Latina/o Studies Commons^™

Front Matter, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Interlude 2: Tropic By Wifredo Lam, Mey-Yen Moriuchi

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Between Thirst And Hunger: Food And Afro- Chinese Entanglements In Monkey Hunting, Chloe Huh Prudente

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

Cristina García’s third novel, Monkey Hunting (2003), is a sweeping multigenerational family saga that surveys the history of Asian and African diasporas in the Americas and the impact of coerced, racialized labor and migrations. The scrumptious medley of foods in Monkey Hunting portrays its characters’ delight and dissatisfaction in their displacements. Food’s primary function remains as a vital source of nourishment, providing essential sustenance to the body. Food provides pleasure through sensory experiences that delight the palate and evoke emotions and memories associated with home and family. In many religions and spiritual systems, food takes a vital place in rituals …

A Cultural Pluralistic Reading On The Afro- And Chinese-Cuban Communities In Memorias De Una Cubanita Que Nació Con El Siglo (1964), Francisco Chen-López

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

This article deploys the cultural pluralism theory, which focuses on how minoritized groups integrate while preserving their cultural identities instead of assimilating into the dominant culture. In her memoir, Renée Méndez Capote describes how Black and Chinese people coexisted in twentieth-century Cuba while maintaining their own cultural identities and were in the process of integrating into the definition of the cubanidad. Via this theoretical framework, this research provides a different approach to studying the literary representation of Afro-Asian relationships in Cuba, aiming to contribute to the constantly growing field of Afro-Asian studies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Interlude 1: The Eternal Presence By Wifredo Lam, Mey-Yen Moriuchi

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

The Chinese-Afro-Cuban Diaspora And Its Many Faces, Wiliam Luis

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

“Afro-Brazilian Nei Lopes’S Poetnics (2014)”, John Maddox Iv

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Debbie Lee-Distefano, Luisa Marcela Ossa

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Empoderamiento De Mujeres Negras En Cuba: Descolonialidad En La Agencia De Sus Vidas. Encuentros Entre La Interseccionalidad Y La Perspectiva Epistemológica Compleja, Elvira Edwards Vázquez

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

En el presente trabajo se estudia el tema del empoderamiento de las mujeres negras en Cuba desde una perspectiva transdisciplinar. Para ello, se establece un diálogo de saberes diversos provenientes de la Psicología, la Sociología, la Filosofía, la Teoría de la comunicación, la Historia, los Estudios culturales y el Pensamiento complejo. Esto permite una mirada a la agencia de vida y al empoderamiento, desde un posicionamiento descolonial, en medio de las transformaciones que se suceden en el país. El resultado más importante es el intercambio entre las perspectivas epistemológicas interseccionalidad y complejidad. Este orienta nuevas prácticas para docentes, investigadores y …

Voices In The Borderlands: Reimagining Identity, Cultural Belonging, And Dystopian Spaces In Anzaldúa’S Borderlands And Viramontes’S “The Cariboo Café”, Oralia G. Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) and Helena María Viramontes’ short story “The Cariboo Café” (1985) portray marginalized individuals navigating liminal spaces of identity, oppression, and survival. Borderlands/La Frontera and “The Cariboo Café” show how systematic violence and displacement shatter the self, pushing characters to navigate trauma in a dystopian space. Sonya, Macky, the café owner, and the grieving mother represent Anzaldúa’s concepts of borderland subjectivity, betrayal, and spectral haunting.

Sonya and Macky, two undocumented children, represent Anzaldúa’s borderlands subjects and reside in a state of nepantla, an in-between space of cultural dislocation. The café owner …

Full Issue, Palara Guest Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Negra Cubana Tenía Que Ser. Por Sandra Abd´Allah-Álvarez Ramírez, Yeniela Cedeño Hechavarría

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Interseccionalidad, Equidad Y Políticas Sociales. Segunda Edición. Coordinado Por María Del Carmen Zabala Argüelles, Geydis Elena Fundora Nevot, Ana Isabel Peñate Leiva, Leidys Raisa Castro Silva

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Lourdes Casal Y La Perspectiva Interseccional En Su Sociología. Una Puerta Hacia Los Estudios Cubanos, Ana Niria Albo Díaz

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

Lourdes Casal es bastante conocida en el campo de las letras cubanas como una poeta excepcional. En el marco de las relaciones internacionales su nombre también es relevante por su consabida participación tendiendo puentes entre la Cuba revolucionaria y las comunidades de cubanos y cubanas en los Estados Unidos. La creación de la revista Areito y de la Brigada Antonio Maceo son ejemplos contundentes de su labor. Sin embargo, es mucho menos conocida su labor como investigadora social y fundadora de los Estudios Cubanos en los Estados Unidos. De esa labor sobresale el entendimiento de una Cuba diversa cuando mucha …

Author Bios, Palara Guest Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Emprendimientos Femeninos: Revalorizando La Afro Estética, Susel Abad Fis

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

El empoderamiento económico de las mujeres significa ser dueñas de sus propios negocios, lograr crecimiento y sostenibilidad, y ocupar los espacios de participación y toma de decisiones en ese ámbito. Sin embargo, el acceso a los recursos y oportunidades de las mujeres para emprender sus iniciativas en la esfera económica siempre ha resultado difícil en Cuba. En el presente artículo tiene como objetivo revelar las experiencias de tres mujeres negras como emprendedoras. Ellas coinciden en el diseño y comercialización de productos cosméticos y estéticos, con un gran impacto sobre todo para las mujeres negras y mestizas cubanas. Esto ha permitido …

El Campo Regla De Osha-Ifá O Santería: Desigualdad Social, Religión Y Redes De Relacionamientos, Naile Braffo Conde

