Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Using autobiographical performance, I examine the application process for permanent residency in the United States post-911 as a cultural performance. Specifically, I draw upon my experience as a third generation Mexican American married to an Egyptian. I use our narratives of performing and embodying “authentic,” desired, and ideal citizenship as a way to critically examine strategies of making do and uses of hidden and public transcripts as means for resistance and possibility. I also make connection between our respective larger cultural histories of (im)migration as a way to began to theorize the affective politics and performances of Otherness and create more complex understandings of Latinidad or mestizaje. I negotiate my role as Chicana Other/Academic complete with own family history of immigration, performing ideal citizenship post-911, a time in which immigration by both Latina/os and Arabs has come under attack once again.

Dr. Calafell is an assistant professor at the University of Denver School of Communication Studies. Some of her recent essays have appeared in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Text and Performance Quarterly, and the Communication Review.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This qualitative study engages the theoretical metaphors of post-colonial hybridity and symbolic colonization to examine narratives of race and ethnicity circulated through popular communication. It positions the U.S. evening news as a form of popular public discourse informative of dominant ideologies about race, ethnicity and the imagined nation. Through a case study analysis of the Elián González controversy, this study problematizes the journalistic discursive practices used to construct Latinidad through televisual representations of the Cuban American community. This paper theorizes that while the post-colonial hybridity of Latina/o identity vexes mainstream U.S. narratives of identity, dominant narratives about Latina/os are always produced against the ideological context of whiteness resulting in mainstream stories that work to symbolically colonize already marginalized groups.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the relationships between Latinidad, the female body and consumer culture focusing on how the Latina body is used as a site for consumption by the “Hispanic” advertising industry. In particular, it is concerned with how Latinidad is constructed by the U.S. “Hispanic” advertising industry and how women of Mexican origin make meaning of these media texts in relation to how Latinidad is used as a social/political practice in building solidarity across Latina/o communities. First, how is the Latina body discursively constructed in advertising? Secondly, how do women of Mexican origin, as part of the targeted group (Latinas) of these advertisements, interpret these texts? Specifically, how do these images tie into Latinidad translate into the meanings and practices of Latinidad in the everyday lives of these women? As such, this paper seeks to understand how Latinidad is constructed both from within and outside, that is by both Latina/os and by the advertising industry, using both textual analysis and ethnographic focus groups.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The conceptual approaches to Latino identity in current scholarship fail to capture the relational dynamics of racialization and agency in the formation of this panethnic identity. As “Latino” is a panethnic category, it can be a complement—and in some cases, a discursive replacement—to ethnic-specific identities like "Mexican-American" or "Puerto Rican." Nevertheless, the Latino category has been dissected in scholarly circles as subsuming a host of ethnic, linguistic, regional, citizenship, and phenotypic differences. Many proclaim the Latino category as so diverse as to be a problematic and perhaps superficial category. Some observers conclude that the diverse and encompassing nature of panethnicity positions Latinos as a de-racialized and externally imposed grouping that may eventually disintegrate; instead, those currently seen as “Latino” may eventually conform to the binary poles of black and white racial groupings. However, I argue that ascribed identification—racialization and visible markers—and the assertion of agency—individual identity affirmation and organizational mobilization—produce oppositional racial consciousness that provides a basis for politically resonant panethnic identity and coalitions. That is, at least some sector of those identified as Latino choose it as a racial identity, a decision that has decidedly political implications. My work will thus seek to answer the following research questions: What is the nature of the racialized discourses that emerge around the Latino identity and community in Los Angeles? How and to what extent do these racialized discourses affect identity formation and organizational strategies? What are the political implications of affirming or mobilizing based on panethnic identity as opposed to other identity articulations? My approach accounts for articulations of racial identity among Latinos. In order to test my hypothesis that a sense of racial solidarity spurs panethnic identity and coalition building, I will largely employ methodologies of discourse analysis, content analysis, and ethnography. This paper is a presentation of my dissertation proposal, as well as a discussion of my preliminary findings.

Publication Type: Paper (prepared oral presentation)
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper utilizes an original survey experiment to determine how Latino group identity, measured along multiple dimensions, moderates Latino political choice. This project is grounded in social identity theory but incorporates more recent elaborations of this theory which can be applied to explicit political choices. The experiment cues a Latino electoral context through the presentation of a candidate with a Latino ethnic surname. The findings indicate that substantive measures of Latino group identity indeed moderate the perception of the Latino candidate.