Améfrica in Letters

Description

Traditional histories of Black letters in Latin America have delimited their geographic scope to the Caribbean while also omitting intertwined Afro-Indigenous discourses. Inspired by the legacy of Amefrican thinker Lélia Gonzalez, Améfrica in Letters highlights the Black poets, songwriters, novelists, essayists, and bloggers who have created a counter-multiculturalist literary history on the Latin American mainland. To capture a sense of the variety of their contributions, this book spans Mexico, Central America, the Andes, and the Southern Cone—highlighting the transcontinental nature of the legacy of Black writing and its impact beyond national boundaries. The writers examined in the volume engage with regional intellectual frameworks while putting into circulation a demand for a recalibration of the Hispanophone and Lusophone contexts in which they and other Afrodescendants reside.
Introduction: Black Writing on the Latin American Mainland: Disruptions to the Prose of Multiculturalism
Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar

Part I: Afro Poetics
1. Language and the Construction of Gendered Identities in Afro-Mexican Corridos or Ballads
Paulette A. Ramsay
2. A Post-Ethnic/Racial Futurescape in Wingston González’s cafeína MC
Juan Guillermo Sánchez Martínez
3. Antonio Preciado: Ecuador’s Afrocentric Poet
Michael Handelsman

Part II: Lettered Outliers
4. Transatlantic Routing and Rooting in Quince Duncan’s Kimbo
Gloria Elizabeth Chacón
5. The Palimpsestic Afro-Panamanian Woman in Melanie Taylor Herrera’s Camino a Mariato
Ángela Castro
6. Black Lives Matter in Brazil: Cidinha da Silva’s #Parem de nós matar
Eliseo Jacob

Part III: Intellectual Sonar
7. Other Forests: The Afro-Brazilian Literary Archive
Isis Barra Costa
8. Dismantling Coloniality via the Vocabulary of Afro-Chilean and Afro-Puerto Rican Music-Dance
Juan Eduardo Wolf
9. Xiomara Cacho Caballero: Linguistic Heritage and Afro-Indigenous Survivance on Roatán
Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar
10. Reclaiming Lands, Identity, and Autonomy: Rapping Youth in Rural Chocó, Colombia
Diana Rodríguez Quevedo

Afterword: Racial Encounters in the Americas in Times of Black Lives Matter
Mamadou Badiane

Index

Sujets

• Human Rights
• Civil Rights
• Literary Criticism
• Books
• Latin American
• México
• Literature
• Transnational
• Definitions and identity of indigenous peoples
• Poetics
• Casa de las Américas
• Black Thought
• Decolonization
• Indigenous
• Multiculturalism
• Civil and political rights
• Panama
• Chile
• Activism
• Blackness
• Storytelling
• Brazil
• Mexico
• Caribbean
• Ecuador
• Colombia
• The Roots
• Lyrics
• Black
• Music
• Honduras
• Guatemala
• Costa Rica
• Chili

