Trumpism, Mexican America, and the Struggle for Latinx Citizenship

For Latinx people living in the United States, Trumpism represented a new phase in the old struggle to achieve a sense of belonging and full citizenship. Throughout their history in the United States, people of Mexican descent have been made to face the question of how they do or do not belong to the American social fabric and polity. Structural inequality, dispossession, and marginalized citizenship make up an old story for Mexican Americans, and this story is a foundational one. This volume situates a new phase of presidential politics in relation to what went before and asks what new political possibilities emerged from this dramatic chapter in our history. What role did anti-Mexicanism and attacks on Latinx people and their communities play in Trump’s political rise and presidential practices? Driven by the overwhelming political urgency of the moment, the contributors to this volume seek to frame Trumpism’s origins and political effects.