Expanding Conceptualizations of Young Latina Politics: Social Context and the Latina Sorority

• In Event: 1571 - Contemporary Latina/o Racialization

Abstract

Latinos are the fastest growing portion of the U.S. electorate and make up 44% of eligible Latino voters (Krogstad et al. 2016). However, research finds that they tend to score lower on measures of civic knowledges (Torney-Purta, Barber, and Wilkenfeld 2007; Levinson 2007; Rogers, Mediratta and Shah 2012) and are generally less politically engaged than their Black and White youth counterparts (Cohen 2010). Young people, more broadly defined, are frequently seen as politically apathetic, and their lack of civic participation is described as a contributing factor to America’s political decline (Delli Carpini 2000; Putnam 2000; Thomson et al. 2004; Williamson 2002; Youniss et al. 2002).
However, research shows that state-centric definitions can be limiting and have erasing effects on the political contributions of women, youth, and People of Color (Hardy-Fanta 1993; Cohen, Jones, Tronto 1997; Bedolla 2005; Smith et al. 2005). Feminist conceptualizations of the political and studies of the political practices of children and youth have worked to combat this erasure by offering expanded conceptualizations of the political and delineating the diverse array of political practices these groups deploy; this research also highlights the fluidity with which these groups navigate the social and political (Taft 2006; McFarland and Thomas 2006; Cohen 2010; Loader, Vromen, and Xenos 2014; Terriquez 2015a). My study builds on this research by using feminist definitions of the political to examine the political practices of a group of “ordinary” or seemingly “apolitical” (as opposed to explicitly activist) (Hanisch 1969; Clarke 2010; Harris,Wyn, and Younes 2010) young Latinos: Latina sorority members.

Author

• Alina Ivette Fernandez, University of California-Santa Cruz