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The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation
News media and pundits too frequently perpetuate the notion that Latinos, particularly Mexicans, are an invading force bent on reconquering land once their own and destroying the American way of life. In this book, Leo R. Chavez contests this assumption's basic tenets, offering facts to counter the many fictions about the "Latino threat." With new discussion about anchor babies, the DREAM Act, and recent anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona and other states, this expanded second edition critically investigates the stories about recent immigrants to show how prejudices are used to malign an entire population—and to define what it means to be American.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 18, 2008
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419 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 2, 2013
Chavez writes with a passion that makes you interested in what he says. I learned a lot from this book and it really changed my viewpoint. Eye opening :)
December 12, 2024
The book examines how the media and politicians stigmatize immigrants. For example, Americans were outraged when a Latino child, an illegal immigrant, received an organ transplant, despite the fact that immigrants contribute far more in organ donations than they receive. Although much of the hatred towards immigrants seems rational, it is often the result of constant brainwashing. Many anti-immigration policies target long-term Latino residents, not just illegal immigrants. Despite their careful efforts to live and work, immigrants are frequently blamed for taking away American welfare and healthcare. However, due to economic and language barriers, few immigrants actually benefit from these systems, while their contribution to the economy—through laborious and low-paying jobs that locals do not want—is immense. Ironically, many politicians who oppose immigration are themselves descendants of immigrants, and by the logic of "who belongs," they should be the first to leave.
November 9, 2024
Learning about how consistent anti-immigrant sentiment has been for decades, and can even be seen 100+ years ago, is fascinating and sad. It ends with an argument: that by eliminating birth right citizenship, America creates a second-class citizen; a new American caste system. Wouldn’t this be exactly what the 14th Amendment was trying to solve with its creation? Really really great book.
October 16, 2017
An excellent look at the stereotypes and myths that surround Latino immigrants and citizens of Latino descent with the data about the reality of Latinos and their lives in this country. I highly recommend this book.
August 8, 2021
This book taught me so so much of how propaganda villianizing Latinx people has been going on for decades. A must-read for Americans to understand policy and the media, a brilliant book for everyone.
April 3, 2025
methodology was well-done, and his prose made academia seem more accessible. i feel like i learned a lot about the history of immigration, and it changed my perspective
March 24, 2011
I would love to teach this book. The Latino Threat Narrative details the popular media representations of Latinos (and Latino immigration) and describes the way “common sense” knowledge about Latinos as immigrants remains embedded in anxieties over citizenship and the nation, particularly in the contemporary era of globalization. Chavez writes an accessible engaging book appropriate for the undergraduate classroom and yet intersecting with contemporary political theorists’ work on citizenship and media spectacle.
The first half of the book identifies and debunks the Latino Threat Narrative. The first chapter reveals the patterns of this narrative in writings by authors such as Arthur M. Schleisnger and Samuel Huntington. The second chapter refutes this story. It begins by humanizing immigrants, discussing personal stories of “The Dream Act” generation, showing the ways undocumented status structures young people’s lives. The chapter then uses statistical data to refute myths such as Latinos’ refusal to use English. As expected, the use of English is far more prevalent in the second generation and by the third generation, less than 4% of Latinos speak predominantly Spanish in the home. The third chapter looks at the discourse around Latino sexuality and reproduction, while the fourth chapter debunks this false “common knowledge.”
The second half of the book examines media spectacles, particularly organ transplants, the Minuteman project and the 2006 immigrant rights marches. Chavez used the organ transplant spectacle to discuss biopolitics and biological citizenship. He describes the Minuteman project as “a combination of both spectacle and surveillance” in which “the Minuteman Project used surveillance to produce a spectacle on the Arizona—Mexico border” (145). According to Chavez, “in the final analysis, the success of Mintueman Project was not in numbers of border crossers found and detained but in the attention the project received and the discipline it achieved that is, its ability to force governmental reaction aligned with its cause” (145). Chavez employed the 2006 immigrant rights marches to expose the way immigrants position themselves as model “neoliberal citizens.” Drawing from Ong, he writes, “During the marches, immigrants reassured the public of their internalized self-monitoring and their self-engineering; they emphasized their embodiment of the type of work required in today’s competitive labor market” (176).
The conclusion explains that implicit in The Latino Threat Narrative is an inaccurate understanding of U.S. cultural as homogenous and unchanging. Chavez also offers some policy suggestions here, including the “Elimination of the ‘illegal alien’ as a social type” and “Provision of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants leading productive and law-abiding lives” (185).
One of the reasons I like the idea of teaching this book is that Chavez provides clear explanations and examples of terms such as biopolitics and hegemony. An example of the accessible and engaging manner in which this book is written would be, “How did Jesica’s individual experiences come to embody debates over citizens and foreigners, membership in the nation, and threats to the nation? By exploring these questions, linking of the biological/body with the privileges of citizens takes on new meanings, a new biological citizenship. By biological citizenship, I mean that the battle over scarce medical resources can become the rounds for struggles over social membership, and the basis for staking claims for citizenship. With whom does one share scarce medical resources? What are the practices of exclusion, the ways in which some people are deemed less legitimate contenders for such resources? Answering these questions requires that we peel back assumptions about who is imagined as part of the community and thus deserving of social resources” (117-118).
