Delinquent Citizenship, National Performances: Racialization, Surveillance, and the Politics of “Worthiness” in Puerto Rican Chicago

Drawing from my ethnographic research on “national performances” in Puerto Rican Chicago, I examine the ways in which Puerto Rican residents of Humboldt Park are criminalized and rendered “terrorist.” The essay analyzes the production of a Puerto Rican US citizenship that is “delinquent” and approaches the status of illegality that has traditionally been imposed on other Latino (im)migrants. Puerto Ricans have tried to escape a stigmatized citizenship by consistently demonstrating their deservingness and deploying a “politics of worthiness” largely centered around involvement in the US military. The essay ultimately argues that constructions of homeland security are ideological and judicial projects of the US nation-state that not only unfold in an international arena but also configure domestic opportunities, power inequalities, and racial formations.