Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Lure of Whiteness and the Politics of "Otherness": Mexican American Racial Identity

本文采用建构的民族性方法，考察了墨西哥裔美国人在历史和现实中给自己贴上标签的方式。在这一框架内，种族或民族认同被视为通过外部力量和更多的社会心理因素进行身份认同谈判的过程。一系列复杂的因素影响着民族或种族认同的构建，以及群体如何选择呼吁共享历史和文化。由于种族/民族认同过程的复杂性，我依靠多种方法，包括对档案资源的历史分析、人口普查数据分析和深入访谈，以帮助更彻底地了解墨西哥裔美国人的种族认同。我研究了与1930年人口普查和墨西哥种族分类发展有关的历史文件，以及墨西哥裔美国人反对这种种族主义身份的游说努力，以支持政治上承认“白人”。然后，我探讨了当代墨西哥裔美国人的身份认同，这反映在目前美国人口普查的种族自我报告中，以及墨西哥人和盎格鲁人通婚家庭儿童的报告模式中。最后，我对德克萨斯州五个城市的墨西哥裔美国人进行了60次深度访谈，调查了社会经济地位、社区种族构成、靠近美墨边境、社会网络、出生/移民历史、西班牙语流利程度、外貌和政治态度等因素如何影响他们自己的种族和民族认同以及他们为孩子贴标签的选择。该项目有助于拉美裔身份认同的学术研究，并解决了更广泛的问题，即不仅在美国人口普查中，而且在更广泛的美国社会中，多个变量在种族和民族身份认同的发展和突出中的重要性。

This dissertation takes a constructed ethnicity approach, examining the ways in which Mexican Americans label themselves both historically and currently. Within this framework, racial or ethnic identity is viewed as a process whereby identity is negotiated both through external forces and more social psychological factors. A complex set of factors influence the construction of ethnic or racial identities and how groups choose to call on shared history and culture. Because of the complexity of the racial/ethnic identification process, I rely on multiple methodologies including historical analysis of archival resources, census data analysis, and in-depth interviews to help garner a more thorough understanding of the racial identification of Mexican Americans. I examine historical documents pertaining to the 1930 Census and the development of the Mexican racial classification, as well as Mexican American lobbying efforts against this racialized identity in favor of political recognition as "White." I then explore contemporary Mexican American identity as reflected in current racial self-reporting on the U.S. Census and in the reporting patterns for children in households with Mexican-Anglo intermarriages. Finally, I conduct sixty in-depth interviews with a strategic sample of Mexican Americans in five Texas cities, investigating how such factors as socioeconomic status, racial composition of neighborhood, proximity to the US-Mexico border, social networks, nativity/migration history, Spanish language fluency, physical appearance, and political attitudes affect their own racial and ethnic identifications and their labeling choices for their children. This project contributes to scholarship on Latino identity, as well as addresses broader issues of the importance of multiple variables in the development and salience of racial and ethnic identities not only in the US Census, but in the broader US society.