Gender, Ethno-Nationalism, and the Anti-Mexicanist Trope

Bibliographic Data

ID2807517
AuthorsAlex E Chávez (0000-0002-7088-6527, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume134
Issue531
Pages3-24
Publication date2021-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Folklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8715 • E-ISSN: 1535-1882
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5406/jamerfolk.134.531.0003
OpenAlexW3121442516
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited50

This article presents the anti-Mexicanist trope as a cornerstone of American ethnonationalism wherein linguistic processes of racialization produce a derided Mexican otherness necessary to the project of white supremacy. Emphasis is placed on the discursive productions of "masculinity" that uniquely undergird this tropic construction's past and present forms. In view of its pervasiveness in the contemporary American political landscape, the author offers rhetorical analysis of President Donald Trump's political speech concerning ethnic-Mexicans as an exemplar of this trope's broader sociological purchase. The gendered dimensions of this well-worn discursive genre of racial talk, it is argued, make possible the generalized social incrimination of ethnic-Mexicans by thrusting upon them gender identities in excess as the basis for their unlawfulness

Aesthetics · Art · Ethnic group · Literature · Masculinity · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Race (biology) · Racialization · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Trope (literature) · Undoing · Anthropology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Media and Politics

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