This presentation analyzes constructions of U.S. Latinx identities from a raciolinguistic perspective, which theorizes historical and contemporary co-naturalizations of language and race. Rather than taking for granted existing categories for parsing and classifying race and language, a raciolinguistic perspective seeks to understand how and why these categories have been co-naturalized, and to imagine their denaturalization as part of a broader structural project of contesting racial capitalism and settler colonialism. Drawing on sociolinguistic and ethnographic research conducted in predominantly Latinx schools and communities, I examine borders delimiting Latinx and American identities on the one hand, and co-naturalizations of language and race on the other. These foci reflect an investment in developing a careful theorization of racial and linguistic hierarchies, as well as a commitment to the imagination and creation of more just societies.
Jonathan D. Rosa teaches in the School of Education at Stanford University.