Constructed Latinx(s) Identities: Racialized Bodies in Visual and Textual Culture

by José I. Lara (Editor)

Overview

Constructed Latinx(s) Identities: Racialized Bodies in Visual and Textual Culture consists of ten interdisciplinary essays that discuss recent forms and interpretations of the histories and traditions of the Latinx communities present in film, literature, television, and other cultural expressions. Using specific case studies, the authors of this collection delve into the intersections of identity in Latinx production and representation and challenge the colonial and modern power structures that have continuously racialized and gendered Latinx bodies. In addition to deconstructing these power structures, the chapters attempt to recover knowledge buried or shunned by colonialism and modernity, as well as offer alternative and nonhierarchical forms of defining Latinx and forming pluri-identitary and multivoiced communities. The concept of Latinx continues to evolve, to be renegotiated, and to be embedded with new meanings and subjectivities. As such, all chapters not only encourage further debate about racialization and the interaction of the various historical, political, and social contexts in identity formation but also propel all scholars to question their positionality when approaching the concept of Latinx.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798895060049
Publisher:	Amherst College Press
Publication date:	09/09/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	298
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

José I. Lara is associate professor of Spanish and the academic director of the Martin Richard Institute of Social Justice at Bridgewater State University. He has published several book chapters, reviews, and peer-reviewed articles in national and international academic journals.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Alternative Approaches and Representations of Latinx(s) Subjectivities in Cultural Production | José I. Lara

Part 1: Cinema About and By Latinx Communities

1. How We Became Latinx: The Role of Data on Identity in the Twenty-first Century | Jennifer Vilchez

2. Latinx Cyborgs: Analyzing Cyborg Identities Through a Cultural Lens | Reyes Caballo-Márquez

3. Resistance, Subversion, and the Racialization of Food in The Blue Diner | Mónica Rodríguez

4. Screening Diasporic Memories and Race in Diana Peralta’s De lo mío | Manuel Medina

5. Underscoring Indigenous Latinx Identities Through Cinema | Argelia González Hurtado

Part 2: Latinx Peoples in Visual and Textual Cultural Expressions

6. “Darker Shade of White”: Intersections of Black, Latinx, and Salvadoran in an Everyday Poetics of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area | Ana Patricia Rodríguez

7. Closing the Media Gap? Latinx Languaging at Race and Queer Intersections | Julio Torres

8. Casting Spells with Melody: The Ascension of Yma Sumac to the Throne of Exotica in the 1950s | Luis F. Paredes

9. Constructing U.S. Central American Identities in The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States | Adrian Kane

10. Intersectional Identities and Care Work as Agency in Recent Latina Fiction | Belkis González

Afterword: On the Future of Representation and Scholarship | Irene Mata

About the Contributors