This chapter explores the attachment Latinos feel to group identities, ranging from their attachment to their compatriots from their same country of origin to their affinity with pan-ethnic identification such as Latino or Hispanic, and their identification as American. The identity labels individuals choose have consequences for the belief and attitudes individuals hold and the way that individuals act. These consequences are political because they shape both the manner that individuals think of themselves collectively and the way that they calculate the costs and benefits of collective action.

Collective action is at the root of politics. Without the coordinated effort of groups of people, the redistribution of public goods, which is at the root of all politics, cannot occur. There are, however, very different conceptions of collective action, with two principle approaches in the social science literature: in the first, collective action is considered the result of the amalgamation of individual interests, and in the second, it is the consequence of mobilized group identities.