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Abstract
For many members of the National Communication Association (NCA), the La Raza Caucus and the Latina/o Communication Studies Division perhaps always have existed. These units have been options for reviewing and submitting papers, exploring leadership opportunities and finding community within a large professional academic organization (NCA). It is more accurate, however, to say that the La Raza Caucus (hereafter, “LRC” or “the Caucus”) and the Latina/o Communication Studies Division (hereafter, “LCSD” or “the Division”) are recent developments. By the NCA Centennial, the LRC has not yet reached its 25th anniversary, and the LSCD will be in its 17th year.Footnote1 It might be tempting to argue that the creation of both units reflects the changing demographics in the U.S. that show tremendous increases in the Latina/o population. It also might be tempting to argue that the appearance of these units is evidence of an oversized NCA. (We often interpret complaints that “NCA is just too big” as a coded way of saying there are too many people of color in the organization.) Understanding the appearance of these units requires a more complex reading. In our Microhistory of the La Raza Caucus and the Latina/o Communication Studies Division, we place the origins and growth within two contexts: (1) publication trends in communication journals and (2) the professional development needs of members. The story of these units is a story of creating a self-determined space within a large and significant academic organization where ethnic identities gain expression, where geographic orientations are more north–south than east–west, and where there is a high degree of collective self-consciousness regarding what our scholarly activity means. In this essay, we describe the formation of the LRC and the LCSD, assess the professional needs that are met for members, and chart the direction for future studies and involvement in communication.
Notes
[1] The Division was approved by the National Communication Association in 1997.
[2] Michelle A. Holling, “Retrospective on Latin@ Rhetorical and Performance Scholarship: From ‘Chicano Communication to Latino Communication,’” Communication Review 11, no. 4 (2008): 293–322.
[3] Michelle A. Holling, “Retrospective on Latin@ Rhetorical and Performance Scholarship: From ‘Chicano Communication to Latino Communication,’” Communication Review 11, no. 4 (2008): 299.
[4] Michelle A. Holling, “Retrospective on Latin@ Rhetorical and Performance Scholarship: From ‘Chicano Communication to Latino Communication,’” Communication Review 11, no. 4 (2008): 301.
[5] For example, see John C. Hammerback and Richard J. Jensen, “The Rhetorical Worlds of César Chávez and Reies Tijerina.” Western Journal of Speech Communication 44, no. 3 (1980): 166–76.
[6] Malcom O. Sillars, “Defining Movements Rhetorically: Casting the Widest Net.” Southern Speech Communication Journal, 46, no. 1 (1980): 21.
[7] Malcom O. Sillars, “Defining Movements Rhetorically: Casting the Widest Net.” Southern Speech Communication Journal, 46, no. 1 (1980): 21.
[8] Joshua D. Atkinson, Alternative Media and Politics of Resistance: A Communication Perspective (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010), 8.
[9] Juan Flores and George Yudice, “Living Borders/Buscando América: Languages of Latino Self-Formation.” Social Text 24 (1990): 58.
[10] Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute, 1987).
[11] José E. Limón, Dancing with the Devil: Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994); Cherríe Moraga, Loving in the War Years: Lo Que Nunca Pasó Por Sus Labios (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1983).
[12] Fernando P. Delgado, “Chicano Movement Rhetoric: An Ideographic Interpretation.” Communication Quarterly 43, no. 4 (1995): 446–55; Lisa A. Flores, “Creating Discursive Space through a Rhetoric of Difference: Chicana Feminists Craft a Homeland.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 82, no. 2 (1996): 142–56; Jennifer L. Willis-Rivera, “‘Latino Night’: Performance of Latino/o Culture in Northwest Ohio.” Communication Quarterly 45, no. 3 (1997): 335–54.
[13] Raymie E. McKerrow, “Opening the Future: Postmodern Rhetoric in a Multicultural World,” In Rhetoric in Intercultural Contexts, eds. Alberto González and Dolores V. Tanno (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000), 41 (italics added).
[14] Alberto González, “Listening to Our Voices: Latina/os and the Communities They Speak,” In Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos de Una Voz?, eds. Michelle A. Holling and Bernadette Marie Calafell (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2011), 5–11.
[15] Alberto González, “Listening to Our Voices: Latina/os and the Communities They Speak,” In Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos de Una Voz?, eds. Michelle A. Holling and Bernadette Marie Calafell (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2011), 7.
[16] Alberto González, “Listening to Our Voices: Latina/os and the Communities They Speak,” In Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos de Una Voz?, eds. Michelle A. Holling and Bernadette Marie Calafell (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2011), 7.
[17] “Business Meeting Highlights.” La Raza Caucus Newsletter 1 (1993): 1.
[18] M. Holling, La Raza Caucus and Latina/o Communication Studies Division Newsletter (Fall 1999): 1.
[19] M. Holling, La Raza Caucus and Latina/o Communication Studies Division Newsletter (Fall 1999): 1.
[20] “Joint Business Meeting Minutes for the Latina/o Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus.” 1998 NCA Convention, November 22, 1998, New York.
[21] Bernadette M. Calafell, “In Our Own Image?!: A Rhetorical Criticism of Latina Magazine.” Voces: A Journal of Chicana & Latina Studies 3, no. 1 & 2 (2001): 12–46; Bernadette M. Calafell, “Disrupting the Dichotomy: “Yo Soy Chicana/o?” In the New Latina/o South.” The Communication Review 7, no. 2 (2004): 175–204; Bernadette M. Calafell, “Pro(re-) claiming Loss: A Performative Pilgrimage in Search of Malintzin Tenépal. Text & Performance Quarterly, 25, no. 1 (2005): 43–56; Michelle A. Holling, “El Simpático Boxer: Underpinning Chicano Masculinity With A Rhetoric of Familia in Resurrection Blvd.” Western Journal of Communication 70, no. 2 (2006a): 91–114; Michelle A. Holling, “Forming Oppositional Social Concord to Proposition 187 and Squelching Social Discord in the Vernacular Space of CHICLE.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 3, no. 3 (2006b): 202–22.
[22] For example, see Roberto Avant-Mier, “Las Ondas de José Agustín: Remembering La Onda through the literature of José Agustín and La Onda roquera (Rock 'n Roll in México).” Chapter & Verse 3, no. 1 (2005): 1–25; Roberto Avant-Mier, “Heard It On the X: Border Radio as Public Discourse and the Latino Legacy in American Culture.” In Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life, ed. M.C. Keith (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008b), 47–64: Roberto Avant-Mier, “Latinos in the Garage: A Genealogical Examination of the Latino/a Presence and Influence in Garage Rock, Rock and Pop music.” Popular Music and Society 31, no. 5 (2008a): 555–74.
[23] For example, see Roberto Avant-Mier and M.A. Hasian, “Communicating ‘Truth’: Testimonio, Vernacular Voices, and the Rigoberta Menchú Controversy.” The Communication Review 11, no. 4 (2008): 323–45.
[24] Again, this event was recently noted by Alberto González, “Listening to Our Voices.” 11.
[25] Again, this event was recently noted by Alberto González, “Listening to Our Voices.” 11. Roberto Avant-Mier and Jodi-Ann Burey, “Bibliography: Latina/o Communication Studies.” paper presented at the National Communication Association National Convention, Chicago, IL, 2007.
[26] Michelle A. Holling, “Retrospective on Latin@ Rhetorical and Performance Scholarship”,
[27] Bernadette M. Calafell and Fernando P. Delgado, “Reading Latina/o Images: Interrogating Americanos.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 21, no. 1 (2004): 1–21; Alberto González and Heuman, Amy N. (2003). “The Latin Grammys and the ALMAs: Awards Programs, Cultural Epideictic, and Intercultural Pedagogy.” Journal of Latinos and Education 2, no. 1 (2003): 47–57.
[28] See Darrel Enck-Wanzer, “Trashing the System: Social Movement, Intersectional Rhetoric and Collective Agency in the Young Lords Organization's Garbage Offensive.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 92, no. 2 (2006): 174–201; Richard D. Pineda and Stacey K. Sowards, “Flag Waving as Visual Argument: 2006 Immigration Demonstrations and Cultural Citizenship.” Argumentation and Advocacy 43, no. 3/4 (2007): 164–74; Frank G. Perez and Carlos F. Ortega, “Mediated Debate, Historical Framing, and Public Art: The Juan de Oñate Controversy in El Paso.” Aztlán 33, no. 2 (2008): 121–40; Richard D. Pineda, “Will They See Me Coming? Do They Know I'm Running?: Los Lobos and the Performance of Mestizaje Identity through Journey.” Text and Performance Quarterly 29, no. 2 (2009): 183–200.
