Many of us have multiple identities, says Edwina Barvosa. We may view ourselves according to ethnicity, marital or family roles, political affiliation, sexuality, or any of several other “identities” we may use to organize our behavior and self-understanding at any given time. Various domains have offered nuggets of insight regarding the characteristics and political implications of seeing the self as made up of multiple identities, but many questions remain.

In Wealth of Selves, Edwina Barvosa constructs an ambitious interdisciplinary blend of these insights and crafts them into an overarching theoretical framework for understanding multiple identities in terms of intersectionality, identity contradiction, and the political potential that lies within the practices of self-integration.

Grounded in Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of mestiza consciousness as well as in Western political thought, this reconsideration of the self promises to reshape our thinking on issues such as immigrant incorporation, national identity, political participation, the socially constructed sources of will and political critique, and the longevity of racial and gender conflicts.

With its accessible style and rich cross-pollination among disciplines, Wealth of Selves will reward readers in political science, philosophy, race, ethnic, and American studies, as well as in borderlands, sexuality, and gender studies.

EDWINA BARVOSA is assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her Ph.D. is from Harvard University.

The book fills a critical need: a serious unpacking of what has established unified identities as normative and what a decentered multiple identity theory contributes to current thinking and political life...this is a work of remarkable scholarship...a substantial contribution to the filed of Latino Studies and to Cultural Studies.--Dr. Norma E. Cantú, University of Texas at San Antonio

The book fills a critical need: a serious unpacking of what has established unified identities as normative and what a decentered multiple identity theory contributes to current thinking and political life...this is a work of remarkable scholarship...a substantial contribution to the filed of Latino Studies and to Cultural Studies. --Dr. Norma E. Cantú, University of Texas at San Antonio