Had the pleasure of a long in-person interview with Mark Leviton of The Sun in June 2019, and the result is finally in print! Headlined, "Many Voices: Cristina Beltrán on What Unites and Divides Latinos," it's the lead article in the magazine's October 2020 issue. Was tickled to see copies on the newsstand at the nearby McNally Jackson bookstore, with a cover flap highlighting the story. Check it out—you can read me opining on Latino politics, my family history, and more.
Events
Cruelty as Citizenship
Order Cruelty as Citizenship from your local indie bookshop or directly from the University of Minnesota Press!
More than a decade before the election of Donald Trump, vitriolic and dehumanizing rhetoric against migrants was already part of the national conversation. Situating the contemporary debate on immigration within America’s history of indigenous dispossession, chattel slavery, the Mexican-American War, and Jim Crow, Cristina Beltrán reveals white supremacy to be white democracy—a participatory practice of racial violence, domination, and exclusion that gave white citizens the right to both wield and exceed the law. Still, Beltrán sees cause for hope in growing movements for migrant and racial justice.
The Trouble with Unity
- Order The Trouble with Unity from your local indie bookshop or directly from Oxford University Press! Over the past dozen years, much attention has been given to examining the growing political influence of Latinos in the United States in order to define the so-called "Latino vote." The existence of a coherent, pan-ethnic Latino political agenda is, as The Trouble with Unity shows, not only highly debatable but democratically unviable. Situated at the intersection of political theory and Latino studies, the book is a nuanced critique of civic Latinidad and the Latino electoral and protest politics that work to erase diversity and debate in favor of images of commonality. Cristina Beltrán looks at key moments in U.S. Latino political history through the lens of political, feminist, and cultural thought to provide a theoretically driven account of the many ways in which Latinos lay claim to the public realm. In its innovative approach to the realities of Latino protest politics, The Trouble with Unity advances both social-movement and democratic political theory.
10/14/2020
09/18/2020
09/11/2020
For me, the only upside of the pandemic lockdown was that it finally gave me time to finish my book on migrant violence and Herrenvolk democracy. Turns out, the apocalypse can double as a super-scary writing retreat. Who knew?
The book—Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy—is forthcoming with the University of Minnesota Press’s Forerunners series. The press assures me that the book will be out by October. Just in time for the election! . . . though given the rise in white nationalism, I suspect this topic will have relevance long after Trump is gone.
03/05/2020
03/13/2019
More MSNBC!
The torrent of news has not slowed, and that means more opportunities to offer opinions to MSNBC's viewers, particularly those up at dawn on weekends! Over the past few months, have had the chance to be on the air with some terrific people on All in with Chris Hayes, The Last Word with Ali Velshi, and several times on Up with David Gura.
09/28/2018
Latinx: a generational debate
Happy to chat with Raul Reyes for his NBC article about Ed Morales's provocative work! “Latinx definitely carries a political connotation, just as the word ‘feminist’ likewise signals a kind of political awareness. Using Latinx is a signal that you’re a progressive ally. On the other hand, it is not a very Spanish term, which for some people is a bummer. It refuses to obey the gender rules of Spanish.”
07/09/2018
On Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
By unexpectedly unseating a longtime incumbent in a New York Democratic primary, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became an instant national figure, with politics-watchers speculating on the meaning of her victory, as a young working-class Latina identifying as a democratic socialist. Was pleased to be quoted in Ed Morales's June 29 Washington Post article exploring some of the intersectional issues Ocasio-Cortez raises.
01/04/2018
On Roy Moore, Donald Trump, and the dangers of refusing to accept election results
For a long, long time, I've been meaning to write more op-ed-length essays, and finally had time to condense a few thoughts into a piece that ran on NBC's new Think website, under the headline "Marginalizing minority voters is right-wing populism in a nutshell." Check it out!
04/03/2017
With Lawrence O'Donnell, on Steve King and racism
"We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." Congressman Steve King isn't even concealing his white nationalism anymore, which makes it easy to talk about, and great to have the opportunity to discuss on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on March 13. Was a quick segment, just four minutes, but managed to squeeze in a few points, and being on the air on a weeknight in prime time brought an unexpected (and welcome) flurry of new Twitter followers and website visits. Plus, I got to chat up Rachel Maddow in the makeup room before the show!
01/25/2017
"Solidarity politics"
At Columbia University, got to be on a provocative roundtable discussing "What Really Happened? Latinos and the 2016 Elections," convened by Frances Negrón-Muntaner. My remarks begin around 43:00 in.
About Cristina
- Cristina Beltrán, Ph.D., works at the intersection of Latinx politics and political theory. She is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. From 2001 until 2011, she taught in the Political Science Department at Haverford College; in 2013–14, she was a resident member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and an advanced seminar member at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, N.M., in 2019.
Her work has appeared in Political Theory, the Du Bois Review, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Political Research Quarterly, and various edited volumes. She is currently the co-editor of Theory & Event, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes work by scholars working at the intersections of political theory, cultural theory, political economy, aesthetics, philosophy, and the arts. She is also an occasional guest on MSNBC.
Her new book, Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy (University of Minnesota Press), explores the American right’s deep antipathy toward nonwhite migrants from Mexico and Latin America and examines why many in the Republican Party experience acts of cruelty against migrants as a form of democratic pleasure. Other book projects include The Right Kind of Difference: Aesthetics, Affect, and the Ideological Uncertainty of Race, a collection of essays that explores a variety of topics including Latino conservatism, and what it means to work ethically at the intersection of race and political theory.
Cristina and her husband, editor and writer Matthew Budman, live in New York City.