Organizing Identities: Immigrant New Yorkers Negotiating Latinidad

Across the United States, immigrants rights protests, marches, and demonstrations captured the attention of the public and of lawmakers in the spring of 2006. Much of the rhetoric that emerged from these mobilizations included an assertion of Latino/a immigrant identity. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted in New York City in 2006 and 2007, this article argues that, confronted with a strong and clear organizational discourse of pan-ethnic Latino/a unity, Latin American immigrants articulated a variety of identities. I found no clear link between self-identification as Latino/a and participation in political mobilizations for immigration reform; this is in contrast to previous studies of Latino/a political activity. Examining the interactions, perspectives, and practices of Latin American immigrants involved with one community-based organization, this study attempts to address the lack of micro-level studies of immigrants everyday lives.