‘Latino before the world’: the transnational extension of panethnicity

Studies of panethnic boundary formation focus on multi-ethnic environments like immigrant receiving nations. Central to these accounts are the structured interactions between the ethnic majority and the minorities they perceive as a homogenous group. I argue that theoretical models of panethnicity overlook how panethnic identities may be extended transnationally to migrant sending societies lacking local ethnic interactions. Using multi-sited ethnography and qualitative interviews in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, I illustrate the transmission of panethnicity through globalized Spanish media and interpersonal transnational contact. The political relationship between sending and receiving societies shapes these mechanisms of identity transmission, illustrating the need to make these relationships central to the emerging concept of transnational social fields.