Citizenship in Latin America

Abstract

In the past two decades, the notion of citizenship has become increasingly recurrent in the political vocabulary in Latin America and in other parts of the world. In Latin America, this phenomenon has been linked to the emergence of social movements during the late 1970s and 1980s and efforts at democratization, especially in countries with authoritarian regimes. In the United States and in Europe, the assertion of multiculturalism and the struggle of ethnic minorities for recognition of their rights have been the main driving force for the development of citizenship as a powerful reference in that struggle. Increasingly adopted since the late 1980s and 1990s by Latin American popular movements, excluded sectors, trade unions, and left parties as a central element of their political strategies, the notion of citizenship has become a common reference among social movements such as those of women, blacks and ethnic minorities, homosexuals, retired and senior citizens, consumers, environmentalists, urban and rural workers, and groups organized around urban issues such as housing, health, education, unemployment, and violence (Foweraker, 1995; Alvarez, Dagnino, and Escobar, 1998). These movements have found reference to citizenship not only a useful tool for their particular struggles but also a powerful articulating link among them. The general demand for equal rights embedded in the predominant conception of citizenship has been extended and specified in accordance with the demands in question. In this process of redefinition, strong emphasis has been placed on citizenship's cultural dimension, incorporating contemporary concerns with subjectivities, identities, and the right to difference. Thus, on one hand, the construction of a new notion of citizenship has come to be seen as reaching far beyond the acquisition of legal rights, requiring the constitution of active social subjects identifying what they consider to be their rights and