The micropolitics of personal national and ethnicity identity

This article uncovers explicit simultaneous identity construction by applying Scollon and Scollon's (2001) notion of Discourse System and Multimodal Interaction Analysis (Norris, 2004a, 2004b). As a contribution to the theoretical discussion, this article investigates the micropolitics of personal national and ethnicity identity construction of Hispanic/Latino Americans in the Greater Washington DC area as a way of explicating a multimodal framework. This framework allows for the incorporation of multiple modes of communication into a discourse study, explicating how personal national and ethnicity identity can be misunderstood with far-reaching consequences. Turning towards a practical use of the theoretical knowledge, this article is relevant to societal discourses in which members from different cultural backgrounds interact, i.e. to any kind of intercultural scenario in the broadest sense. As such, the article suggests that educating diverse communities about simultaneous identity construction would result in a positive change and a possible solution to the discrepancies that can be found in communities, small groups and families.