Many of us have multiple identities, says Edwina Barvosa. We may 
view ourselves according to ethnicity, marital or family roles, 
political affiliation, sexuality, or any of several other "identities" we 
may use to organize our behavior and self-understanding at any 
given time. Various domains have offered nuggets of insight 
regarding the characteristics and political implications of seeing the 
self as made up of multiple identities, but many questions remain.

    In Wealth of Selves, Edwina Barvosa constructs an ambitious 
interdisciplinary blend of these insights and crafts them into an 
overarching theoretical framework for understanding multiple 
identities in terms of intersectionality, identity contradiction, and 
the political potential that lies within the practices of self-integration.

    Grounded in Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of mestiza 
consciousness as well as in Western political thought, this 
reconsideration of the self promises to reshape our thinking on 
issues such as immigrant incorporation, national identity, political 
participation, the socially constructed sources of will and political 
critique, and the longevity of racial and gender conflicts.

    With its accessible style and rich cross-pollination among 
disciplines, Wealth of Selves will reward readers in political 
science, philosophy, race, ethnic, and American studies, as well as 
in borderlands, sexuality, and gender studies.

_________________________________________________________

EDWINA BARVOSA is assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano 
Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her Ph.D. is 
from Harvard University.


Number Fifteen: Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: Borderlands Culture
and Traditions


What people are saying about this book

" . . . a serious unpacking of what has established unified identities 
as normative and what a decentered multiple identity theory 
contributes to current thinking and political life. . . . "—Dr. Norma 
E. Cantú, University of Texas at San Antonio