Reflections on the value of Mexican philosophy for Latino life

Abstract

Latinos in the United States do not always see themselves reflected in the idea of the United States or, what is the same thing, “America”. This idea –and its implicit promises– emerges as an otherness that is always already –siempre– beyond our reach. There is an element of uneasiness (zozobra) in Latino identity, one that emerges as an existence in vertigo and in the in-betweenness between attraction and rejection. In this and many other ways, the Latino, as an other, constitutes the boundary limits of the notions of “American” citizenship and American identity themselves –they stops where we begin, so to speak. So the “United States,” as idea and reality, is not only other to Mexicans in Mexico, but also to Latinos in the U.S. Latinos are deemed “illegals”, “aliens” or “immigrants” whether they are or not. In this essay, I propose that Latino/as must confront and embrace their otherness before the idea of “America” if Latino/a identity itself is to be preserved and, also, in the interests of a Latino/a philosophy that might emerge; more importantly, so that our identity as Latinas/os may be positively-defined in the narratives we weave as we struggle to describe and re-describe our role as citizens and intellectuals in the face of the oppressions and marginalizations of inherited metanarratives. These narratives we weave will be the prolegomena to our philosophy. I believe that the attempt by Mexican philosophers to philosophically reveal their own being and identity through a rigorous examination of self and circumstance is a blueprint for a Latino/a liberating consciousness and a Latino/a philosophy. Hence, the title of this chapter is part of the question I seek to answer here: what is the value, for Latinos, of reading Mexican philosophy? This question might not be relevant to all Latinos/Hispanics in the U.S., but it is relevant, at the very least, to Latinos in American academic philosophy.