Aida’s Reviews > Cartographic Memory: Social Movement Activism and the Production of Space > Status Update

"We expect or hope for these spaces to stay put. Who wouldn't want their favorite Indian restaurant and pizza joint to be a permanent fixture in space? To beforever graphed onto the earth? And can you imagine the disappointment of having a favorite café close down? Space, however, is always in production, continuously changing and open. Geography is constantly being graphed in new ways..."

"Yet as with any representation, these representations of what Dávila (2008) would call "marketable" Latinos can help to consolidate polarities between Latinos and other minorities- most specifically Blacks, who are the unnamed reference against which these representations are made."

"At the heart of these debates were questions surrounding the political possibilities of Mexican Americans. This preoccupation with politics linked with economic growth and control over resources was also relationally linked with African American struggles in Oakland and beyond. Therefore, Mexican American nonprofit forms of race-making were relational to the racialization of African Americans."

"This collective of Mexican American subjects as well as their demands, organizational tactics, and relationship to the state emerged through a carefully crafted relationship with the civil rights movement and Black radicalism of the time. Mexican American political mobilizations of this period unsettled the geography of both race and poverty in Oakland."

"I find that although they are indeed a product of state and philanthropic regulation, these organizations also demonstrate the importance of longevity. They highlight that the provision of ongoing systems of care matter, and that holding on to space over time is important and requires a tremendous amount of work."

"Here lies the key to why these activities have been overlooked in the literature on Bay Area social movements: in social movement literature, the creation of alliances and collaboration with state and philanthropic forces have been equated with co-optation, which leads to social movement death."