Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities by Karma R. Chávez (review)

In Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities, queer Chicana woman of color and feminist scholar, activist, and rhetorician Karma R. Chávez approaches queer migration politics through the analytic of the coalitional moment. Coalitional moments happen “when political issues coincide or merge in the public sphere in ways that create space to reenvision and potentially reconstruct rhetorical imaginaries” (8). She understands the queer migrant as the coalitional subject who demonstrates a particular management of multiplicity. She is invested in a politics of the now and what this can teach us about activist movements today. In this text, her work as a rhetorician (a scholar of language and discourse) is enhanced by her work as an activist with groups like Wingspan and the CDH (Coalición de Derechos Humanos/Coalition for Human Rights) in Arizona—a hotbed for xenophobic laws like SB 1070 (“papers please” law) and the subsequent copycat laws throughout the country.¹ Wingspan is southern Arizona’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community center, and CDH is a grassroots organization that promotes human and civil rights for migrants regardless of their immigration status. Chávez moves away from normative and utopian politics to consider otherwise. By normative, I mean that she rejects politics that might be taken up by a larger number of the population; and by utopian, I mean politics that may avoid the more serious issues on the ground in favor of funding or support. Using the lens of the “unlikely” alliance between LGBT politics and migration politics, Chávez both critiques and exposes critical points of intersection (or points of overlap) in these two movements. This expands on important, path-breaking work on gender and migration in feminist studies. Chávez contends with rhetorical imaginaries employed by activists. Rhetorical imaginaries are the forms and terms used in language practices that are part of or help constitute particular realities for activists. Here, she defines the rhetorical approach as “highlighting sources of invention, argument construction, persuasive tactics, and message strategies in, or in relation to, the public sphere” (15). This book is a true gem, firmly grounded in feminist politics and analysis, and a monumental example of what accessible writing from a community-accountable activist-scholar looks like. It is a much-needed contribution to queer studies, activist circles, social movement studies, communication studies, and migration studies.

In chapter 1, Chávez focuses on the radical potential of manifestos for queer migrant movements to resist dominant and hegemonic discourse. The manifestos she uses come from activist groups: ALP (Audre Lorde Project), HAVOQ (Horizontal Alliance of Very Organized Queers), and QEJ (Queers for Economic Justice). These manifestos speak to activist demands of Black people, queers who wish to abolish borders, and queer individuals who desire economic policies that include them; they push against legislative and social challenges that exclude queers, undocumented migrants, and people of color. Chávez uses the acronym LGBTSTGNC (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans, Gender-Non-Conforming) from the Audre Lorde Project throughout to include the largest group of “queer” folk possible. She advocates for what she is calling a “differential vision” of queer migration coalitional politics, which draws from Chela Sandoval’s differential consciousness and Aimee Carrillo Rowe’s differential belonging. This differential vision also takes its position from a tactical subjectivity, or a subjectivity that allows for de-centering and re-centering one’s location within politics. It is a living, breathing subjectivity rather than a fixed or essentialist one. Chávez contends that manifestos offer a way into this differential vision, asserting that

[w]hile conventional wisdom suggests that radical and revolutionary politics do not seek change from within existing systems, the differential orientation of queer migration manifestos reflect a call for radical change through the shifting of rhetorical imaginaries while simultaneously recognizing that certain legal reforms would vastly improve the lives of queers, migrants, and queer migrants.

(31)

She...