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Hardy-Fanta:   Latino Politics/ Latina Politics

NOTES ON THE TEXT

CONCEPTS / QUESTIONS / THEORIES / METHODS

What are the reasons behind the political activity or inactivity of these “ordinary” Latinos, the common folk, the masses, or in Spanish, la gente del pueblo ?

Do gender differences exist in political life?  Do women see the world in “relational terms” while men are more concerned with positions and hierarchy? (12)

AUTHOR’S ARGUMENTS

“…Latina women are political actors in Boston’s Latino community….(they) are not passive about politics.”

“…the way Latina women in Boston talk about politics reveals a very different vision of “What is political?” than that of Latino men…. (They) reflect a more participatory vision of democracy than one based only on male modes of politics….. (It is) in tune with cultural expectations and it overcomes many of the structural constraints on Latino political participation in this country.” (2)

CONCEPTS

La gente del pueblo (Preface)                                      survival politics (46)

La gente professional (Pref)                                        personalismo (53-5, 60, 62)

La comunidad latina (Intro)                                        (congressional) redistricting

“What is political?”                                                         jibaro (64)

“making connections” (3, Ch 2)                                   ancianos (77)

Community Action                                                        envidia (37, 92)

            Interactive process                                            “community” (99, 100)

            Interpersonal politics (27, 51)                           machismo/Marianismo (19)

Participatory democracy (Intro, 23)                            la chispa que prende (137, 189)

Representative democracy     “

Portovoz/portovoces (17)                                               alcade/alcadesa (17)

Traditional political roles (Chap 1)

THEORIES

Political science theory

• Theories of power

• Theories about democracy

• Electoral politics / participatory politics

• Community & citizenship

Feminist Theory

• Simone de Beauvoir

• Feminist political theory

• Relational-positional debate

• “personal is political”

• private / public spheres

• citizenship (100)

• sexism and racism (154-159)

LATINA/O ORGANIZATIONS

• Mujeres Unidas en Accion  (Women United in Action)

• Familias Latinas de Boston

• National Puerto Rican Women’s Committee (Boston Chapter)

• Comite de Mujeres, Miriam Lopez-Perez

• Puerto Rican Organizing Resource Center, Women’s Committee

• Comite de Padres pro Defensa de la Educacion Bilingue

• Comunidad Boricua en Accion

• Concilio Latino

• Latino Political Action Committee (PAC)

• Latino Democratic Committee

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

• Villa Victoria

• Boston Redevelopment Authority

• Boston Housing Authority

• Educational Programs and Schools

RESEARCH METHODS

Qualitative, exploratory design

Exploratory (open ended) method allows definitions to be provided by people/community

Anthropology/Ethnography

            Participant observation

            In-depth interviews

            Oral histories

Sociology:  “Grounded Theory”

            What terminology is used by interviewees ?

            Patterns “emerge” from research, rather than following existing theory

Triangulation:  Archival (newspapers, historic documents, etc), geographic, census data, focus groups

            Various methods used to explain background or context

            Historical documents supplement oral histories

Literature Review, Secondary Sources:  Used in all methods to examine what published research has been done previously on the topic (comparative studies elsewhere), and what are the theories, concepts and assumptions existing in this area of research

The Ethnograph:  Software – computerized text analysis program

            Codes according to keywords, themes, patterns

            Allows systematic qualitative analysis

            Generates frequencies of themes by “gender” or other category

            e.g., relative weight that women/men give to distinct themes

Oral History – Open-ended questions

            “Tell me a story of your migration to the U.S.”

Interviews with activists and organizers

            “Tell me what you do politically.”

            “Who do you think draws other Latinos into political participation?”

Themes analyzed by Hardy-Fanta from interviews & participant observation

• The ways m/w work to mobilize Latinos in Boston

• Their views of politics and political participation

• Activities that they have been involved in

• Successes and failures of community mobilization

• The source of their own political involvement

Contrast: Quantitative – Survey Research

•      Broader base of respondents

•      Random method=statistical correlations

•      Obscures forms of political participation not observed before

•      Survey respondents answer questions based on what researcher “knows”

Issues in Field Research

Method should fit research questions

Confidentiality must be guaranteed

Participatory research

·        How will research benefit the people/community studied?