“Asking as a Citizen”: Navigating Ambiguity in the Interests of Community

Abstract:This article will explore a question about when the tensions of difference inherent in Latinx heterogeneity are part of the ambiguous and contingent process of political community formation and when they instead disrupt the potential power of a newly forming political community. It brings an anthropological perspective to a political question as it examines the intersection of Latinx racial identifications and class relations with both place-of-origin and place-making in Orlando, Florida. In contrast to Cuban Miami, in Orlando Puerto Ricans make up the overwhelming majority of Latinxs. Using the example of the 2011 redistricting process in Orange County, where Orlando is located, the article unpacks the language and technologies of redistricting and finds evidence of how relations marked by dominance and subordination can be reproduced in a combination of the conscious deployment of power by those who have it and the unconscious inability of others to see the mechanisms of injustice at work.