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826505156
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Améfrica in Letters
Améfrica in Letters
Literary Interventions from Mexico to the Southern Cone
Edited by Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar
Afterword by Mamadou Badiane
Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee
Copyright 2022 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First printing 2022
Cover image: La Luna , by Alberta “Betty” Nicolás
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gómez Menjívar, Jennifer Carolina, editor.
Title: Améfrica in letters : literary interventions from Mexico to the Southern Cone / edited by Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar.
Description: Nashville, Tennessee : Vanderbilt University Press, [2022] | Series: Hispanic issues ; [46] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022007209 (print) | LCCN 2022007210 (ebook) | ISBN 9780826505132 (paperback) | ISBN 9780826505149 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780826505156 (epub) | ISBN 9780826505163 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Latin American literature—Black authors—History and criticism. | Latin American literature—African influences. | Latin American literature—20th century—History and criticism. | Latin American literature—21st century—History and criticism. | Identity (Psychology) in literature. | Black people—Latin America—Intellectual life. | LCGFT: Literary criticism. | Essays.
Classification: LCC PQ7081.7.B55 A59 2022 (print) | LCC PQ7081.7.B55 (ebook) | DDC 860.089/9608--dc23/eng/20220708
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007209
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007210
HISPANIC ISSUES
Nicholas Spadaccini, Founding Editor
Ana Forcinito, Executive Editor
Luis Martín-Estudillo, Executive Editor
Megan Corbin, Managing Editor
William Viestenz, Associate Managing Editor
Sophia Beal, Osiris A. Gómez, Associate Editors
Carolina Julia Añón Suárez, Ariel Arjona,
Collin Diver, Tim Frye, Javier Zapata Clavería,
Assistant Editors
*ADVISORY BOARD / EDITORIAL BOARD
Rolena Adorno (Yale University)
Román de la Campa (Unversity of Pennsylvania)
David Castillo (University at Buffalo)
Jaime Concha (University of California, San Diego)
Tom Conley (Harvard University)
Estrella de Diego Otero (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Nora Domínguez (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
William Egginton (Johns Hopkins University)
Brad Epps (University of Cambridge)
Edward Friedman (Vanderbilt University)
Wlad Godzich (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Antonio Gómez L-Quiñones (Dartmouth College)
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford University)
*Carol A. Klee (University of Minnesota)
Germán Labrador Méndez (Princeton University)
Eukene Lacarra Lanz (Universidad del País Vasco)
Raúl Marrero-Fente (University of Minnesota)
Kelly McDonough (University of Texas at Austin)
Walter D. Mignolo (Duke University)
*Louise Mirrer (The New-York Historical Society)
Mabel Moraña (Washington University in St. Louis)
Alberto Moreiras (Texas A & M University)
Bradley J. Nelson (Concordia University, Montreal)
Michael Nerlich (Université Blaise Pascal)
*Francisco Ocampo (University of Minnesota)
Antonio Ramos-Gascón (University of Minnesota)
Jenaro Talens (Universitat de València)
Miguel Tamen (Universidade de Lisboa)
Noël Valis (Yale University)
Teresa Vilarós (Texas A & M University)
Santos Zunzunegui (Universidad del País Vasco)
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION. Black Writing on the Latin American Mainland: Disruptions to the Prose of Multiculturalism
JENNIFER CAROLINA GÓMEZ MENJÍVAR
PART I. AFRO POETICS
1. Language and the Construction of Gendered Identities in Afro-Mexican Corridos or Ballads
PAULETTE A. RAMSAY
2. A Post-Ethnic/Racial Futurescape in Wingston González’s cafeína MC
JUAN GUILLERMO SÁNCHEZ MARTÍNEZ
3. Antonio Preciado: Ecuador’s Afrocentric Poet
MICHAEL HANDELSMAN
PART II. LETTERED OUTLIERS
4. Transatlantic Routing and Rooting in Quince Duncan’s Kimbo
GLORIA ELIZABETH CHACÓN
5. The Palimpsestic Afro-Panamanian Woman in Melanie Taylor Herrera’s Camino a Mariato
ÁNGELA CASTRO
6. Black Lives Matter in Brazil: Cidinha da Silva’s #Parem de nos matar
ELISEO JACOB
PART III. INTELLECTUAL SONAR
7. Other Forests: The Afro-Brazilian Literary Archive
ISIS BARRA COSTA
8. Dismantling Coloniality via the Vocabulary of Afro-Chilean and Afro-Puerto Rican Music-Dance
JUAN EDUARDO WOLF
9. Xiomara Cacho Caballero: Linguistic Heritage and Afro-Indigenous Survivance on Roatán
JENNIFER CAROLINA GÓMEZ MENJÍVAR
10. Reclaiming Lands, Identity, and Autonomy: Rapping Youth in Rural Chocó, Colombia
DIANA RODRÍGUEZ QUEVEDO
AFTERWORD. Racial Encounters in the Americas in Times of Black Lives Matter
MAMADOU BADIANE