On a side note, the introduction of this book reminded how excited I was when I first read Linda Bosniak’s The Citizen and the Alien .
The first half of the book identifies and debunks the Latino Threat Narrative. The first chapter reveals the patterns of this narrative in writings by authors such as Arthur M. Schleisnger and Samuel Huntington. The second chapter refutes this story. It begins by humanizing immigrants, discussing personal stories of “The Dream Act” generation, showing the ways undocumented status structures young people’s lives. The chapter then uses statistical data to refute myths such as Latinos’ refusal to use English. As expected, the use of English is far more prevalent in the second generation and by the third generation, less than 4% of Latinos speak predominantly Spanish in the home. The third chapter looks at the discourse around Latino sexuality and reproduction, while the fourth chapter debunks this false “common knowledge.”
The second half of the book examines media spectacles, particularly organ transplants, the Minuteman project and the 2006 immigrant rights marches. Chavez used the organ transplant spectacle to discuss biopolitics and biological citizenship. He describes the Minuteman project as “a combination of both spectacle and surveillance” in which “the Minuteman Project used surveillance to produce a spectacle on the Arizona—Mexico border” (145). According to Chavez, “in the final analysis, the success of Mintueman Project was not in numbers of border crossers found and detained but in the attention the project received and the discipline it achieved that is, its ability to force governmental reaction aligned with its cause” (145). Chavez employed the 2006 immigrant rights marches to expose the way immigrants position themselves as model “neoliberal citizens.” Drawing from Ong, he writes, “During the marches, immigrants reassured the public of their internalized self-monitoring and their self-engineering; they emphasized their embodiment of the type of work required in today’s competitive labor market” (176).
The conclusion explains that implicit in The Latino Threat Narrative is an inaccurate understanding of U.S. cultural as homogenous and unchanging. Chavez also offers some policy suggestions here, including the “Elimination of the ‘illegal alien’ as a social type” and “Provision of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants leading productive and law-abiding lives” (185).
One of the reasons I like the idea of teaching this book is that Chavez provides clear explanations and examples of terms such as biopolitics and hegemony. An example of the accessible and engaging manner in which this book is written would be, “How did Jesica’s individual experiences come to embody debates over citizens and foreigners, membership in the nation, and threats to the nation? By exploring these questions, linking of the biological/body with the privileges of citizens takes on new meanings, a new biological citizenship. By biological citizenship, I mean that the battle over scarce medical resources can become the rounds for struggles over social membership, and the basis for staking claims for citizenship. With whom does one share scarce medical resources? What are the practices of exclusion, the ways in which some people are deemed less legitimate contenders for such resources? Answering these questions requires that we peel back assumptions about who is imagined as part of the community and thus deserving of social resources” (117-118).
On a side note, the introduction of this book reminded how excited I was when I first read Linda Bosniak’s The Citizen and the Alien .
September 3, 2014
Even though it occasionally gets bogged down with geeky postmodern or academic jargon and sometimes slightly bores with discussions of poll results and shifting demographics, this book is an excellent expression of the current problems surrounding US citizenship and immigration. Chavez argues that individuals can influence and be influenced by a narrative which colors Latinos as aliens bent on taking over the United States at worst, or taking advantage of health care, education, and other perks illegally and without deserving it. He points to the hypocrisy of a country which receives benefits from undocumented immigrants while simultaneously denying or trying to prevent benefits from flowing in the other direction. Issues like "anchor babies," healthcare, organ transplants, the national anthem, flag symbolism, are woven throughout the book, shedding light on many hard-working people who are defined as alien or Other despite their desires or contributions.
July 21, 2009
Chavez clearly knows his shit, but somewhere along the line I think he read too much Foucault. He gets caught up in parsing out the "symbols" and "signifiers" involved in certain "narratives" and "discourses", when all of that is actually pretty obvious from the examples and statistics. The epilogue is a solid essay, so if you want to check this one out, skip to the end.
February 22, 2015
Great book, Foucault, Ong, Farmer some of my favorite anthropologists. This is a great book looking at things that make up the Latino Threat narrative. I think the last page, focusing on how to help, needed to be expanded or cut out.
September 25, 2008
Very good book puncturing myths about Latinos. A bit too much lingo, even for my academic tastes, but worth reading.
March 15, 2013
From hot Latina sexuality to anchor babies to the "reconquest" of America, this book debunks a lot of false notions about Latin immigrants to the United Status.
April 9, 2014
Chavez has a way of drawing the reader in and exposing the deep-seated racial issues within American society. This is a great read, and I enjoyed it despite having to read it as a class requirement.
April 23, 2017
A very well written book by Leo Chavez in which he explains what he means with the Latino Threat Narrative. It helps to understand contemporary media/political discourse about Latinos. Even though it is an accessible book which can be easily understood, Chavez makes theoretical connections with thinkers such as Foucault and Butler. Very nice book!
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February 1, 2019A really interesting, important read for every American.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews