“What Are We?”: Latino Politics, Identity, and Memory in the 1983 Chicago Mayoral Election

The 1983 Chicago mayoral election, which polarized Black and white voters, left the nascent Latino electorate in an uncertain position. A reevaluation of this election clarifies impact candidate Harold Washington, whose candidacy laid bare significant political divisions anti-Black sentiment among Latinos as they grappled with their relationship to whiteness. Divisions aside, Washington's effort court vote helped legitimate a monolithic, panethnic label politics, evidenced by organizational records, campaign advertising, electoral data, bilingual media coverage. Reframing dual process race making labeling bridges scholarship on mayors, urban history, questions enduring memory that has obscured both anti-Blackness fragility unity.