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book owes everything to the Afrodescendant writers across Améfrica whose work in Indigenous and Creole languages—and in the official languages of Spanish, Portuguese, French, English of the nations they inhabit—constitutes an account of Black life, thought, joy, sorrow, and resistance that is nothing less than a hemispheric cultural patrimony. In this vein, I would like to especially thank the writers who penned the letters we literary critics engage with in this volume: Lélia Gonzalez, Cidinha da Silva, Xiomara Cacho Caballero, Quince Duncan, Wingston González, Antonio Preciado, Melanie Taylor Herrera, the Afro-Mexican lyricists of corridos , the Afro-Chilean troupes Sociedad Religiosa de Morenos Hilario Ayca and Compañía de don Andrés Baluarte, and the Afro-Puerto Rican and Afro-Colombian artists Grupo de Rap Infantil and Renacientes. I am also enormously grateful to Centro Cultural Cimarrón in El Ciruelo, Oaxaca (Mexico) for the work they do on multiple platforms to give Afro-Mexican artists their due recognition and for putting me in contact with Alberta “Betty” Hernández Nicolás (Albert Nicolás), whose work graces this cover. Betty, your artwork is not just an outstanding contribution to this volume, but also a beautiful testament to the ancestral tradition you honour therein. Our hearts are filled with gratitude to you for granting us permission to feature “La luna” on the cover of this volume and to share your artist biography with its readers.
To the team of contributors who defied the challenges posed by a global pandemic to participate in this project: thank you for your commitment to this undertaking and for charting new paths for our field with your incisive and reflective contributions. To those whose encouragement and thoughtful feedback shaped this volume from start to finish: the anonymous peer reviewers, Luis Martín-Estudillo, Sophia Beal, Ana Forcinito, Zach Gresham, Kristen Hadley, Lindsey Jungman, Nicolás Ramos Flores, Nicholas Spadaccini, and David Syring, my sincerest gratitude to you all for your critical input and guidance at so many different phases of the process. To Mamadou Badiane: your work on negrismo and négritude inspired me early in my career and your ongoing work on transcontinental Black letters has led our field into ground-breaking terrain; thank you for writing the afterword to this volume. To my colleagues at the University of North Texas, especially Tamara Brown, Steven Cobb, and Harry Benshoff: thank you for nurturing this project by providing me with a strong and productive academic home in which to bring all its elements together. To those who have enriched my approach to the Afro-Indigenous letters and intellectual histories of the mainland: Ileana Rodríguez, bell hooks, Arturo Arias, Dorothy Mosby, and Beatriz Cortez, I will always be grateful to you for what you have taught me through your work and your example.
This book is dedicated to the next generation of letter-readers, especially Ezra, Nazareth, Noel, Max, Willie, Amelia, and Camila. To my partner in love for letters, William Salmon: everything.
INTRODUCTION
Black Writing on the Latin American Mainland
Disruptions to the Prose of Multiculturalism
Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar
Was race or class responsible for the marginalization of Black and Indigenous peoples in Latin America? By the last four decades of the twentieth century, the “rosy vision of racial democracy” that the intelligentsia of the region had long upheld—and used to distinguish the region as a counterpoint to the notably segregated United States—was beginning to cloud. 1 It was becoming evident that discussions about exclusion needed to shift from economic factors to racism. Within the political space opened by the Cuban Revolution, Black and Afrodescendant intellectuals in the 1960s and 1970s were able to highlight inequities that could not be reduced to micro-economics or explained by Dependency Theory. 2 The global emergence of “new ‘Black’ movements aimed at combating racial discrimination that prevented the full integration of Black and brown people into national life” bolstered activism in Brazil, Panama, and Colombia that then spread to Latin American countries with relatively smaller Black populations. 3 Sandinista Nicaragua, for example, adopted constitutional reforms to validate the multiracial republic by recognizing its minority communities on its Caribbean coast. 4 In 1988, constitutional reform in Brazil led to the recognition of the ancestral rights of quilombos. Many other countries followed suit, as constitutional reforms in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras provided collective rights for their Black and Afrodescendant populations.
In the introduction to his landmark book, Black Writing, Culture, and the State in Latin America , Jerome Branche stresses the need to apprehend and appreciate “the voices of those (enslaved) subjects who were ab initio not held to be part of the colonial cluster of vecinos or colonos ,” a condition that “implied a multilateral suffocation of their subjectivity.” In effect, it took “fully five hundred years after the Columbus landing, with the new constitutions of the post-dictatorial period of the 1990s, for some Latin American states to r