Amílcar Antonio Barreto
Biographic Data
| ID | 925608 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amílcar Antonio Barreto |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amílcar Antonio |
| FAMILY NAME | Barreto |
| SIGNATURE | BARRETO A A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northeastern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4022-9921 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 19 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Racing and gendering the nation
This commentary looks at how the February 2026 Super Bowl became centre stage for conflicting interpretations of American national identity. It analyses the American Right’s outrage at the National Football League’s (NFL) invitation of the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny to perform at the game’s halftime show. For the American Right, the author argues, any artist who sings exclusively in Spanish, embraces sexual minorities, exhibits gender fluidity…
Race, worthiness and attenuated citizenship
Bait and Switch
Exclusionary notions of American national identity have been endemic since the country’s founding. Since the Culture Wars, they have returned with vengeance. One of their champions is a new generation of tech savvy activists known as the Alt-Right. This is a movement that embraces a vision of America that is unapologetically white and Christian supremacist, misogynistic and xenophobic. Rather than see the Alt-Right as an outlier, the authors of t…
Race and populism on the left
Scholars generally accept that populists on the left are inclusionary while their counterparts on the right are exclusionary. We question that assumption and ask if populists of the left are also capable of inflicting exclusionary attacks on their opponents. In this paper, we examine the racial dimensions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's rhetoric. Analysts who are accustomed to blatant expressions of racism on the right may overlook the subt…
One identity, two flags
Although we commonly associate a national identity with one flag—its own—some nationalists express their identities with two. In recent years Christian nationalists in the United States and South Korea have been flying the Israeli flag alongside their own. We posit that their symbolic agendas are focused more on domestic issues than foreign policy. Christian nationalists endeavor to overturn the official variants of their respective national iden…
From Porto Rico to Puerto Rico
The English-language text of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the accord conceding Puerto Rico to the United States, misspelled the island's name asPortoRico. The treaty's ratification entrenched the error in US law and prompted a decades-long campaign to restore the territory's original name. More than a comedy of errors, this incident exposes conflicting interpretations of US citizenship and the worthiness of different sets of citizens. Puerto Ricans …
Patricia Silver. Sunbelt Diaspora
Journal Article Patricia Silver. Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando. Get access Patricia Silver. Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2020. Pp. xvii, 299. Cloth $45.00. Amílcar Antonio Barreto Amílcar Antonio Barreto Northeastern University Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic…
Towards a Standard Model of the Cognitive Science of Nationalism – the Calendar
The Cognitive Science of Nationalistic Behavior ( CSNB ), presented in this paper, integrates the political sciences of nationalities as invented communities with an evolutionary cognitive analysis of social forms as products of the human mind. The framework is modeled after the Cognitive Science of Religion, where decades of cross-disciplinary work has generated standards, predictions, and data about the role of individual cognitive tendencies i…
From nearly white to brown
Scholars debate elites’ capacity to shape the parameters of national belonging. Hard constructivists believe elites have tremendous leverage, while soft constructivists caution that elites face severe constraints in this process. We address this debate in our study of Muslim Americans. Recently political elites tried to integrate Muslim Americans by expanding an ascriptive interpretation of American identity: from WASP, to white Christian, to pan…
Recovery, Refugees, and the Racially Deserving
The optimists among us would like to believe that in the twenty-first century humanity has come of age and recognizes the universality of misery and the need to rapidly and effectively alleviate it
Bifurcating American identity
Although scholars of American nationalism debate whether its essence is civic, ethnic, or a civic–ethnic blend, the tendency is to presume it is a single, indissoluble phenomenon. Questioning that assumption, this article collects and analyzes statements from 2016 U.S. presidential candidates to understand how they situated Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexual (LGB) Americans within the nation’s parameters. Events during the 2016 presidential election – …
Hierarchies of belonging
What is the essence of American citizenship and nationhood? Traditionally scholars have divided into three camps: civic, ethnic, or a civic-ethnic hybrid. Each approach presumes there is but one kind of citizenship. This paper challenges that unitary assumption. A century ago American intellectuals and policy-makers wrangled over naturalizing their new colonial subjects in Puerto Rico. These deliberations in the Academy and Congress did not envis…
American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate
Is the essence of American identity civic, ethnic, or a combination of the two? The 2010 debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bill to hold a referendum on the Puerto Rico status question provided a unique opportunity to shed light on these approaches. House Resolution 2499 would have asked the island's electorate whether they preferred remaining a Commonwealth, become an independent country, or the fifty‐first state. Despite three cho…
