5 Latinx Means Resistance!

This section is essentially a guide for students participating in this seminar to systematically explore some materials directly related to Latinx culture in the United States.

(Thanks to Ricardo M. Coloma for his insights on all of this!)

1. The Creation of Latinos/as in the United States

All of this seminar’s participants can consult this text by Nataliya Braginsky to quickly understand the history behind the term Latino and, later, Latinx adopted in the United States to refer to this social group. Likewise, in this same text, you can see the implications this has not only in terms of identity but also in terms of economic and empowerment aspects of this social sector. Also, you can continue reading this other article by the same author about indigenous movements in Latin America. Then, participants could read this article by the same scholar about independence movements in Latin America.

With these preliminary and contextual readings, students can then discuss the importance of the border issue for Latinx studies, as Braginsky herself mentions here, and the role of Latinx resistance movements in the country, as she portrays in another section of her work.

2. Chicano Cultures

The second section begins with an analysis of the Chicano movement, and to get used to it participants can watch this video. Similarly, this other film material will let students to delve into some of the mobilizations that took place in the 1960s for the rights of Latino migrants – particularly Mexicans in states like California.

It continues with a necessary review of Gloria Anzaldúass key text: Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) (available for purchase here). Equally important is the work of Luis Valdez and Teatro Campesino: one of whose most important plays is Los Vendidos (1972).

Next, to discuss the intersection of two important works like Anzaldúass and Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street (1983) there is this paper that analyzes the latter using the tools of the former.

3. The Young Lords and the Newyorican Movement

To learn about this movement, participants can access this site that brings together a significant amount of Nuyorican poetry. Likewise, you can analyze Ernesto Quiñones’s Bodega Dreams (2000) (available for purchase here), through this doctoral dissertation that analyzes the gentrification discussed in the work. Also, students can read this other work on the Piedro Pietri’s play. Finally, they can approach Tato Lavieras’s work through this other text.

4. Formation of Cuban-American Identity

One way to approach Cuban-American identity is through the book Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (2011) by Juan González (available for purchase here), a version of which can be seen on YouTube and also here — an interview with the author on Democracy Now!

Also, students can approach Oscar Hijuelos’s The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989) (available for purchase here) with a reading by the author himself, plus an analysis, as well as the work of Reinaldo Arenas’s Before Night Falls (1994) (available for purchase here) through this analysis.

5. Dominicanyork Cultures

For this section, participants can start by considering Josefina Báezss work Levente no. Yolayorkdominicanyork (2008) (available for purchase here), to which an entire website has been dedicated, and this article where the Cuban diaspora in the United States is analyzed. Finally, they can read Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X (2018) (available for purchase here) (a fragment of which is read by herself here) as well as this article on such a work or hers.

Open Resources

Ammar, Ali. (2022) “Unity and Closure: A Performatist Reading of Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.” Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review, Vol. 6, No. 2: 66-77.

Bařinová, Martina. (2022). “Women’s Voices of the Caribbean Diaspora and the Creation of a Thirdspace in Josefina Báez’s Performative Text.” Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 23(1):13-31.

Braginsky, Nataliya. “Unit 1 – What’s in a Name?” Teaching about Race and Racism Across the Disciplines. 1 Aug 2019. https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2019/2/19.02.03/7. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

—. “Unit 2 – Indigenous Latin America, Spanish Colonization, and Latinx Resistance.” 1 Aug 2019. https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2019/2/19.02.03/10. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

—. “Unit 3 – Movements for Independence and Revolution throughout Latin America.” 1 Aug 2019. https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2019/2/19.02.03/13. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

—. “Unit 4 – Moving Borders / Moving Across Borders.” 1 Aug 2019. https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2019/2/19.02.03/16. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

—. “Unit 5 – 20th Century Latinx Movements: Intersectionality and Cultures of Resistance.” 1 Aug 2019. https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2019/2/19.02.03/19. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

Cázares, G. (2014). Making Familia from Scratch : : U.S. Latina/o Narratives of Rupture and Resistance. UC San Diego. ProQuest ID: Czares_ucsd_0033D_14070. Merritt ID: ark:/20775/bb5701234k. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0q26n9xp

Crespi, David. (2012) “A Nuyorican Absurdist: Pedro Pietri and His Plays of Happy Subversion.” Latin American Theatre Review, Vol. 45, No. 2: 25-43.

“Eduardo López: Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America.” Youtube. Uploaded by UMBCtube. 18 Sep 2015. https://youtu.be/ZIl8y4jkNiE?si=1wOzyvlaICAL3chD. Accessed 16bFeb 2024.

“Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.” Youtube. Uploaded by Theory & Philosophy 7. 7 Nov 2020. https://youtu.be/isZNQ0FafxQ?si=0iVB8aX2Kv9brCcN. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

Grum, Špela. (2015). The analysis of Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Steet based on social criticism of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands: La Frontera. Acta Neophilologica, 48(1-2), 39–48. https://doi.org/10.4312/an.48.1-2.39-48

“Harvest of Empire: Juan González on Landmark Book, Immigration & Consequences of U.S. Imperialism.” Youtube. Uploaded by Democracy Now! 13 Jun 2023. https://youtu.be/UESQHBtBizs?si=eg-uMrFJhxpjn2rl. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

“How a 1968 Student Protest Fueled a Chicano Rights Movement.” Youtube. Uploaded by Retro Report. 7 Jun 2023. https://youtu.be/GWWWPW7I0iU?si=RkwtFNqKweyABdB5. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

“Levente No. Yolayorkdominicanyork – A Reading with Josefina Báez.” Uptown Collective. 5 March 2012. https://www.uptowncollective.com/2012/03/05/levente-no-yolayorkdominicanyork-a-reading-with-josefina-baez-this-friday/. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

López, A. (2012). La fruición de lo múltiple: la retórica de la impureza en la poesía de Tato Laviera / The Delight of Multiplicity: The Rhetoric of Impurity in Tato Laviera’s Poetry. Anclajes, 16(2), 19-37. Recuperado a partir de https://cerac.unlpam.edu.ar/index.php/anclajes/article/view/106

“On The Outside: Oscar Hijuelos Plays Songs of Love.” Youtube. Uploaded by University of California Television. 23 Jan 2018. https://youtu.be/oMJum3gr-V0?si=YqXgjAJZgziDvdsR. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

“The Poet X’ Live Performance.” Youtube. Uploaded by Epic Reads. 13 Feb 2028. https://youtu.be/YH4gIM6TZkQ?si=TWUFGuMu0-rzUXOe. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

Valdés-Zamora, Armando. « La escritura del cuerpo en Antes que anochezca de Reinaldo Arenas », reCHERches [En ligne], 4 | 2010, mis en ligne le 15 décembre 2021, consulté le 16 février 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/cher/8517 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/cher.8517

“Who is a Chicano? And What is It the Chicanos Want? An Intro to Chicana/o History and Ruben Salazar.” Youtube. Uploaded by Professor Estrada. 14 Jul 2020. https://youtu.be/XcIv9tPOstE?si=cgF4iwQfyrrG9KSf. Accessed 16 Feb 2024.

Xinxin JIANG & Junyang LONG (2014) On Diasporas’ Cultural Identity in The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Comparative Literature: East & West, 21:1, 31-40, DOI: 10.1080/25723618.2014.12015454