For Authors_For Subscribers_For Librarians_For SocietiesFor Advertisers

Home | About Us | Contact Us | Site Map | FAQs

journal home
 
Services for Readers
Services for authors
Customer Services


April 2004, Volume 2, Number 1, Pages 26-44
Table of contents   Previous  Article  Next   PDF
Article
Delinquent Citizenship, National Performances: Racialization, Surveillance, and the Politics of "Worthiness" in Puerto Rican Chicago
Ana Y Ramos-Zayas1

1Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

Abstract

Drawing from my ethnographic research on "national performances" in Puerto Rican Chicago, I examine the ways in which Puerto Rican residents of Humboldt Park are criminalized and rendered "terrorist." The essay analyzes the production of a Puerto Rican US citizenship that is "delinquent" and approaches the status of illegality that has traditionally been imposed on other Latino (im)migrants. Puerto Ricans have tried to escape a stigmatized citizenship by consistently demonstrating their deservingness and deploying a "politics of worthiness" largely centered around involvement in the US military. The essay ultimately argues that constructions of homeland security are ideological and judicial projects of the US nation-state that not only unfold in an international arena but also configure domestic opportunities, power inequalities, and racial formations.

Latino Studies (2004) 2, 26-44. doi:10.1057/palgrave.lst.8600059

Keywords

citizenship; critical legal studies; Puerto Ricans; Chicago; popular education

Table of contents   Previous  Article  Next   PDF