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This book is a manifesto-like consideration of the potentialities of radical political thought and action in contemporary Puerto Rico. Framed within the context of the present economic crisis, of austerity measures, PROMESA and mass migration, this book engages recent literary, artistic and activist work on the island in order to highlight the manners in which such work—however precarious, innocuous and/or fleeting—fosters hope among audiences, artists, protesters and onlookers alike for a more egalitarian and just society. Autoethnographically grounded, informal in tone, and with an eye toward intersectionality, this book serves as a unique contribution to the field of Puerto Rican Studies, by offering alternate points of departure for emergent theorizing and intellectual production across academic disciplines.
In Parenting Empires, Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas focuses on the parenting practices of Latin American urban elites to analyze how everyday experiences of whiteness, privilege, and inequality reinforce national and hemispheric idioms of anti-corruption and austerity. Ramos-Zayas shows that for upper-class residents in the affluent neighborhoods of Ipanema (Rio de Janeiro) and El Condado (San Juan), parenting is particularly effective in providing moral grounding for neoliberal projects that disadvantage the overwhelmingly poor and racialized people who care for and teach their children. Wealthy parents in Ipanema and El Condado cultivate a liberal cosmopolitanism by living in multicultural city neighborhoods rather than gated suburban communities. Yet as Ramos-Zayas reveals, their parenting strategies, which stress spirituality, empathy, and equality, allow them to preserve and reproduce their white privilege. Defining this moral economy as “parenting empires,” she sheds light on how child-rearing practices permit urban elites in the Global South to sustain and profit from entrenched social and racial hierarchies.
"This issue features artist pages by Louise Menzies and Michala Paludan, an essay by Lina Moe on the closure of New York's L Line, and, through our ongoing Climate Change & Art: A Lexicon, surveys the language currently surrounding anthropogenic climate change. Through proposing neologisms and promoting less well-known terms, we wish to propel interdisciplinary discussion, and by extension accelerate the pace of action"--Publisher website.
New Critical Legal Thinking articulates the emergence of a stream of critical legal theory which is directly concerned with the relation between law and the political. The early critical legal studies claim that all law is politics is displaced with a different and more nuanced theoretical arsenal. Combining grand theory with a concern for grounded political interventions, the various contributors to this book draw on political theorists and continental philosophers in order to engage with current legal problematics, such as the recent global economic crisis, the Arab spring and the emergence of biopolitics. The contributions instantiate the claim that a new and radical political legal scholarship has come into being: one which critically interrogates and intervenes in the contemporary relationship between law and power.
This book explores the humanities as an insightful platform for understanding and responding to the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, other manifestations of “Guantánamo,” and the contested place of freedom in American Empire. It presents the work of scholars and writers based in Cuba’s Guantánamo Province and various parts of the US. Its essays, short stories, poetry, and other texts engage the far-reaching meaning and significance of Gitmo by bringing together what happens on the U.S. side of the fence—or “la cerca,” as it is called in Cuba—with perspectives from the outside world. Chapters include critiques of artistic renderings of the Guantánamo region; historical narratives contemplating the significance of freedom; analyses of the ways the base and region inform the Cuban imaginary; and fiction and poetry published for the first time in English. Not simply a critique of imperialism, this volume presents politically engaged commentary that suggests a way forward for a site of global contact and conflict.
Akrilica, a co-publishing venture between Noemi Press and Letras Latinas -- the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame -- showcases innovative Latino writing. The series name recalls the groundbreaking, bilingual book from the eighties by distinguished Chicano writer, and United States Poet Laureate Emeritus, Juan Felipe Herrera. Written in response to the PROMESA bill (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) Bill, lo terciario / the tertiary ofers a decolonial queer critique and reconsideration of Marx. The book's title comes from Pedro Scaron's, El Capital, the 1976 translation of Karl Marx's classic. Published by Siglo Veintiuno Editores, this translation was commonly used by the Puerto Rican left as part of political formation programs. lo terciario / the tertiary places this text in relation to the Puerto Rican debt crisis, forcing readers to reconsider old questions when facing colonialism's newest horrors. This re-release of lo tercario / the tertiary features a new introduction by Urayoán Noel and images by José Ortiz Pagán.
In TheDiaspora Strikes Back the eminent ethnic and cultural studies scholar Juan Flores flips the process on its head: what happens to the home country when it is being constantly fed by emigrants returning from abroad? He looks at how 'Nuyoricans' (Puerto Rican New Yorkers) have transformed the home country, introducing hip hop and modern New York culture to the Caribbean island. While he focuses on New York and Mayaguez (in Puerto Rico), the model is broadly applicable. Indians introducing contemporary British culture to India; New York Dominicans bringing slices of New York culture back to the Dominican Republic; Mexicans bringing LA culture (from fast food to heavy metal) back to Guadalajara and Monterrey. This ongoing process is both massive and global, and Flores' novel account will command a significant audience across disciplines.
Using autoethnography to examine the social construction of whiteness in Puerto Rico. Guillermo Rebollo Gil draws from artistic, activist and popular culture registers to examine the multifarious yet often subtle ways race privilege shapes and informs daily life in the Puerto Rican archipelago. Cross-disciplinary in approach, Whiteness in Puerto Rico speaks to the present political moment in a country marked by austerity, disaster capitalism and protest.