American Identity in the Age of Obama
Introduction: The Age of Obama and American Identity Amilcar Antonio Barreto and Richard L. O'Bryant. 1. Obama and Enduring Notions of American National Identity Amilcar Antonio Barreto. 2. Racial Identification in a Post Obama Era: Multiracialism, Identity Choice and Candidate Evaluation Natalie Masuoka. 3. The Son of a Black Man from Kenya and a White Woman from Kansas: Immigration and Racial Neoliberalism in the Age of Obama Josue David Cisner…
The Taliban, religious revival and innovation in Afghan nationalism
Policy analysts and academics have portrayed the Taliban as a religious revival campaign and a part of a larger Islamic counteroffensive against the West. The Taliban themselves concur, adding that they are the true guardians of Afghan national identity. If so, why did the Taliban defy long-established facets of Afghan customary law and introduce a different interpretation of Islamic law, thus countering the status quo ante? This article will exa…
Nationalism, Collective Action, and Rationality
Since Olson's free-rider paradox, scholars have questioned the applicability of rational choice analyses to the study of nationalism and other forms of collective action. The most heated debates have centered on the participation of ordinary group members rather than elites. Leaders lack the material resources to adequately remunerate grassroots activists for their exploits or to individually punish defectors. This article posits that the problem…
Vieques and the Politics of Democratic Resistance
Vieques and the Politics of Democratic Resistance Amílcar Antonio Barreto (bio) Introduction Geographic happenstance is both a blessing and a curse. Vieques lies east of the main island of Puerto Rico and to the west of the Virgin Islands. Its residents have carried out their lives on a verdant Caribbean isle coveted by more than one empire for its strategic setting at the apex of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Along with the nearby island of C…
Constructing identities
This article assesses elite preferences and the objectification of ethnic boundaries from a rational choice approach. Ethnic elites seek markers that distinguish their group from rivals while still maintaining their in‐group privileges. Contending mythmakers in Puerto Rico attempted to culturally objectify the Spanish language and Catholicism. It is contended that selecting language was in the best interest of the island's secular ethnic elites w…
Statehood, the English Language, and the Politics of Education in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's government recently outlined a controversial plan to restore English as a language of instruction in the public school system. Spanish became the medium of education in 1949 after Americanization-a federal policy aimed at cultural assimilation-was abolished. This U.S. territory represents a prime case for the study of nationalist politics. First we assess the administration's sincerity-whether the initiative was enacted for purely p…
Reaffirming cultural parameters
Anniversaries are times for introspection. The year 1998 affords us an opportunity for both looking back and looking ahead. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the Spanish‐American War. In addition 1998 is the first year in which the U.S. had the dubious distinction of being the proprietor of the world's largest colony—Puerto Rico. The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 left the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico as the world's most populou…
Constructing identities
This article assesses elite preferences and the objectification of ethnic boundaries from a rational choice approach. Ethnic elites seek markers that distinguish their group from rivals while still maintaining their in‐group privileges. Contending mythmakers in Puerto Rico attempted to culturally objectify the Spanish language and Catholicism. It is contended that selecting language was in the best interest of the island's secular ethnic elites w…
Hierarchies of belonging
What is the essence of American citizenship and nationhood? Traditionally scholars have divided into three camps: civic, ethnic, or a civic-ethnic hybrid. Each approach presumes there is but one kind of citizenship. This paper challenges that unitary assumption. A century ago American intellectuals and policy-makers wrangled over naturalizing their new colonial subjects in Puerto Rico. These deliberations in the Academy and Congress did not envis…
The Taliban, religious revival and innovation in Afghan nationalism
Policy analysts and academics have portrayed the Taliban as a religious revival campaign and a part of a larger Islamic counteroffensive against the West. The Taliban themselves concur, adding that they are the true guardians of Afghan national identity. If so, why did the Taliban defy long-established facets of Afghan customary law and introduce a different interpretation of Islamic law, thus countering the status quo ante? This article will exa…
Bifurcating American identity
Although scholars of American nationalism debate whether its essence is civic, ethnic, or a civic–ethnic blend, the tendency is to presume it is a single, indissoluble phenomenon. Questioning that assumption, this article collects and analyzes statements from 2016 U.S. presidential candidates to understand how they situated Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexual (LGB) Americans within the nation’s parameters. Events during the 2016 presidential election – …
Recovery, Refugees, and the Racially Deserving
The optimists among us would like to believe that in the twenty-first century humanity has come of age and recognizes the universality of misery and the need to rapidly and effectively alleviate it
From Porto Rico to Puerto Rico
The English-language text of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the accord conceding Puerto Rico to the United States, misspelled the island's name asPortoRico. The treaty's ratification entrenched the error in US law and prompted a decades-long campaign to restore the territory's original name. More than a comedy of errors, this incident exposes conflicting interpretations of US citizenship and the worthiness of different sets of citizens. Puerto Ricans …
