Latina/o Political Thought: Exploring the Relationship between Decentered Subjectivity, Coalition Building, and Sustained Political Solidarity

Abstract

Chicana feminists have contributed to numerous themes in Latina/o political thought. Two of the most significant of these themes are the multiplicity of subjectivity, and the view that political solidarity – i.e. the uniting of diverse peoples in common cause – should build upon the diversity among people rather than on the imposed or supposed sameness of a single identity. Numerous Chicana and Latina feminists have pointed to a strong connection between these two themes by emphasizing the role that inner diversity can play in solidaristic political movements. Within this conversation in Latina/o political thought, however, numerous questions remain as to the exact relationship between identity, the diversity of the self, and the everyday tasks of building political solidarity. In this paper, I contribute to the ongoing consideration of these concerns by addressing the question: via what specific mechanisms, if any, can the multiple identities within subjectivity play a role in creating diverse, yet cohesive, political coalitions or movements? I address this question in two parts. In part one, I survey the concepts of mestiza consciousness and solidarity as Chicana feminists have articulated them in recent decades. In part two, I employ these concepts in a case study analysis of the organizing strategies of the Farmworkers Movement as led by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and others between 1962 and November of 1976. I conclude the paper by drawing an analytic inference from the case study suggesting five specific factors that are likely to serve as mediating mechanisms in the role that multiple identities play in diverse coalition building in general.