[29] Bernadette M. Calafell, Latina/o Communication Studies: Theorizing Performance; Roberto Avant-Mier, Rock the Nation: Latino/a Identities and the Latin Rock Diaspora (New York, NY: Continuum, 2010); Karma Chávez, Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013); Josue D. Cisneros, The Border Crossed Us: Rhetorics of Borders, Citizenship, and Latina/o Identity (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press), 2014.
[30] Angharad N. Valdivia, Latina/o Communication Studies Today (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2008); Darrel Enck-Wanzer, The Young Lords: A Reader (New York, NY: NYU Press, 2010); Holling and Calafell, Latina/o Discourse In Vernacular Spaces: Somos De Una Voz? (Lanham, MD: Lexington), 2011; D. Robert DeChaine, Border Rhetorics: Citizenship and identity on the US–Mexico frontier (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2012).
[31] Mark Fernando (Chief of Staff at the National Communication Association headquarters in Washington, DC), e-mail message to author, March 10, 2014; Otherwise, it is worth noting that NCA does not have records of demographic information for each division/caucus, and also that many NCA records were lost in a recent fire at the office headquarters in 2000.
[32] Holling, “Retrospective on Latin@ Rhetorical and Performance Scholarship”,
[33] Bernadette M. Calafell and Shane T. Moreman, eds. “Latina/o Performativities” [journal special issue], Text and Performance Quarterly 29, no. 2 (2009).
[34] It should be noted that others such as Alberto González and Dolores Tanno had previously edited the International and Intercultural Annuals sponsored by NCA; For example, see Alberto González and Dolores V. Tanno, Rhetoric in Intercultural Contexts: International and Intercultural Annual, Volume XXII (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999).
[35] Michelle Holling and Bernadette M. Calafell, Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos de Una Voz? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press), 2011.; Kent A. Ono and John M. Sloop, “The Critique of Vernacular Discourse.” Communication Monographs 62, no. 1 (1995): 19–46.
[36] Alberto González, Jorge M. Chávez, and Christine L. Englebrecht, “Latinidad and Vernacular Discourse: Arts Activism in Toledo's Old South End.” Journal of Poverty 18, no. 1 (2014): 50–64.
[37] Darrel Wanzer-Serrano (published as Darrel Enck-Wanzer), “Decolonizing Imaginaries: Rethinking ‘the People’ in the Young Lords Church Offensive.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 98, no. 1 (2012): 1–23.
[38] See Bernadette M. Calafell and Dawn M. McIntosh, “Latin@ Vernacular Discourse: Theorizing Performative Dimensions of an Other Counterpublic.” In Social Movements and Counterpublics: Connections, Contradictions, and Possibilities for Understanding Rhetorics of Social Change, eds. Christina Foust, Amy Pason, and Kate Zittlow Rogness (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, in press).
[39] Michelle A. Holling, “El Simpático Boxer: Underpinning Chicano Masculinity With A Rhetoric of Familia in Resurrection Blvd.” Western Journal of Communication 70, no. 2 (2006): 91–114; Michelle A. Holling, “Forming Oppositional Social Concord to Proposition 187 and Squelching Social Discord in the Vernacular Space of CHICLE.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 3, no. 3 (2006): 202–22.
[40] Bernadette M. Calafell, Latina/o Communication Studies: Theorizing Performance (New York, NY: Peter Lang), 2007; Shane T. Moreman and Dawn M. McIntosh, “Brown Scriptings and Rescriptings: A Critical Performance Ethnography of Latina Drag Queens.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 7, no. 2 (2010): 115–35; Shane T. Moreman, “Rethinking Dwight Conquergood: Toward an Unstated Cultural Politics.” Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies 5, no. 5 (2009): 1–13; Karma Chávez, Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities (Urbana, IL; University of Illinois Press, 2013); Kimberlee Perez, “My Monster and My Muse: Rewriting the Colonial Hangover.” In Silence, Feminism, Power: Reflections on the Edge of Sound, eds. Sheena Malhotra and Aimee Carrillo Rowe (New York, NY: Palgrave, 2013), 200–16.
[41] Interestingly enough, the notion of a Latin/o “invasion” has actually been debunked and critiqued by scholars; for example, see Roberto Avant-Mier's, “Latinos in the Garage”.