Standing for the whole: The Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation on identity and Mexican-American politics

Historically, Mexican-American political organizations have constructed pol itical identities from a combination of race, class, and culture, but there are important exceptions that enrich our picture of ethnic political organ izations and organizing. One is the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation ( IAF). When organizing in Mexican-American neighborhoods, the IAF uses an id entity based on the Judeo-Christian religious tradition and not on ethnic n orms. By rejecting racial and class identities, the LAF hopes to avoid sect arianism, forge bread-based alliances, and expand the level of political pa rticipation. I contend that the IAF's religiously based political identity is an innovative tool for mobilizing the poor, but one that neglects class- based conflict. Further analysis reveals that the IAF's prescription for so cial change is predicated on the assumption that religious identities have the power to overcome those formed by economic and social privilege.