UC Berkeley, Accelerated Reading and Composition | Source: Otto Santa Ana, Chapter 8 "Insurgent Metaphors"
Tags: insurgent metaphor, hegemonic metaphor, immigration metaphor, immigrant metaphor, nation as body, nation as house, Latino public discourse, insubordinate discourse, counter-hegemonic, conceptual metaphor theory, Santa Ana
Santa Ana argues that public discourse on Latinos appears "sanitised" but still upholds Anglo-American dominance through entrenched metaphors. He lays out a method for creating insurgent (counter-hegemonic) metaphors that challenge conventional ones, then catalogues the dominant metaphors applied to immigration and immigrants and proposes alternatives drawn from the "nation as body" and "nation as house" conceptual frames.
Insurgent metaphor
A metaphor deliberately crafted to challenge and eventually replace a dominant (hegemonic) metaphor in public discourse. Created by first contesting the conventional metaphor, then elaborating new semantic associations and an alternative interpretive context.
Hegemonic metaphor
A widely accepted, conventional metaphor that shapes public perception in ways that reinforce existing power structures, often without the audience being consciously aware of it.
Insubordinate discourse
Speech or writing that refuses to accept the framing of dominant metaphors and instead introduces alternative points of view into public conversation.
Entailments (of a metaphor)
The logical consequences and implicit assumptions that follow from adopting a particular metaphor. For example, if "the nation is a body," then immigration can be framed as "lifeblood" or as "infection," each entailment leading to very different policy conclusions.
Presuppositions (of a metaphor)
The unstated background beliefs a metaphor carries with it. Santa Ana argues these should be made explicit so the public can evaluate them.
Nation as body metaphor
A conceptual metaphor in which the country is understood as a living organism. Economic health, social "diseases," and immigration as "lifeblood" or "infection" all derive from this frame.
Nation as house metaphor
A conceptual metaphor in which the country is understood as a structure that is built, maintained, and inhabited. Immigrants "build America" and "continue to build America's future" within this frame.
Counter-hegemonic statement
A public utterance that directly contests or subverts a dominant narrative, e.g. "No human being is illegal."
Animal metaphor (for immigrants)
The most overtly racist metaphorical frame in public discourse, placing immigrants below citizens on a scale of humanity. Santa Ana argues this will persist unless actively contested.
Public discourse on Latinos has been superficially cleaned up ("sanitised"), but the underlying worldview of Anglo-American predominance still operates to maintain social inequity.
New or reinvigorated metaphors can be marshalled to advance more inclusive visions of the nation.
The process for creating an insurgent metaphor has three steps:
Challenge the conventional metaphor directly.
Elaborate on its semantic associations (what it implies, what it hides).
Develop an alternative interpretive context that points toward a distinctive worldview.
Conventional metaphors should not be passively accepted. Their entailments and presuppositions need to be articulated so the public can compare them with another point of view.
Santa Ana frames this as a political responsibility: Latino and progressive leaders must pay close attention to the potency of metaphor and work to recast the electorate's worldview.
Flowing water metaphor is widespread in demography and geography ("flood," "stream," "tide" of immigrants).
The fear of cultural "inundation" is, Santa Ana argues, irrational.
It can be countered by reframing: the immigrant stream "makes the desert bloom" (economic gain from a hardworking labour pool).
Wealth-generating metaphor
Andrew Carnegie calculated immigrant value in economic terms (notoriously, by analogy to the price of slaves).
Carnegie's framing is monstrous, but the underlying logic, that immigrants generate wealth, can be reclaimed through the nation-as-body metaphor.
Immigration is described as "the lifeblood of the California economy."
Economic health as bodily health
Language of a "rejuvenated economy," "robust sectors," markets that "awaken," and sales "running above last year's levels" all draw on the body metaphor.
Immigrants as industrial equipment
Patricia Loo noted that Mexican braceros were long metaphorised as passive farm and industrial equipment, dehumanising them.
Related: references to "worker units" and labour "supply" in agricultural management language.
Counter-strategy: give the immigrant "his or her face and voice" to reverse dehumanising discourse.
Immigrants as strong working arms
"Immigrants are the strong working arms of California's economy."
