Representations of Latinos in a Democratic Party Campaign in the United States: Identity Ownership, Narratives, and Values

In the 2016 United States presidential election, candidates Trump and Clinton embraced the demands of certain social groups and in this way, politically and symbolically, chose to "own" the social identities of these groups. Trump decided to attack the Latino community, while Clinton positioned herself as an advocate for this community. This article presents the results of a social narrative analysis of the values that Clinton and her team used to reach out to Latino communities during the 2016 election. The Spanish-language messages produced by the Democratic campaign compose the sample, which includes blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, and television ads. Clinton's campaign produced narratives about who the "good Latinos" are and, consequently, the "good immigrants" while at the same time promoting values such as globalism, cosmopolitanism, and multiculturalism. Paradoxically, these narratives and values failed to portray Latinos' diversity because they left out this community's historical, social, and cultural complexity. Resumen Durante las elecciones presidenciales de 2016 en Estados Unidos, los candidatos Trump y Clinton hicieron suyas las demandas de ciertos grupos sociales; de esta manera, politica y simbolicamente se "apropiaron" de las identidades de estos grupos. Trump decidio atacar a la comunidad latina y Clinton se posiciono como defensora de esta comunidad. Este articulo presenta un analisis de las narrativas sociales que Clinton y su equipo utilizaron para comunicarse con las comunidades latinas en 2016. Los mensajes en espanol de esta campana componen la muestra, que incluye articulos de blog, publicaciones de Facebook y Twitter, y anuncios de television. La campana produjo narrativas y valores sobre quienes son los "buenos latinos" y los "buenos inmigrantes". Ademas, promovio valores como el globalismo, el cosmopolitismo y el multiculturalismo. Paradojicamente, estas narrativas y valores no lograron retratar la diversidad latina porque dejaron de lado la complejidad historica, social y cultural de esta comunidad.