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

El desarrollo de las prácticas de la Santería en una sociedad compleja y heterogénea, como la cubana; apunta como cada vez más, resulta necesario analizar, desde el enfoque interseccional, las formas de conducirse dentro del referido campo religioso, el uso de las prácticas del mismo y las redes de relaciones que se estructuran para ello. Esta propuesta es parte de los resultados alcanzados, desde un enfoque multimétodos, por una investigación doctoral y tiene como objetivo analizar procesos de diferenciación/desigualdad social que se generan como efecto de las lógicas de funcionamiento de la religión y a partir de la estructuración de …

Time And Wages In Coerced Labor: Black Women’S Legal Agency In Late-19th Century Havana (1880-1886), Elena Barattini

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The critical juncture of slavery abolition in Cuba was marked by independency uprisings, and imperial re-articulations. Within this context, thousands of formerly enslaved men and women coped with renewed forms of coercion, inscribed in the intersection of race and gender. This article focuses on the resourceful use of the law by formerly enslaved women (renamed patrocinadas in 1880) to liberate themselves from the forced apprenticeship known as patronato, enforced alongside the abolition law. An in-depth examination of two files from the Miscelánea de Expedientes fund held at the Cuban National Archive underscores how Black women struggled to secure wages, …

Front Matter, Palara Guest Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

A Letter From The Guest Editors, Palara Guest Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Ni Mulatas De Rumbo, Ni Negras Lavanderas Ni Feministas: Otra Historia Republicana De Las Afrocubanas, Alejandro L. Fernández Calderón

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

El estudio actual de las narrativas de las afrocubanas representa un área de atención de los Estudios Cubanos desde la teoría del feminismo negro. En sus análisis, mediante la intersección racismo-género-clase reflexionamos sobre las complejidades de las distintas estrategias del pasado empleadas para el reclamo de sus derechos ciudadanos. Las afrodescendientes, más allá del movimiento político y/o feminista, reevaluaron su imagen pública y privada en el entramado del racismo y el machismo de primera mitad del siglo XX. Desde los diarios, revistas y sociedades elevaron sus voces construyendo distintos relatos en pos de su reivindicación social.

Race, Racialization, & Rehabilitation: Intersectional Insights Into The Cuban Revolution’S Campaign To Eliminate Prostitution, Alyssa Garcia

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Una Lectura De La Vulnerabilidad Social Y De Las Políticas Para Su Atención Desde El Enfoque Interseccional En El Contexto Cubano Actual, Maria Del Carmen Zabala Arguelles

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

(Anti-)Racismo Y Republicanismo Negro En Cuba. Compilado Por Yulexis Almeida Junco, Jos Antonio Figueroa, Jochen Kemner, Pedro Alexander Cubas Hernández

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Afrofeminismos: Pensamiento, Ciencia Y Acción. Coordinado Por Yulexis Almeida Junco, Leidys Raisa Castro Silva, Maydi Estrada Bayona

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

“Let Me Be A Bridge”: Language Brokering Among Emerging Adult Latina Professionals In The Midwest, Elise M. Dubord

Faculty Publications

In immigrant families, bilingual children and adolescents regularly act as translators and interpreters for family and community members who are not fluent in the dominant language. These childhood language brokers later shift the focus of their translation activities as they transition into adulthood and develop professional skills. This research explores narratives of language brokering trajectories of three bilingual Latinas who were emerging adult professionals in three cities in Iowa. Based on a series of interviews collected over a 15 month period, this analysis examines how participants described realigning their family language responsibilities while simultaneously transferring their language brokering skills to …

Cuentos De Barro, Daniel Anthony Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

Cuentos de Barros addresses the complexities of creating art and processing indigenous heritage and personal history as a Salvadoran immigrant within a neo-colonial society. Centering ritual, care, and healing, the artist imbues sculptures with tenderness using abstract forms and the tactile manipulation of unfired clay and graphite.

Apocalypse As Utopia: The Exorcisms And Memorials Of Las Yeguas Del Apocalipsis And Queer Liberation In Chile, 1987-1997, Nicolas Poblete

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a comprehensive history of the queer activist-art collective Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis (1987-1997) and their performance-based resistance to the Chilean dictatorship (1973-1990), cultural homophobia, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Through art actions blending ritual, protest, and queer poetics, the collective redefined public space and national identity, envisioning a utopian queer apocalypse rooted in memory.

A Love Letter To Puerto Rico: Reggaetón As A Platform For Anti-Colonial Protest And Bad Bunny's Advocacy For Indigenous Sovereignty, Skye L. Gonzalez

Honors College Theses

This study explores the intersections of colonial history, cultural identity, and musical resistance through a rhetorical analysis of Bad Bunny’s 2025 album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Grounded in the context of Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States, I examine how reggaetón — a genre historically rooted in resistance — continues to serve as a platform for political expression and cultural reclamation. As reggaetón moves into the global mainstream, questions arise around the tension between commercial success and cultural authenticity. Focusing on Bad Bunny as both a cultural icon and political figure, this thesis considers how Debí Tirar …

Famílias Indigenas Entre Mundos: Standing In Pachakuti, Living In Chi’Xi Within The Constellation Of Their Comunidad De Saberes, Ymasumac Marañón Davis

Dissertations

To be Indigenous is to be la luz del mundo, to stand in your light and spread your sunrays, no matter winds or clouds of colonization that strive to dim you. This qualitative study explored ways Indigenous Latine families negotiate a sense of place within onto-epistemological realities and their home culture of learning and Western education. This research is desire-based (Eve Tuck, 2009), creating our own project of modernity, grounded in one Indigenous family’s experience within their Andean community. Drawing from Critical Latine Indigeneities Framework (Blackwell et al., 2017) and Chicana Feminist Epistemologies (Bernal, 1998), using an Entre Mundos methodology, …