jews), this paper aims to widen the definition of Latinos and enhance our comprehension of how ethnic identity is mediated by the intersection of class, race and religion. Since members of this group differ across these variables from the majority of Latino immigrants in the United States, we can gain insight as to how a Latino identity is defined and constructed and moreover how a Latino identity affects the life chances of immigrants and their children when examined through these varying parameters. Moreover, given a privileged socio-economic and racial status of Latino Jews, this paper discusses the fluidity of their ethnicity and how the choices they make further illuminate our understanding of the intersection of race, ethnicity and class.

Author

• Laura Limonic, State University of New York-Old Westbury