Latino Politics Essay

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The study of Latinos no longer encompasses minority politics. Currently there are about 60 million Latinos in the United States. It is predicted that by the year 2050, Latinos will represent an estimated one third of the American population. As demographics continue to shift and Latino populations continue to grow, it is important to understand Latino identity, Latino diversity, and the changing nature of Latino communities. It is important to note that there is no single Latino community, there are many Latino communities and they are all diverse. Understanding Latino identity and Latino communities is key to understanding the basic concept in the study of politics in terms of who is included and who is excluded. In many cases, Latino identity has been the basis for both forms of exclusion and solidarity. Analyzing Latino politics is important as it based on the normative principle and the assumption that the U.S. political system is supposed to reach an inclusive and pluralistic form of democracy. Understanding Latino identity will provide insight into the degree certain Latino communities are achieving representation in American democracy, through what means, and those who continue to be excluded and marginalized and the factors of Latino identity that lead to this. At the most basic definition, the term Latino refers to the the population whose origins are from Spanish speaking countries; however there are various interpretations of Latino identity and none of which perfectly capture Latino identity. …show more content…
Latino identity has been a function on the interaction of class, gender, and racialization. In this case, racialization refers to the process of discursive, ideological production of racial identities by which a group is identified and targeted for differential negative action by dominant groups based on imagined or real visual, physical or phenotypical characteristics. Four interpretations of the Latino identity are panethnic, heterogeneity, ethnorace, and mestizaje. In his literature Suarez-Orozco draws on the concept of panethnicity. The term panethnic is used to group together related ethnic groups. Suarez-Orozco groups Latinos as the United States’s population from Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Latin American countries.These major sub-groups included Mexican, Puerto-Rican, Cuban, Central and South American and Dominican. Suarez-Orozco believes that the Latino experience is shaped by social vehicles of race and color, class, socioeconomic status, language, immigrant status, and mode of incorporation into the United States. Suarez-Orozco argues that despite their differences and their heterogeneity, Latinos have more in common than differences. Suarez-Orozco bases this argument on three general principles. These include politics, theoretical considerations, and sociohistoral themes. Suarez-Orozco makes the case that since the federal government and other institutions are using panethnicity to identify Latinos, analyzing Latino at the subgroup level would not be as telling. …show more content…
In terms of politics, Suarez-Orozco points out that Latinos have become key players in institutions where racial and ethnic categories with economic and political implications. These institutions include, the census, taxation, and political representation. Race and ethnicity have also had implications for policies including civil rights, affirmative action and equal opportunity. To a certain degree panethnicity can provide insight into who is included and excluded in Latino politics, but this understanding of Latino identity is limited to an identity defined by the government, a major institution, which may not be directly tied to interpretations of Latino identity at the household and community levels. Suarez-Orozco believes that panethnicity is adequate to describe Latino identity because Latinos share commonalities from a

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