Constructing Identities in Mexican American Political Organizations: Choosing Issues, Taking Sides.

By Benjamin Márquez. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. 181p. $40.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Benjamin Márquez has maintained a longtime interest and research record in the realm of the Mexican origin community and organizational vehicles of change, adaptation, and defense. His latest book explores four specific Mexican American organizations and how social identities are molded to coincide with the organization's view of the American polity and objectives for their constituency. The four groups are Southwest Network for Environmental Economic Justice (SNEEJ); Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation; Mexican American National Association (MANA); and the Texas Association of Mexican American Chamber of Commerce.

The crux of Márquez's analysis lies with three critical distinctions of organizational goals and perspectives. They are integration, racial, and revolutionary change. An integration-oriented organization seeks to end racial domination and achieve racial/ethnic assimilation. Similarly, a racial-oriented organization also wants to end racial domination but maintain distinct racial and cultural boundaries. Finally, a revolutionary-oriented organization finds existing structural relations untenable and a total restructuring of society required. The importance of these organizational distinctions lies in the constructed identities that result from each type of organizational outlooks. The author is quick to acknowledge the multifaceted nature of personal identities and how they can be fragmented. At the same time, his focus is on how organizations create identities that are separate from an individual's social identity. Through this constructed identity, associations interpret collective experiences and translate them into specific strategies to advance the group's goals.

With the focus upon Mexican American identity politics, Márquez examines the boundaries of the organizations: racial discrimination, economic disadvantage, and cultural hegemony. He introduces important dimensions associated with the racial/ethic politics literature, which include the permanency of racial intergroup relations and status versus significant social change; a system versus an individual blame explanation for inequality; access to politically controlled resources; and the probability of successful challenges to the “order” of a subordinated society. He continues his general discussion of minority politics and its organizations by introducing class. Questions of the extent of class mobility within a free-market economy or patterns of labor-market segmentation and the effects of globalization serve to interrelate the intersection of race and ethnicity with social class. This element is pertinent as each of the examined groups attracts Mexican Americans from class strata within this population. The added elements of culture and its role in organizational life warrant discussion by Márquez. He distinguishes between cultural attitudes and behaviors as personal choice versus organizational use of cultural traditions and practices to accent goals and objectives, as well as bases for motivation for participation and activism. Thus the conceptual groundwork is set, and the use of four case studies, involving both archival and interview-based data, illustrates the development, strategies, asserted identities, and objectives of these Mexican origin organizations.

With the three types of organizational identities, two of the ideal types are illustrative (i.e., integration and revolutionary) of the four organizations examined. Even though we are dealing with ideal types, it is not clear why a “racial organization” was not included. The author comments that unlike groups within the African American community (i.e., Nation of Islam), a separatist orientation has not had much of a following in the Mexican American community. It is not clear if no such organization(s) exists or the author chose to exclude this type of organization from his book. Three of the organizations are described as integration identity types in which race (or ethnicity), class, and culture are evident in each association. These key elements are present in each of the four groups, in varying degrees and manifestation. For example, culture is part of the personal identity of its membership, in its community ties and concerns, and in ceremonial aspects of its meetings and conferences.

On the other hand, part of MANA's organizational objectives is cultural “maintenance” and reformulation of cultural beliefs and practices. Among the MANA members, gender and gender relations with institutions and society also provide a core basis for collective actions. Thus, the intersection of race, ethnicity, class, and culture come into play within this organizational context. While all of these organizations are identified as Mexican American, the dynamics and complexity of these multifacets still need to be explored as to how ethnically based groups use their ethnicity. For example, the SWNEEJ identifies itself as multicultural and representing economically depressed communities. Yet culture and ethnicity define the geographic base and organizational styles for many of its chapters. The web of race-class-culture is precisely an intermingling of experiences and attributes that get filtered in different ways. Some of those ways we attach to race/ethnicity. The challenge still remains for researchers to understand that controlling, sorting out, or isolating the effects of ethnicity in an analytical manner does not capture fully the role of ethnicity or its absence. In these case studies, ethnicity helps to define the basis for membership, organizational objectives (i.e., to counter racism, economic subjugation, and cultural hegemony, motivational cues for political action, and framing issues); yet the uniformity of what ethnicity encompasses for the Mexican origin has variations. In a very real sense, Márquez helps to illustrate these ethnic variations through these four organizations. At the same time, the role of Mexican origin and its organizational forms and structures warrants more exploration as to how the multifaceted web works simultaneously.

Another area that Márquez explores is the potential for cooperative activities across these organizations. Given their respective objectives, kinds of strategies, and “stratum” of their membership base, he does not see a high likelihood. While he uses the Prop 187 initiatives and all of its ancillary events, personalities, and circumstances as an example of “coalitional opportunity,” his analysis sends mixed signals. That is, a Mexican origin community under siege should come together. The mixed signals indicate that they do not and/or that it is a very tenuous relationship. At the same time, the nexus for collaboration is present (i.e., common concerns about minority status, discrimination, ties to the community, etc.). His discussion on NAFTA illustrates both divisions and overlap. In the case of the latter, MANA changed its opposition as it felt critical concerns were addressed. There exist both individual and organizational networks such that cooperativeness occurs for very specific purposes and for a limited period of time or outcome. Again, the imagery of a web connotes the organizational dynamics that take place across Mexican Americans organizations.

What are the necessary preconditions, contextual factors, and personal/organizational networks that combine for collaborative endeavors? Márquez has been a consistent contributor toward a wider and better understanding of the Mexican American organization experience and impact on segments of the political system. Constructing Identities in Mexican American Political Organizations both raises important distinctions within the Mexican American organizational life and shows how ethnicity plays out in this context. I would encourage him to keep delving into the intricacies and complexity of ethnicity in American political life.