An analysis of the concept of Hispanic or Latino as a form of an ethnic conscious identity and behavior separate from the individual ethnic identity of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and another Spanish speaking groups is the subject of Latino Ethnic Consciousness. Its focus is Chicago Mexican American and Puerto Rican populations

Pinto, Luis L.

English

VCU Scholars Compass

contrast ,  a n d  interact with t h o s e  in S e l m a ,  Birming h a m ,  a n d  Montgomery where much of t h e  modern civil rights struggle occurred and received extensive media coverage? The author does not say. Despite this reservation,  however, Reaping the Whirlwind is an engrossing and carefully crafted book that deserves wide and serious reading. -Floyd W. Hayes, III San Diego State University Felix M. Padilla. Latino Ethnic Consciousness. (Notre Dame, IN:  University of Notre Dame Press, 1 985) ix, 187 pp.,  $20.95.  An analysis of the concept of Hispanic or Latino as a form of an ethnic conscious identity and behavior separate from the individual ethnic identity of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and another Spanish speaking groups is the subj ect of L a tino Ethnic Consciousness.  Its focus is Chicago Mexican American and Puerto Rican populations.  Padilla makes a great contribution to the understanding of the factors that play a prominent role in Latino ethnic mobilization in Chicago. He offers an illuminating analysis of the external and internal factors and conditions which have led to the ethnic change manifest in the emergence of this new Latino or Hispanic ethnic identity in the North American urban setting. After a detailed analysis of the social context of Chicago's Spanish speaking populations he goes on to comment on the challenges that the social scientist confronts in his or her effort to explain when this group form is the actual expression of a collective ethnic identity and solidarity rather than the distinct and separate identities of Mexican Americans or Puerto Ricans. H e  fo l lows J o h n  Pitt' s articul ation o f  " B l ack c o n s ciousnes s , "  and concludes that "Latinismo" should be viewed a s  a social product. From this point of view "Latino" ethnic identification and consciousness may not be viewed as the product of individual Mexican American, Cuban, Puerto Rican groups,  nor as existing independently of their intergroup social relations and behavior. It is his contention that Latino ethnic behavior represents a collective generated behavior which transcends the boundaries of individual national and cultural identities of the different Spanish speaking populations and emerges as a distinct and separate group identification and consciousness.  The m anifestation of a Latino ethnic identity and consciousness is operative when two or more speaking groups,  in this instance Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans, interact as one during certain situational contexts . This means that instead of representing the Explo rations in Sights and Sounds No. 7 (Summer 1 987) 63 more historically fixed or inherited type of group form and identity , as in the anthropological sense, Latino or Hispanic group identification and solidarity has emerged over time as a p art of the process of intergroup relations and communications between two or more Spanish speaking groups.  P adilla has uncovered ample evidence to prove that Latino ethnic i d entity a n d  consciousness  among Puerto Ricans  a n d  Mexican Americans in Chicago community organizations began to emerge in the early 1 970s .  I n  recognition of the frustrations and anger of the Spanish speaking working class because of this population's marginal participa­tion in the American economy as well as subj ection to discrimination by American firms,  a coalition of various Puerto Rican and Mexican American community organizations was formed in June of 1 9 7 1  to alleviate these conditions. The Spanish Coalition for Jobs was formed as a response to the m arginal integration of Spanish speaking workers in the labor force in American industries and corporations,  such as the Illinois Bell  Tele­phone.  The issue of poverty and racial inequality pushed into the limelight by the Civil  Rights Movement and its  repercussions also influenced the involvement of the polity in the social and economic life in American society. During the 1 960s a number offederal programs were instituted to help the poor people of this country in developing new ways of dealing with the urban problems of poverty, unemployment, poor housing and lack of opportunities.  It is  Padilla' s contention that these programs were not intended, primarily, to alleviate the problems of the poor, but rather to alleviate the problems that the poor were causing for government at all levels.  One leading factor responsible for stirring Latino ethnic mobilization among Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans in Chicago during the 1 9 70s was the Affirmative Action Policy which was incorporated into the Civil Rights Act of 1 964. This policy represented the instrument or mechanism used by leaders from the two communities to make claims against institutions and structures found to be discriminatory against Spanish speaking workers at citywide level . Padilla feels that our contemporary society is a leading promoter and activator of ethnic assertiveness and that Latino Hispanic ethnicity adds a special case to this trend. In Chicago, the political center has influenced Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans to politicize their demands as a Latino unit in a citywide context. In this study Padilla has shown conclusive evidence that for Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago the community organization has come to represent the significant social process from which they are learning what it means to be "Latino" or Hispanic. It is community organizing, or other similar kinds of group associations and actions involving participation of more than one Spanish speaking group, that 64 Explorations in Sights and Sounds No. 7 (Summer 1 987) brings forth " Latino"  ethnic identification and solid arity among Hispanics. Padilla has introduced a new and promising approach for the future study of Latino ethnic mobilization in this country. -Luis L. Pinto Bronx Community C ollege of CUNY Pepetela (Artur Pestana) Mayombe: A Novel of the A ngolan Struggle.  A fr i c a n  W r i t e r s  S e r i e s  2 69 .  ( P or t s m o u t h ,  N H :  H einemann, 1 986) Trans. Michael Wolfers. 1 84 pp. ,  $7.50 paper. Mayo mbe: A No vel of the A ngolan Struggle, by Pepetela, is a story of a guerrill a  base in 1 9 7 1 .  The writer, Artur C arlos M auricio Pestana dos S antes, fought in C abinda Province with the MPLA forces that he portrays. Fearless, the commander-martyr and main protagonist echoes the author's dual commitment as author-revolutionary: I never ceased making up stories in which I was the hero.  As I was n ot the type to remain j ust m aking up stories, I had only two courses open in life: to write them or to live them. The Revolution gave me an opportunity to create them in action .  If it had not been for the revolution, I should certainly have ended up as a writer. Pestana uses two main literary devices to generalize his n arrative. First,  he gives his protagonists attributive n ames.  Theory is the school· master, fighting in p art to find acceptance even though he is of mixed blood. Struggle is the action fighter, uninterested in revolutionary theory or promotion beyond the ranks. Ungrateful is a traitorous thief; N ew World, the survivor; Miracle, the bazooka marksman. The main n arrative is interrupted at intervals by interspersed " first­hand" entries of an italicized p age or two in which v arious characters explain their p asts and the motivating force for j oining the guerrillas.  These rather lyrical episodes show off Pestana's style. For example,  Muatianyua describes Luanda and his penniless father's death from tuberculosis contracted from working in the  diamond mines: The diamond went into his chest, s ucked his  strength, s u cked until he was dead. The sparkle of diamonds is the tears of the Company workers. The h ardness of diamond is an illusion; it is nothing more than drops of sweat crushed by the ton,; of earth that cover them. The Operations Chief, a peas ant, cannot communicate easily with Fearless,  but does write about him. " H e  cannot sleep. His Base is occupied by the enemy. He was the one who built it. Fearless is a n  intellectual; an intellectual cannot bear h i s  child to die. We are u s e d  to it. Our children died from the bombs, from the machine guns, from the foreman's whip ."  Similarly, in the epilogue the C ommissar writes feelingly of Fearless 's  death. "I  evolve and I develop a new skin. There are some who need to write to shed the skin that no  longer fits .  Others Exp lorations in Sigh ts and Sounds No. 7 (Summer 1 987) 65 

[Review of] Felix M. Padilla. Latino Ethnic Consciousness

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[Review of] Felix M. Padilla. Latino Ethnic Consciousness

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