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Published Sunday, November 21, 2004 by Michael K. | E-mail this post
Abstract for my paper:
Although pronouncements of the coming demographical and cultural “Hispanicization” or “Mexification” of the United States have existed for more than two decades, the debate has been framed in increasingly antagonistic, combative language in recent times. One example would be the anxious posing of a “Hispanic Challenge” to traditional American society (Huntington, 2004); related to that are the inflammatory fears of “La Reconquista” or “The Reconquest” of historically Mexican lands taken by the United States in the 19th century; this reconquest stands to be social, cultural and demographic, if not political, in nature. If we accept that sports are both “the most universal feature of popular culture” and “the principal front of globalization”(Miller, 2001), then the announced creation of the professional soccer team Club Deportivo Chivas USA in Los Angeles in August of 2004 may be a bellwether for this process accelerating in a tangible cultural form - although it could slip under the radar of the mainstream, given soccer’s current lower status in relation to other professional sports in the U.S. Like its Mexican namesake and parent team, C.D. Chivas USA has explicitly declared that it wants to be the team for Latinos, and especially Mexicans – a growing and supposedly problematic minority in American society; this represents a unique incursion into the otherwise ethnically indistinct world of American sports. Though the resoluteness of this stance has yet to be proven over time, the incursion itself – a complex combination of corporate brand extension and displaced ethnonationalism – is well worth studying, not only for its actual causes and effects but for the way it is framed by American media. I propose an exploration of how both Los Angeles-area and national English print media have confronted (or not confronted) the arrival of C.D. Chivas USA in relation to a broader ‘Hispanicization’ process in American society and culture.
3/5ths of the way done with the actual paper. The sooner I get finished, the sooner I can get ready to drive home for Thanksgiving. But I've been procrastinating like a champ for weeks on this and show no signs of stopping now.
Although pronouncements of the coming demographical and cultural “Hispanicization” or “Mexification” of the United States have existed for more than two decades, the debate has been framed in increasingly antagonistic, combative language in recent times. One example would be the anxious posing of a “Hispanic Challenge” to traditional American society (Huntington, 2004); related to that are the inflammatory fears of “La Reconquista” or “The Reconquest” of historically Mexican lands taken by the United States in the 19th century; this reconquest stands to be social, cultural and demographic, if not political, in nature. If we accept that sports are both “the most universal feature of popular culture” and “the principal front of globalization”(Miller, 2001), then the announced creation of the professional soccer team Club Deportivo Chivas USA in Los Angeles in August of 2004 may be a bellwether for this process accelerating in a tangible cultural form - although it could slip under the radar of the mainstream, given soccer’s current lower status in relation to other professional sports in the U.S. Like its Mexican namesake and parent team, C.D. Chivas USA has explicitly declared that it wants to be the team for Latinos, and especially Mexicans – a growing and supposedly problematic minority in American society; this represents a unique incursion into the otherwise ethnically indistinct world of American sports. Though the resoluteness of this stance has yet to be proven over time, the incursion itself – a complex combination of corporate brand extension and displaced ethnonationalism – is well worth studying, not only for its actual causes and effects but for the way it is framed by American media. I propose an exploration of how both Los Angeles-area and national English print media have confronted (or not confronted) the arrival of C.D. Chivas USA in relation to a broader ‘Hispanicization’ process in American society and culture.
3/5ths of the way done with the actual paper. The sooner I get finished, the sooner I can get ready to drive home for Thanksgiving. But I've been procrastinating like a champ for weeks on this and show no signs of stopping now.
About me
- Michael K.
- Observing the things in my personal cosmos: music of a catchy sort, soccer, hockey and other sports, theories of place, media and culture, academic life, history, nature, politics, the international, the parochial. You never know what you might get. For generosity of the spirit.
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