"This country was built on the backs of immigrants."
These blend metaphoric and literal statement, which is part of their rhetorical power.
Immigrants as backbone / heart / embodiment of the American dream
"Immigrants are the backbone of American growth; they are the heart of American entrepreneurialism, embody the spirit of the American dream, willingly sacrificing themselves for a better life for their children."
This track uses the nation-as-body metaphor to integrate the immigrant into US society rather than exclude them.
Immigrants as entrepreneurs
Abel Valenzuela Jr. argues roughly a third of Latino day labourers display classic entrepreneurial traits: start-up motivation, personal initiative, risk-taking, self-control.
Business publications already extol the American entrepreneur as hard-working, thrifty, self-sacrificing, moral, and straight-dealing. Many immigrants fit that profile.
Hayes-Bautista: "These people are carrying more than their own weight."
"Migration is something natural, like the air we breathe."
"No human being is illegal!" (appeared repeatedly in the LA Times across multiple dates in 1993–1994).
Joe Hicks, on Proposition 187: "We've got to send a message to the rest of the nation that California will not stand on a platform of bigotry, racism, and scapegoating."
Hicks subverted the catchphrase of Prop 187 backers ("send a message to lawmakers") by redirecting it against them.
Nation as house metaphor in action:
"Immigrants built America and continue to build America's future."
"Today's immigrants, just like your grandfather, build for the future, defer their own words, and dream the American dream for their children."
Animal metaphor remains the most overtly racist frame. It places immigrants below citizens on a scale of humanity and will persist in public discourse as long as it goes uncontested. All insurgent metaphors for immigration and immigrants are designed to first contest and then replace this narrative.
⚠️ Know the three-step process for creating an insurgent metaphor (challenge, elaborate, develop alternative context). This is the methodological backbone of the chapter.
⚠️ Be able to name at least three distinct metaphorical frames for immigrants (e.g. flowing water, nation as body/lifeblood, nation as house/builders, animal metaphor, industrial equipment) and explain which are hegemonic vs. insurgent.
⚠️ Understand entailments: the same base metaphor (nation as body) can produce opposite framings (immigration as lifeblood vs. immigration as infection). The political work lies in which entailments get activated.
⚠️ "No human being is illegal" is a key counter-hegemonic statement. Be ready to explain why it works as insurgent discourse (it contests the "illegal alien" frame by reasserting personhood).
⚠️ Carnegie's economic valuation of immigrants is a historically important example. Santa Ana calls it "monstrous" but shows how the wealth-generation logic can be redirected through a different metaphorical frame.
Q: What is an insurgent metaphor, and what three steps does Santa Ana outline for creating one?
A: An insurgent metaphor is one designed to challenge and replace a dominant (hegemonic) metaphor. The three steps are: (1) challenge the conventional metaphor, (2) elaborate on its semantic associations and hidden assumptions, and (3) develop an alternative interpretive context that supports a distinctive worldview.
Q: How does the "nation as body" metaphor serve both anti-immigrant and pro-immigrant arguments?
A: The same metaphor produces opposite entailments depending on which associations are activated. Anti-immigrant discourse frames immigration as disease or infection of the national body. Pro-immigrant discourse frames immigration as the "lifeblood" of the economy, with immigrants keeping the body healthy and vigorous.
Q: Why does Santa Ana argue the animal metaphor for immigrants is the most dangerous frame?
A: Because it places immigrants below citizens on a scale of humanity, and it will persist in public discourse as long as it goes uncontested. All insurgent metaphors for immigration are designed to first contest and then replace this dehumanising narrative.
Q: Give two examples of counter-hegemonic statements from the LA Times that Santa Ana highlights.
A: (1) "No human being is illegal," which directly contests the "illegal alien" frame. (2) Hayes-Bautista's remark, "These people are carrying more than their own weight," which counters the narrative that immigrants are a burden.
Q: How did Joe Hicks subvert the Proposition 187 catchphrase?
A: Prop 187 backers said passing the measure would "send a message to lawmakers" about illegal immigration. Hicks redirected the same framing against them, declaring that California must "send a message to the rest of the nation" that it will not stand on a platform of bigotry, racism, and scapegoating.
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