Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse

by Otto Santa Ana, Joe R. Feagin (wrote foreword)

2002 – Best Book on Ethnic and Racial Political Ideology and/or Political Theory – Organized Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics of the American Political Science Association "...awash under a brown tide...the relentless flow of immigrants..like waves on a beach, these human flows are remaking the face of America...." Since 1993, metaphorical language such as this has permeated mainstream media reporting on the United States' growing Latino population. In this groundbreaking book, Otto Santa Ana argues that far from being mere figures of speech, such metaphors produce and sustain negative public perceptions of the Latino community and its place in American society, precluding the view that Latinos are vested with the same rights and privileges as other citizens. Applying the insights of cognitive metaphor theory to an extensive natural language data set drawn from hundreds of articles in the Los Angeles Times and other media, Santa Ana reveals how metaphorical language portrays Latinos as invaders, outsiders, burdens, parasites, diseases, animals, and weeds. He convincingly demonstrates that three anti-Latino referenda passed in California because of such imagery, particularly the infamous anti-immigrant measure, Proposition 187. Santa Ana illustrates how Proposition 209 organizers broadcast compelling new metaphors about racism to persuade an electorate that had previously supported affirmative action to ban it. He also shows how Proposition 227 supporters used antiquated metaphors for learning, school, and language to blame Latino children's speech—rather than gross structural inequity—for their schools' failure to educate them. Santa Ana concludes by calling for the creation of insurgent metaphors to contest oppressive U.S. public discourse about minority communities.

Genres: Nonfiction, School

424 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2002

About the author

I focus on how the mass media inscribe and legitimate social inequity. The American Political Science Association recognized my first book, "Brown Tide Rising: Metaphoric Representations of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse" the Best Book of the year on Ethnic and Racial Politics. The APSA selection committee stated: “In evaluating works in this category, our committee reviewed over 60 books and found [Santa Ana’s] research to be a compelling examination of political discourse surrounding Latinos in California.”

I then put together a book entitled Tongue-tied: The lives of multilingual children in U.S. public education. Tongue-Tied is an anthology that gives voice to millions of people who, on a daily basis, are denied the opportunity to speak in their own words. Tongue-Tied is designed to open the hearts of its readers to these children, by way of literature and accessible scientific essays. First-person accounts by Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie, bell hooks, Richard Rodriguez, and less familiar authors open windows onto the lives of linguistic minority students. Tongue-Tied initiates a much-needed dialogue which, for once, will include these silenced citizens. With such an inclusive conversation, the current linguistic bigotry of the U.S., which most easily perpetuates itself through their silence, can finally be cross-examined.

In 2012 an anthology I co-edited appeared on the political events of Arizona 2010. We call it "Arizona Firestorm: The Global Realities of Immigration: Mass Media & Provincial Politics." Celeste González de Bustamante is my co-editor. We brought together top scholars in the fields of globalization, economics, immigration law, ethnic studies, education, and news media. The scholars cover critical aspects of the state’s anti-immigrant politics that the news media have not addressed. In very readable chapters these experts explain the factors that compel immigrants to leave their homelands; they lay out the historical context behind Arizona’s political acts, and consequences of these actions; and they describe the media’s role in shaping national opinion about the subject.

My most recent book is on how television network news portrays Latinos. It is called "Juan in a 100: The Representation of Latinos on network news.” Juan in a 100 offers 3 analyses of network television news images. It demonstrates how and why news stories with limited plots and restricted Latino characters constitute oppressive subject positions for news viewers as well as Latino subjects. I contrast such stories with examples of highly accomplished reporting that successfully expands the audience's worldview. While the findings are at times disheartening, I do not simply condemn the networks. Rather, I offer 3 distinct ways for scholars to understand US network news products, and 3 sets of constructive recommendations for journalists.

These days I am exploring the political power of comedy that is broadcast on commercial mass media. I recently published a paper on the racial politics of Jay Leno's humor. Mass mediated humor will be the topic of my next monograph.

Reviews

[Greg Florez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t say I’m entirely convinced of the power of metaphor, but it is written convincingly and passionately. Very extensive history of South western Latino life in USA.

[Christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always difficult for me to give stars to non-fiction or scholarly works because I generally apply stars based on the plot and characters...which these books usually don't really have. But this work was a major resource for my thesis and Santa Ana's findings about language used in the LA Times were really interesting. Use of metaphors is something that's easy to overlook when reading newspaper articles, but

[Marilee C-R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic analysis of public discourse on Latin@s in California. This research was recommended to me by Norma Gonzalez and was very helpful for my dissertation research on immigrant youth in high schools.

[Otto]

I wrote it.