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The Ralph J. Bunche Award is given for the best book published in the U.S. during the previous calendar year that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism.

Award Committee: Lisa Garcia Bedolla, Chair, University of California, Berkeley; Geeta Chowdhry, Northern Arizona University; and Michael G. Hanchard, Johns Hopkins University

Recipient: Cristina Beltrán, Haverford College

Title: The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity (Oxford University Press)

Citation: In The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity, Cristina Beltrán cogently argues for a new conceptualization of Latinidad, one that does not see unity (and therefore the absence of discord and dissent) as its foundation. Beltrán makes this powerful argument by carefully and artfully weaving together the work of political theorists such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Iris Marion Young, Judith Butler, and Hannah Arendt, among others, with the historical documents and performances of the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements in order to create a new vision and understanding this critical, foundational moment within Latino political development in the United States.  She then explores how popular interpretations of the “Latino vote” and 2006 immigration marches are in many ways reflections of these foundational constructions.  In her analysis, Beltrán characterizes (p. 126) the Latino electorate as an aggregate rather than as an electorate, reminding readers that the construction of that aggregate into an electorate is a political process that cannot be taken for granted and that must remain, by definition, incomplete.  Similarly, she argues (on p. 157) that we need to conceptualize Latino politics as something subjects do, rather than a set of attitudes and interests they already share, bringing to light an ontological and epistemological flaw that underlies much Latino politics research.  Conceptualizing Latino identity as a site of “permanent political contest” (p. 161) fundamentally alters the types of questions Latino politics scholars should ask and the types of data they would need to elicit in order to answer those questions. As Beltrán (p. 167) states, such a reading of Latino pan-ethnicity “finds value in its capacity to be decentered, opportunistic, and expansive.”  This constitutes an altogether new conception of Latinidad, one that runs counter, as Beltrán points out, to the dominant public discourses about Latinos in United States academics and politics.  Yet, this reading of Latinidad has significantly more democratic and emancipatory potential than one that imposes a false unity upon a diverse and increasingly complex racialized group within American society.

In Trouble with Unity, Beltrán develops a new paradigm with which to conceptualize and consider Latino political identification, expression, and movement making.  This paradigm comprises a creative fusion of theoretical analysis, historical institutionalism, literary critique, and feminist epistemology.  The result is a rich and remarkably insightful reading of why the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements, along with the political incorporation they fostered, have been unable to achieve their democratic or inclusionary potentials. In this way, Beltrán uses the tools of political theory in order to draw profound insights into how the politics of community, race, gender, affect constructions and understandings of Latinidad. The result is a deeply powerful book that is certain to have a significant impact within political science, sociology, Latino studies, American studies, and ethnic studies.