Achieving the Extraordinary: Immigrant Action and the Space of Appearance.

This paper focuses on the recent immigrant mobilizations and the heightened presence of politically active Latinos (documented and undocumented; non-citizens versus native-born) in the United States. The recent marches and rallies of undocumented immigrants in spring 2006 were a powerful reminder of the importance of publicly enacting one's civic identity. Yet this paper argues that such embodied forms of breaking silence pose enormous dangers, since the undocumented struggle with being collectively visible yet publicly undifferentiated. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's theories of labor action, the paper explores how issues of political action and racial visibility effect the political practices of the undocumented as they attempt to lay claim to the public realm. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]