March 16, 2018

Karina O. Alvarado et al, “U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance” (U of Arizona Press, 2017)

58 minutes

In U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance (University of Arizona Press, 2017) editors Karina O. Alvarado, Alicia Ivonne Estrada, and Ester E. Hernandez have produced the first anthology to focus on the scholarship and experiences of 1.5 and second -generation Central American migrants to the United States. Consisting of nine interdisciplinary essays, the volume challenges and complicates the ever-budding field of Latina/o Studies by disrupting chronologies, theories, and narratives that fail to account for the diverse experiences of isthmian migrants. Analyzing oral history, cultural celebrations, literature, art, and the use of public space, the contributors explore the intersecting themes of memory, culture, struggle, and resistance, while giving voice to Central American migrants (primarily from the Northern Triangle—Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) as essential actors in the history and future of the Americas. Addressing the erasure and assumed silence of central-americanos within both the U.S. nation-state and U.S. Latinidad, this timely and trailblazing anthology challenges scholars and educators to reconsider the attention paid to the experiences and subjectivities of migrantes de Guatemala, Belice, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, y Panama.

David-James Gonzales (DJ) is a Postdoctoral Scholar and Teaching Fellow in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is a historian of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, the development of multi-ethnic/racial cities, and the evolution of Latina/o identity and politics. His research centers on the intersection of Latina/o civic engagement and politics on the metropolitan development of Orange County, CA throughout the twentieth century. You may follow him on Twitter @djgonzoPhD.

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