Talks in Cuba on ways Latinos do politics in the U.S.

Havana, Feb 24 (RHC) The "new" ways Latinos do politics in the United States and the case of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) was analyzed today in this capital in a colloquium promoted by Casa de las Americas.

In the forum led by the Women’s Studies Program of that Cuban institution, the specialist of the Program of Studies on Latinos in the United States Ana Niria Albo, highlighted that the young politician of Puerto Rican descent stands out for her activism in social networks and for challenging the ‘establishment’ of her country.

The researcher mentioned that Ocasio-Cortez, known on social networks as AOC and with more than 13 million followers on Twitter, also stands out for publicly confronting racist and divisive speeches and incitement to violence, according to a note published in La Ventana, Casa de las Americas’ news website.

Among its political connotations and as a millennial, AOC stands out for publicly using the denomination Latinxs, mostly used in progressive social circles, universities, and spaces of broad social activism because it distinguishes the diversity of gender identities within the Latino identity.

And in these ‘new’ forms of campaigning, the specialist Albo explained that the young congresswoman has as one of the key tools of her strategy the personalization of her speech.

As a phenomenon of social networks, particularly on Twitter and Instagram, AOC focused her identity on the techniques of storytelling and story doing, discursive narratives in which life stories become powerful tools, considered the Cuban sociologist.

According to Albo’s analysis, AOC’s management in the US Congress also accompanies environmental issues, social assistance to migrant families, closeness to marginalized communities and minorities, violence reduction programs, literacy, and a perpetual struggle in favor of the legalization of abortion as a women’s right.

What perhaps makes AOC unique is, on the one hand, its markedly leftward political agenda, and on the other, how that agenda is expressed,’ the researcher said.

The program of the International Colloquium on Politics and Policies in the History and Culture of Latin American and Caribbean Women, February 21-24, also includes an analysis of topics such as emigration, exile, uprooting, and biculturality. (Source: PL).