Alborotos

The number of Latin Americans in the UK is growing but in spite of this not much is known about them. To a certain extent, this is due to the fact that it is a considerably smaller population when compared to the African, South Asian, West Indian and Eastern European ‘communities’. Latin Americans by and large have not been formally categorised as an ethnic minority group, and therefore they do not appear in most government statistics (McIlwaine 2007: 3). “The social control of perceptibility- who is seen, who is heard, whose pain is recognized-plays an essential role in establishing positions of power within society” (Howes and Classen 2014: 65-6). Sveinsson (2007), who carried out research on Bolivians in London looked at the “Challenges and Achievements of a London Community” emphasising that Latin Americans do have a noticeable impact as far as the cultural life of Londoners is concerned. The annual Carnaval del Pueblo in Burgess Park attracts thousands of Londoners and is said to be “Europe’s largest celebration of Latin American culture” (Mayor of London in Sveinsson 2007: 1). The Latin Americans are visible participants and contributors to the everyday life of London. Despite this, Latin Americans have been almost overlooked. The interests of Latin Americans are often unnoticed by the authorities as a result of them being categorised as “Other”. Latin Americans continue to be both unseen and unrecognised in political, economic and social discourse (Sveinsson 2007). The exceptions are the London boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth, which have recognised ‘Latin American’ as an ethnic minority group i.e. the first one in 2012 (Southwark Council n.a. 2012) and the latter in April 2014 (Verma 2014). This is a possible move towards ‘Latin Americans’ being recognised at a national level (Chipana 2014). Recently the Hackney Council and the Islington Council in London have also recognised Latin Americans as an ethnic group (clauk.org.uk).

The Latin American category in the UK can be seen as a political and sensorial construct related to the issues of power and resistance. ‘Not seeing’ Latin Americans in the UK, and Latin Americans wanting to be ‘seen’ and included, is related to sensing the world, where “senses are directly put to political ends” (Howes and Classen 2014:

66). “Sensory ways, models and metaphors inform our notions of social integration, hierarchy and identity” (ibid.: 66). By accepting the ‘Latin American’ category the Latin Americans in the UK can assert certain rights i.e. equal access to employment, education and social services (Chipana 2014). That is the reason why, for example, the Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK are organising campaigns in order to include ‘Latin American’ as an ethnic minority and hence include it in the subsequent census:

Latin Americans’ great contribution and hard work in the UK can NO longer be overlooked! We are an essential part of the social, economical, cultural and political environment of Britain in 2013! We are part of the British multicultural mix and richness that cannot be ignored! The recognition of the Latin American community as an ethnic minority will be a stepping stone in the process of equality, that will enable our community to reach its full potential.

(Perez Shepherd 2013)29

The “desire” for community, for ‘we’ is also “an act of self-protection […] as a defense against confusion and dislocation” (Sennet 2000: 138). Those immigrants and other outsiders who are rejected by the host population desire to be part of a community. This is due to the fact that politics nowadays “aim more at the weak, those who travel the circuits of the global labour market, rather than at the strong, those institutions which set poor workers in motion or make use of their relative deprivation” (ibid.: 138). People look to the ‘community’ for “attachment and depth” (ibid.: 138).

Various Latin American organisations in London claim to represent ‘the Latin Americans in the UK’ and there are those Latin Americans in the UK who support these organisations’ fight for the ‘Latin American’ to be treated in censuses as an ethnic minority group. However, I want to emphasise here that these are the ‘voices’ of some Latin Americans in the UK and not of all of them. This ‘group’ of Latin Americans would like to be seen as an ‘ethnic minority group’ even though many are aware of the internal differences among the Latin Americans. However, by treating ‘Latin Americans’ as an ‘ethnic minority group’ they can, drawing on Abner Cohen (1969, 1974), create the boundaries and cultural difference between ‘Latin Americans’ and others in order to gain some rights. As I have mentioned before when I discussed how the category ‘Latino’ came about, the ‘Latino’ nationality or ‘Hispanic’ one do not exist. Latin Americans come from many different countries and within each of them

there are many ethnic groups. Nonetheless, the ‘group’ of Latin Americans that fights for the ‘Latin American’ to be included as an ‘ethnic minority group, use what Spivak (1987) calls ‘strategic essentialism’ which is “a strategic use of positivist essentialism in a scrupulously visible political interest” (Spivak 1987: 205 emphasis in the original). They use it to construct their shared political identity, thus to present Latin Americans as a homogenous group in order to assert equal rights to - for instance - employment, education and social services. On the other hand sensory markers are used in order to diminish national and regional differences among Latin Americans and create a new collectivity of Latin Americans in the UK. In many Latin American countries “broadly- shared sensory symbols already existed” (Howes and Classen 2014: 72) and were part of the building of the national identity30. Many Latin Americans in the UK look for similar food, music, dance genres and ways of being; and give it a Pan-Latin American importance31. The Latin American identity is an ‘anchor’ through which various individuals express their sense of belonging. The following section looks at the notion of ‘identity’ and describes the aforesaid sense of belonging among the members of the Latin American ‘community’ in Edinburgh.