The Mexican Diaspora: A Critical Examination of Signifiers

Abstract

This article argues that the differences among subgroups of the Mexican diaspora are significant, as expressed through the variety of signifiers used to refer to various groups within this diaspora and affect intercultural communication and relations. The article first demonstrates that people of Mexican descent living within the current national borders of the United States can be considered a Mexican diaspora. It examines the lexicology and history behind five major signifiers—Mexican/ mexicano, Mexican American, Chicano/a, Hispanic, and Latino—used to refer to members of that diaspora and shows how they are the subjects of diasporic and postcolonial discourses. The article concludes with comments on three specific areas in which Mexican diasporic signifiers influence intercultural communication and affect communication research validity and provides suggestions for addressing these issues in future studies.

Visualizing simultaneity in diasporic public spheres: The case of the Mexican diaspora in the U.S

“…This paper assumes that people of Mexican origin who live in the U.S. are willing or inadvertent members of a diaspora, a characterisation that has been well established by various perspectives (e.g., González 1999;Rinderle 2005;Moreno 2011). As a word of Greek origin meaning 'scattered across', the term used to be applied normatively (Cohen 2008), but is now used in reference to the 'exemplary communities of the transnational moment' (Tölölyan 1996: 4) formed by sojourners, guest workers, exiles and political refugees who represent the bulk of the estimated 232 million people who live outside their countries of birth (Münz 2013).…”

“…For example, nearly everyone in the Mexican diaspora has migrated or is related to an immigrant (The Economist 2006;Fry & Passel 2009). Given Mexicans' experiences of racial exclusion in the U.S. (Acuña 1996), persisting structural obstacles for access to schooling and health, a continued concentration in the Southwest and social and geographic proximity to Mexico, they share a sense of belonging which justifies their characterisation as a diaspora (Gonzalez 1999: 553;Rinderle 2005). Importantly, ideas of belonging to a diasporic community are developed in what Avtar Brah labels as 'diaspora space', meaning 'the intersectionality of diaspora, border, and dis/location as a point of confluence of economic, political, cultural and psychic processes' (Brah 1996: 181).…”

Communicating a “New” Environmental Vernacular: A Sense of Relations-in-Place

“…Area ethnic identity is linked to environment within historical contexts of Spanish and US cultural conquest, which implicate contemporary Southwest Hispanics as both colonizers and colonized, and yield complex mixed race identities and views about land ownership. Discussions of Hispano identity continue to include a denial by some Hispanics of any mixing with Native Americans and a focus on Spanish ancestry as a way of crafting identity*claims to whiteness that some scholars attribute to a strategy for increased racial hierarchy status (Oboler, 1995;Rinderle, 2005). Wilmsen (2007) examines the complexity of environmental discourse in New Mexico where Hispanics have occupied an ambiguous position on the ''axis of victimization'' due to simultaneous role enactment of oppressor and oppressed.…”

Understanding social determinants of healthcare access from the perspective of Hispanic Latino immigrants in Louisville, Ky.

“…Throughout the years, Mexican migration in and out of the country continues to be greatly influenced by labor markets, and political and economic forces. Rinderle (2005) purports that individuals residing in the U.S., identified under the ethnic and racial categories of Mexicano/a, Mexican American, Chicano/a, Hispanic, and Latin have all resulted from the Mexican diaspora, making them subjects of both diasporic and colonial discourses.…”

“…Albert, 2011;Passel & Taylor, 2009;Soltero, 2006). Additionally, while admission paperwork at healthcare facilities may provide 'Hispanic' or 'Latino' as an option for ethnicity, the choices for racial background are often limited to white, black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Asian, and does not account for the mixed races and ethnic groups such as Mexicanos, chicanos and mestizos, which are commonly represented in Hispanic Latino groups (Rinderle, 2005).…”