American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate
Is the essence of American identity civic, ethnic, or a combination of the two? The 2010 debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bill to hold a referendum on the Puerto Rico status question provided a unique opportunity to shed light on these approaches. House Resolution 2499 would have asked the island's electorate whether they preferred remaining a Commonwealth, become an independent country, or the fifty‐first state. Despite three cho…
Race and populism on the left
Scholars generally accept that populists on the left are inclusionary while their counterparts on the right are exclusionary. We question that assumption and ask if populists of the left are also capable of inflicting exclusionary attacks on their opponents. In this paper, we examine the racial dimensions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's rhetoric. Analysts who are accustomed to blatant expressions of racism on the right may overlook the subt…
One identity, two flags
Although we commonly associate a national identity with one flag—its own—some nationalists express their identities with two. In recent years Christian nationalists in the United States and South Korea have been flying the Israeli flag alongside their own. We posit that their symbolic agendas are focused more on domestic issues than foreign policy. Christian nationalists endeavor to overturn the official variants of their respective national iden…
Nationalism, Collective Action, and Rationality
Since Olson's free-rider paradox, scholars have questioned the applicability of rational choice analyses to the study of nationalism and other forms of collective action. The most heated debates have centered on the participation of ordinary group members rather than elites. Leaders lack the material resources to adequately remunerate grassroots activists for their exploits or to individually punish defectors. This article posits that the problem…
Statehood, the English Language, and the Politics of Education in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's government recently outlined a controversial plan to restore English as a language of instruction in the public school system. Spanish became the medium of education in 1949 after Americanization-a federal policy aimed at cultural assimilation-was abolished. This U.S. territory represents a prime case for the study of nationalist politics. First we assess the administration's sincerity-whether the initiative was enacted for purely p…
Reaffirming cultural parameters
Anniversaries are times for introspection. The year 1998 affords us an opportunity for both looking back and looking ahead. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the Spanish‐American War. In addition 1998 is the first year in which the U.S. had the dubious distinction of being the proprietor of the world's largest colony—Puerto Rico. The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 left the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico as the world's most populou…
Constructing identities
This article assesses elite preferences and the objectification of ethnic boundaries from a rational choice approach. Ethnic elites seek markers that distinguish their group from rivals while still maintaining their in‐group privileges. Contending mythmakers in Puerto Rico attempted to culturally objectify the Spanish language and Catholicism. It is contended that selecting language was in the best interest of the island's secular ethnic elites w…
Statehood, the English Language, and the Politics of Education in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico's government recently outlined a controversial plan to restore English as a language of instruction in the public school system. Spanish became the medium of education in 1949 after Americanization-a federal policy aimed at cultural assimilation-was abolished. This U.S. territory represents a prime case for the study of nationalist politics. First we assess the administration's sincerity-whether the initiative was enacted for purely p…
Vieques and the Politics of Democratic Resistance
Vieques and the Politics of Democratic Resistance Amílcar Antonio Barreto (bio) Introduction Geographic happenstance is both a blessing and a curse. Vieques lies east of the main island of Puerto Rico and to the west of the Virgin Islands. Its residents have carried out their lives on a verdant Caribbean isle coveted by more than one empire for its strategic setting at the apex of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Along with the nearby island of C…
Nationalism, Collective Action, and Rationality
Since Olson's free-rider paradox, scholars have questioned the applicability of rational choice analyses to the study of nationalism and other forms of collective action. The most heated debates have centered on the participation of ordinary group members rather than elites. Leaders lack the material resources to adequately remunerate grassroots activists for their exploits or to individually punish defectors. This article posits that the problem…
American Identity in the Age of Obama
Introduction: The Age of Obama and American Identity Amilcar Antonio Barreto and Richard L. O'Bryant. 1. Obama and Enduring Notions of American National Identity Amilcar Antonio Barreto. 2. Racial Identification in a Post Obama Era: Multiracialism, Identity Choice and Candidate Evaluation Natalie Masuoka. 3. The Son of a Black Man from Kenya and a White Woman from Kansas: Immigration and Racial Neoliberalism in the Age of Obama Josue David Cisner…
The Taliban, religious revival and innovation in Afghan nationalism
