ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the first part of the theoretical construct of the study of digital narratives of undocumented youth in the U.S. It establishes the Chicana/o Rights Movement as the predecessor of the Immigrant Rights Movement and points to the large and complex history of networks, alliances, responsibilities, and events within the movement. Through this history, the political logic, that is, the publicity- and attention-seeking strategies of the Movement, is defined: Undocumented youth build upon the rhetoric of the gay and civil rights movements, for example, by ‘coming out’ to the public, defining themselves as human beings that should not be called ‘illegal’, or rejecting assimilationist uses of ‘Americanness’ to claim their right to be in the U. S. as immigrants. Further, interview data reveal the primarily positive uses of new media as a ‘public face’ for undocumented immigrant youth as participatory, fast, and free of charge, despite (and sometimes deliberately because of) the fact that the choice of medium ultimately forms the content – a byproduct of mediatization processes – as the stories adapt to the structures and logics of the medium.
