(Re)mapping the Latina/o Literary Landscape

This book broadens the scope of Latina/o criticism to include both widely-read and understudied nineteenth through twenty-first century fictional works that engage in critical discussions of gender, race, sexuality, and identity. The essays in this collection do not simply seek inclusion for the texts they critically discuss, but suggest that we more thoughtfully consider the utility of mapping, whether we are mapping land, borders, time, migration, or connections and disconnections across time and space. Using new and rigorous methodological approaches to reading Latina/o literature, contributors reveal a varied and textured landscape, challenging us to reconsider the process and influence of literary production across borders.

Part 1 Expanding Latinidades.- “Metaphors of Miscegenation: Genre Mixing in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera.” Shelley García.- “Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Cuban Characters: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda,” Judie Newman.- “Pedro Medina and Suburbano Come to the Fore: Miami as a Cultural Stage and Source of Creativity,” Naida Saavedra.- “Latin/o American Perspectives of the United States in Sam no es mi tío,” Amrita Das.- The Twenty-first Century Politics of Latinidad: Decolonizing Consciousness, Transnational Solidarity, and Global Activism in Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue,” Georgina Guzmán.- Part 2 Crossing Literary Terrains.- “‘The Waltons, Chicana Style’: Queer Familia and Reclaimed Sisterhood in Terri de la Peña’s Faults” Cristina Herrera.- “Crossing Borders Through Prostitution: Esperanza’s Box of Saints by María Amparo Escandón and Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande,” Carolyn González.- “Twenty-first Century Literary Border Formations: Neoliberalism and Domingo Martínez's The Boy Kings of Texas,” Magda García.- “Capirotada: A Renewed Chicana Spirituality through a Chicana Literary Lens,” Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs.- Part 3 Mapping the Body.- “Creating a More Compassionate Narrative: Undoing Desconocimiento through Embodied Intimacy in Helena María Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus and Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway,” Christina García López.- “Entering the Mainstream: Chicana Lesbian Subjectivity in Contemporary Drama and Performance,” Trevor Boffone.- “Slow Lightning: Image, Time, and An Erotics of Reading,” Eliza Rodríguez y Gibson.- “From Lost Woman to Third Space Mestiza Maternal Subject: La Llorona as a Metaphor of Transformation,” Larissa M. Mercado-López.- Part 4 Writers on Literary (In)visibility: Voicing Activism from the Margins.- “Extremely Brown and Incredibly Ignored,” Alex Espinoza.- “Latino Literature for Children and the Lack of Diversity,” Gabriela Baeza Ventura

Cristina Herrera is Associate Professor in the Department of Chicano and Latin American Studies at California State University, Fresno, USA. She is the author of Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re)Writing the Maternal Script and has published in Chicana/Latina Studies, Confluencia, and Journal of Caribbean Literatures.

Larissa M. Mercado-López is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at California State University, Fresno, USA. Mercado-López is the co-editor of El Mundo Zurdo 3 and El Mundo Zurdo 4, and has published in Diálogo, Chicana/Latina Studies, and collections from Demeter Press.