Policy analysts and academics have portrayed the Taliban as a religious revival campaign and a part of a larger Islamic counteroffensive against the West. The Taliban themselves concur, adding that they are the true guardians of Afghan national identity. If so, why did the Taliban defy long-established facets of Afghan customary law and introduce a different interpretation of Islamic law, thus countering the status quo ante? This article will exa…
American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate
Is the essence of American identity civic, ethnic, or a combination of the two? The 2010 debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bill to hold a referendum on the Puerto Rico status question provided a unique opportunity to shed light on these approaches. House Resolution 2499 would have asked the island's electorate whether they preferred remaining a Commonwealth, become an independent country, or the fifty‐first state. Despite three cho…
Hierarchies of belonging
What is the essence of American citizenship and nationhood? Traditionally scholars have divided into three camps: civic, ethnic, or a civic-ethnic hybrid. Each approach presumes there is but one kind of citizenship. This paper challenges that unitary assumption. A century ago American intellectuals and policy-makers wrangled over naturalizing their new colonial subjects in Puerto Rico. These deliberations in the Academy and Congress did not envis…
Bifurcating American identity
Although scholars of American nationalism debate whether its essence is civic, ethnic, or a civic–ethnic blend, the tendency is to presume it is a single, indissoluble phenomenon. Questioning that assumption, this article collects and analyzes statements from 2016 U.S. presidential candidates to understand how they situated Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexual (LGB) Americans within the nation’s parameters. Events during the 2016 presidential election – …
Recovery, Refugees, and the Racially Deserving
The optimists among us would like to believe that in the twenty-first century humanity has come of age and recognizes the universality of misery and the need to rapidly and effectively alleviate it
Towards a Standard Model of the Cognitive Science of Nationalism – the Calendar
The Cognitive Science of Nationalistic Behavior ( CSNB ), presented in this paper, integrates the political sciences of nationalities as invented communities with an evolutionary cognitive analysis of social forms as products of the human mind. The framework is modeled after the Cognitive Science of Religion, where decades of cross-disciplinary work has generated standards, predictions, and data about the role of individual cognitive tendencies i…
From nearly white to brown
Scholars debate elites’ capacity to shape the parameters of national belonging. Hard constructivists believe elites have tremendous leverage, while soft constructivists caution that elites face severe constraints in this process. We address this debate in our study of Muslim Americans. Recently political elites tried to integrate Muslim Americans by expanding an ascriptive interpretation of American identity: from WASP, to white Christian, to pan…
Patricia Silver. Sunbelt Diaspora
Journal Article Patricia Silver. Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando. Get access Patricia Silver. Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2020. Pp. xvii, 299. Cloth $45.00. Amílcar Antonio Barreto Amílcar Antonio Barreto Northeastern University Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic…
One identity, two flags
Although we commonly associate a national identity with one flag—its own—some nationalists express their identities with two. In recent years Christian nationalists in the United States and South Korea have been flying the Israeli flag alongside their own. We posit that their symbolic agendas are focused more on domestic issues than foreign policy. Christian nationalists endeavor to overturn the official variants of their respective national iden…
From Porto Rico to Puerto Rico
The English-language text of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the accord conceding Puerto Rico to the United States, misspelled the island's name asPortoRico. The treaty's ratification entrenched the error in US law and prompted a decades-long campaign to restore the territory's original name. More than a comedy of errors, this incident exposes conflicting interpretations of US citizenship and the worthiness of different sets of citizens. Puerto Ricans …
Bait and Switch
Exclusionary notions of American national identity have been endemic since the country’s founding. Since the Culture Wars, they have returned with vengeance. One of their champions is a new generation of tech savvy activists known as the Alt-Right. This is a movement that embraces a vision of America that is unapologetically white and Christian supremacist, misogynistic and xenophobic. Rather than see the Alt-Right as an outlier, the authors of t…
Race and populism on the left
Scholars generally accept that populists on the left are inclusionary while their counterparts on the right are exclusionary. We question that assumption and ask if populists of the left are also capable of inflicting exclusionary attacks on their opponents. In this paper, we examine the racial dimensions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's rhetoric. Analysts who are accustomed to blatant expressions of racism on the right may overlook the subt…
Race, worthiness and attenuated citizenship
Racing and gendering the nation
This commentary looks at how the February 2026 Super Bowl became centre stage for conflicting interpretations of American national identity. It analyses the American Right’s outrage at the National Football League’s (NFL) invitation of the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny to perform at the game’s halftime show. For the American Right, the author argues, any artist who sings exclusively in Spanish, embraces sexual minorities, exhibits gender fluidity…
Political science (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Law (14 works) · Politics (14 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · History (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)