CHC/LAT 63 - Chicano

Studies III
Discussion Section 4
Online
Discussion Section 6
Wed 11AM - 11:50 AM SSL 145
Teaching Assistant: Alex Reyes
Winter 2024
The Trouble With Unity - Chapter 3: The Bacchanalia
of the Political (Beltran)
Beltran engages practices of identification that are central to movement politics such as rallies,
conferences and poetry events.

● These events emphasize the formation of identity via expressive enactments of membership,
individuals are engaging in public facing acts to establish/proclaim their identities.
● Beltran asks how are these moments created, what political lessons are learned or gained from
these acts? How do participants navigate conflict and how do they ultimately inspire future
political action.

Beltran continues to explore the complexities of Latinidad, the development of identity is a space of
contestation, identity formation can be a venue of political action as well as conflict or political
dissolution.
Chapter 3: The Bacchanalia of the Political (Beltran)
Remember from Week #1 - Beltran is engaging the construction of Latinidad with all of its contradictions as emblematic of
the contradictions and potential of Democracy.

● Beltran in this chapter is engaging Jean Jacques Rousseau and participatory politics, do practices have to be civil, do
practices have to be deliberative, how much engagement and what kind of engagement is a democratic practice? Do
practices always have to be rational or critical and how does critical discourse look like?

Poetry (as well as stories, political art/artivism, discourse, stories of self, etc.) offers the potential for a participatory venue
that may be used to establish a sense of unity, one that can avoid conflict prone/contentious discursive engagements.

● Drawing from Iris Marion Young, Beltran engages the notion of large multicultural democracies needing more
expansive and inclusive forms of democratic participation.
○ ”Human understanding owes much to the passions, it is impossible to conceive why one who had neuter desires nor fears
would go into the trouble of reasoning”
● Civic practices that emphasize personal sentiment. Imagination and identification are powerful parts of how
individuals and communities make democratic commitments, participate collectively and resist inequality.
I Am Joaquin - 1969 - Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales

I Am Joaquin - Rodolfo Corky Gonzales - 1969

Lotería-Primera Tabla, 1972 - Carmen Lomas Garza
Pressures of Perpetual Promise (DiSipio)

Article engages three forms of Latino Political Engagement:

● Electoral: primary means to organize and make demands; elections are the primary means through which
majoritarian institutions engage with Latinos in the US.
● Organizations: this level of participation allows for coalescing of groups and generating specific demands.
● Issue: Issue based political engagement refers to interests that will guide future organizing efforts for
Latinos.

Latino political engagement is shaped through the expectation that Latinos could be politically powerful, however
the potential of LAtino impact precede the ability to deliver on those expectations.

While policy has attempted to expand access to voting, or ensuring equitable access, structural issues continue to
impact voting. Additionally legislation that has been seen as key to protecting voting access in recent years has
been challenge in the Court and struck down.
Latino Political Engagement, Exclusion and Barriers

Prior to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, minority communities were disproportionately affected by barriers
that violated their constitutional right to vote.

● This included literacy tests, poll taxes, physical/violent intimidation that sought to disenfranchise mostly African American voters across the
country, but particularly in the US South.
● The VRA aimed at eliminating these discriminatory practices by providing federal oversight of voting processes in areas with histories of racial
discrimination. It established mechanisms such as preclearance which required certain jurisdictions to obtain federal approval before making
changes to their voting laws.

In 1975 the VRA was expanded to address discrimination against members of “language minority groups” which included
Asian Americans, American Indians. Alaska natives and those of Spanish heritage.

While the VRA has expanded the opportunity for Latinos to vote and to vote in Latinos, Latino electoral participation is
still limited.
● Factors that limit Latino participation, low levels of formal education, Latino’s concentrated at the low tier of US class structures, the young age of
Latino’s and the inability for a significant number of Latino’s to vote due to legal status.
Discussion Questions:

What does politics mean for you? What do you call political? Do you engage in politics and
how?

Drawing from the readings do you view acts like marches, voting, artivism and poetry as
inherently political or democratic? Do some acts have an higher value than another in your
eyes?