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4 A Dispensational Rhetoric in “The Mexican Question in the Southwest” Michelle A. Holling Suppression of cultural rights, calls for deportation of immigrants, poor working conditions of agricultural workers, and citizen and state patrols of the border are all contested issues in the public sphere, in congressional debates, and in national protests that have occurred in recent years. Some have gone so far as to characterize the issues as provoked by “the Hispanic challenge” (Huntington). This “challenge” refers mainly to Mexicans, yet broadly accuses “Hispanics” of taking jobs from US Americans, depleting social resources that belong to those citizens, posing a threat to national security , and colonizing and bifurcating the country to the extent that two peoples, cultures, and languages will exist, consequently diminishing the national identity of the United States.The challenge was made all the more clear when national demographic shifts revealed that Latina/os, or Hispanics , became the largest ethnic “minority” group in the country.Thus, in the twenty-first century, challenges—cultural, political, economic, national— perceptibly brought about by and attributed to the increased presence of “Hispanics” function as one anxiety confronting the United States. However, the supposed “Hispanic challenge,” along with the issues identified above, is not new. A look back to the late 1920s reveals a parallel national concern with a “Mexican problem” in which the presence of Mexican (Americans)1 in the United States was perceived increasingly as a problem. Challenging the political and ideological positioning of Mexican (Americans ) was a political document entitled “The Mexican question in the Southwest ” by Emma Tenayuca and Homer Brooks. its contents detail the social status of Mexican (Americans) beginning with a historical overview of Mexican (Americans’) experiences, while also drawing parallels to the plight of African Americans in the South, delineating the social and political demands sought by different Mexican (American) struggles, and outlining a path that sought to secure the rights of Mexican (Americans). As noted by Calderón and Zamora, Tenayuca2 offers “the most lucid and accurate analysis of Mexican people ever produced by a Communist party representative” (34–35). Surprisingly, scholars have paid scant attention to “The Mexican question in the Southwest.” Some offer a summation or ex- 66 / Holling cerpts of “The Mexican question in the Southwest” while others merely mention its existence (Acuña; Calderón and Zamora; Gabriela González; Gutiérrez; Kanellos; Meier and Ribera; vachon; vargas, “Tejana Radical,” “Emma Tenayuca,” and “‘Do you’”). Continued neglect of such a document misses its rhetorical dynamics and the conditions characterizing the United States. in the years leading up to and during World War ii, there were “crisis moments,” including Hitler’s embodiment of communism and food production–labor shortage concerns (flores, “Constructing Citizens”), whereas in recent years, there are discriminatory acts and policies impacting Mexican (Americans). Critically examining “The Mexican question in the Southwest” reveals a “dispensational rhetoric,” a discursive process supplementing individuals’ and ethnic groups’ efforts to rectify the position of an oppressed national group through “rearticulation.”3 A rhetoric of dispensation counters hegemonic positionings and/or narratives of a subjugated citizenry in an effort to secure rights (e.g., cultural or political) granted, but not honored. Such an undertaking in the case of “The Mexican question in the Southwest ” requires that Tenayuca counteract prevailing social tendencies and attitudes that positioned Mexican (Americans) as a “problem,” through a series of arguments that render visible potential and existing racial-economic relationships, in order to rearticulate their identity as a Mexican people. Doing so functions as a basis from which to argue for Mexican (Americans’) rights and inclusion within the nation-state that date to the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848. of least concern is whether the ideas advocated by Tenayuca were effective or enacted.4 As vargas notes, “The Mexican question in the Southwest” “was printed in the Communist, a journal devoted principally to addressing the finer theoretical points of party strategy for an intellectual audience well versed in Marxist philosophy. it is doubtful that large numbers of Mexicans had access” (“‘Doyou’” 145). furthermore, assessing any accrued benefits or material gains stemming from what was advocated in the political plan is to partake in a spirit of a capitalist-economic attitude of gains and losses that runs contradictory to Tenayuca’s politics. More important to recognize is a dispensational rhetoric that encouraged “transborder solidarity” (Schmidt Camacho) and nation-state unification that enhances our understanding of Mexican (Americans’) discursive struggles for...

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