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Focusing on Mexican-American and Puerto Rican populations in Chicago, Latino Ethnic Consciousness documents the development of a collective Hispanic or Latino ethnic identity, distinct and separate from the national and cultural affiliations of Spanish-speaking groups. Author Felix Padilla explores the internal dynamics and external conditions, which have prompted this move past individual group boundaries to a broader ethnic identity.
According to Padilla, the Latino ethnic identity develops from the cultural and structural similarities of two or more Spanish-speaking groups and often in response to common experiences of social inequality. In that ethnic identities have to a large extent been encouraged by the division of the labor market in America's industrial society, he argues that the Latino consciousness represents a situational ethnic identity which functions according to the needs of the groups. He describes how such conditions as poverty and racial discrimination have necessitated the assertion of a broader Latino ethnic consciousness and behavior, often more successful in social action than individual cultural or national associations.
In case studies from the early 70s, Padilla examines Affirmative Action, the Spanish Coalition for Jobs—spurred by activist Hector Franco—and the Latino Institute, and their influence on the growth of Latino solidarity and mobilization in Chicago.
In refining the concept of Latino and Hispanic and establishing its significance in society, Latino Ethnic Consciousness serves as an analytic framework for further study of ethnic change in America.
“Padilla’s book has raised many interesting questions and one that historians who write about grass-root political groups will want to read.” —The Western Historical Quarterly
“Felix M. Padilla’s contribution to the growing body of literature on Latino/Hispanic identity in the United States represents a significant departure from the way most social scientists have approaced their analysis of ethnic identity and consciousness. On his way to putting together a conceptual framwork for supporting his theisis of an emerging Latino ethnic identity and consciousness, Padilla provides a substantial in-depth analysis of the Mexican American and Puerto Rican community-based organization in Chicago during the early 1970s.” —Explorations in Sights and Sounds
"A most enlightening exposition of the social, political, and economic factors that shape the development of ethnic consciousness among any group. . . ." —Choice
“Latino Ethnic Consciousness is an important contribution to the study of ethnicity. Padilla demonstrates how ethnicity and ethnic identity are dynamic forces that are constantly evolving and responsive to changes in structural conditions.” —Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos
Felix M. Padilla is the Director for the Center for Latino and Latin American Affairs, Northern Illinois University.