Identity Performances in a US–Mexico Border Celebration

This analysis discusses how individuals living in Laredo, Texas, a city situated in the US–Mexico border region, celebrate and negotiate their identities through experiences in the annual Washington Birthday Celebration (WBC). The study provides insight into how a city that has been identified as the least diverse city in the United States, with 98% of its population being Latino (Lee, Barrett A., John Iceland, and Gregory Sharp. 2012. Racial and Ethnic Diversity Goes Local: Charting change in American Communities over Three Decades. Department of Sociology and Population Research Institute The Pennsylvania State University.) and about 91% of the population speaking Spanish (United States Census Bureau. 2013. Language use in the United States: 2011. [Data file]. http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf), celebrates US American figures in a patriotic event established in 1898. Through engagement in this celebration, individuals take part in performing and constructing their identities, with physical performances of US American historical figures being afforded only to a select few. In order to answer how the WBC serves as a site for performances and negotiations of identity, the focus of this analysis is on enactments observed in The Society of Martha Washington (SMW) and on the experiences and interpretations of seven focal participants whose social group membership distinguishes how and to what extent they can perform a specific identity. The findings of this study suggest that participants share in their understanding of the manner in which a patriotic event is celebrated through the inclusion of two border cultures, but also illustrate how a particular kind of identity performance is accessible only to some, establishing status differentials in what is meant to be a shared celebration.