Alien and alienated

This chapter explores the problem of alienation for Latinos/as in academic philosophy in north America (a problem that is obviously analogous to the alienation of many other groups). Given our alienation, one might reasonably come to believe that assimilation is the natural and even just solution, since assimilation would decrease the experience of dislocation and enhance effective communication. But it remains open to question whether assimilation is either possible or desirable, or whether assimilation is even an alternative to alienation rather than in reality a form of alienation itself. If assimilation requires self-alienation from one's own hermeneutic horizon, for whom is it a solution? It suggests that there are philosophical reasons, as well as political ones, to resist assimilation, given that coercive on e-way assimilation forecloses what we might choose to read, teach, cite, and argue.