Choosing issues, choosing sides: constructing identities in Mexican-American social movement organizations

This essay offers a conceptual framework with which one can understand the process of identity formation in minority social movement organizations. It is argued that identities are configurations of ethnic symbols, group expe riences and history arranged and reinterpreted for a specific political pur pose. It is further argued that organizationally generated identities can h e studied by examining the positions they take in support of or in oppositi on to existing social and economic structures. Finally, this article develo ps a theoretically informed model of identity formation in Mexican-American organizations that centres on their interpretation of three interlocking b ut distinct issues: racial discrimination, economic disadvantage and cultur al hegemony.