The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation by <i>Leo R. Chavez</i>

The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation . Leo R. Chavez . Stanford : Stanford University Press , 2008 . ix + 256 pp., tables, figures, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index . On February 22, 2003, Jesica Santillan, a 17-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico, died following a botched heart and lung transplant. Surgeons apparently noticed too late that the donated organs were not compatible with the young woman's blood type. While Jesica's death was unquestionably tragic, just as disturbing was the mass-mediated public reaction to her misfortune. There were certainly commentators who decried the incompetence of the doctors. But there were also many voices that questioned the legitimacy of transplanting American organs into an illegal alien body. How could an undocumented immigrant, critics asked indignantly, receive an organ transplant in the first place? Shouldn't donated American organs be reserved for citizen bodies? Ultimately, Jesica came to be represented as a prototypical illegal alien who only comes to the United States to take things, in this case organs, which belong to proper American citizens. Jesica's story and similar mass-mediated spectacles of animosity targeting Latinos, mainly Mexican immigrants and their offspring, are at the heart of Leo Chavez's stimulating new book The Latino Threat. Chavez's basic and compelling argument is that what he terms the “Latino Threat Narrative” underpins contemporary anti-Latino politics in the United States. Developed over the last four decades and disseminated through the mass media, this narrative essentially posits that Latinos are quite unlike previous immigrant groups, who managed to become part of the national body. As Chavez puts it: “The Latino Threat Narrative characterizes Latinos as unable or unwilling to integrate into the social and cultural life of the United States. Allegedly, they do not learn English, and they seal themselves off from the larger society, reproducing cultural beliefs and behaviors antithetical to a modern life, such as pathologically high fertility levels that reduce the demographic presence of white Americans” (p. 177). Furthermore, the narrative presumes Latinos to be criminals (“illegals”) who are undermining social institutions such as education, health care, and social services. In the end, this group is constructed as “part of an invading force from south of the border that is bent on reconquering land that was formerly theirs (the U.S. Southwest) and destroying the American way of life” (p. 2). Significantly, Chavez connects the Latino threat narrative to the crisis in the meaning of citizenship in the United States. He argues that global processes such as immigration have disrupted the presumed isomorphism between citizenship and rights. For many people, aliens are supposed to be distinguished from citizens by the rights and privileges afforded to the latter. However, immigrants in the United States, both legal and undocumented, have come to be granted a number of citizenship benefits, including the rights to fair labor standards and practices, juridical due process, emergency medical care, and education. This granting of rights to noncitizens has been interpreted (by some) as a dilution and devaluation of citizenship. In this context, the Latino threat narrative functions to render Latinos as unsuitable members of society. That is, to the extent that Latinos are constructed in the mass media and public discourse as societal threats, they are not seen as having proper claims of belonging to the U.S. national community and the right to partake in the benefits associated with this membership. The Santillan case is instructive here. In the eyes of many, Jesica's illegality made her an illegitimate part of U.S. society and hence an unworthy recipient of donated organs. This connection of the Latino threat narrative with citizenship is also examined in relation to the politics of Latina reproduction, immigrant rights marches, and border vigilantes. Beyond elucidating the workings of the Latino threat narrative, Chavez also takes on the important task of interrogating the veracity of its claims. Drawing on empirical data from his research in Orange County, California, as well as from the studies of others, he persuasively challenges the main tenets of the narrative. Chavez argues, for example, that Latinas simply do not have pathologically high levels of fertility. In one of his studies, he found that, on average, Latinas only give birth to 2.08 children over the course of their lives. Such a rate contributes minimally to population growth. Furthermore, Chavez shows that as Latinos become generationally more removed from the immigrant experience, they increasingly utilize English in daily life, have non-Latino friends, intermarry with non-Latinos, and grow progressively more integrated in terms of levels of education, income, and political engagement. Importantly, this should not be taken to suggest that Latinos are free from obstacles to social and economic mobility. In fact, Chavez argues that Latinos suffer from unequal access to education and the job market. But despite these barriers, Latinos have managed to become meaningfully integrated into U.S. society. Chavez's point, then, is that Latinos are not a “socially secluded” mass just “waiting for the day when they can muster a Quebec-like takeover of the U.S. Southwest” (p. 68). It should also be noted that while Latinos may be integrating into the United States, this does not mean that they are undergoing a linear, one-way process of assimilation into American culture. Rather, Chavez argues that, like immigrant groups before them, Latinos are making important contributions to the ever-changing nature U.S. culture and to what it means to be American. Overall, Leo Chavez has produced a superb, well-argued, and thought-provoking book. Tackling subjects such as the Minutemen in Arizona, immigrant marches, Latino reproduction, and organ transplants, the book not only sheds a critical light on how, through the mass media, Latinos have been constructed as illegitimate members of society, but it also provides powerful evidence to undermine the taken-for-granted truths marshaled to marginalize this population. The Latino Threat should be required reading for anyone wishing to gain a critical perspective on immigration, citizenship, and the politics of antipathy.

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