Book contents
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1848–1992
- Latinx literature in transition
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1848–1992
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Space
- Part II Being
- Part III Time
- Part IV Form
- Part V Labor
- Chapter 17 Seeking Parteras in the Archive
- Chapter 18 The Work of War
- Chapter 19 Farmworker Culture in Literature and Film, or Tomás Rivera’s Brown Noir
- Chapter 20 The Specter of Neoliberalism
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Chapter 18 - The Work of War
Latinx Literature, Racial Schismatics, and Possible Solidarities
from Part V - Labor
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 April 2025
Book contents
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1848–1992
- Latinx literature in transition
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1848–1992
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Space
- Part II Being
- Part III Time
- Part IV Form
- Part V Labor
- Chapter 17 Seeking Parteras in the Archive
- Chapter 18 The Work of War
- Chapter 19 Farmworker Culture in Literature and Film, or Tomás Rivera’s Brown Noir
- Chapter 20 The Specter of Neoliberalism
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Debates about Latinx literary representations of war tend to emphasize either how Latinx literature offers a means of repair for war’s ravages or, alternatively, that violence is constitutive of latinidad itself. This chapter charts a middle course through both positions by arguing that US Latinx literature highlights both irresolute, unreconciled wars and, what Jesse Alemán describes as Latinx “micro-wars” within major conflicts; such micro-wars, furthermore, often involve clashes and negotiations around the racialized boundaries of Latinx communities. Here we survey a range of Latinx representations of the Civil War, World War II, the Korean War, and wars of revolution and counterinsurgency in Viet Nam and Central America. Rather than waging war on an irredeemable enemy, we conclude, Latinxs lay siege to the imperial relationship championed by the US in most of these conflicts.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Latinx Literature in Transition, 1848–1992 , pp. 315 - 332Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Works Cited
Alemán, Jesse. “Wars of Rebellion: US Hispanic Writers and Their American Civil Wars.” American Literary History, vol. 25, no. 1, 2013, pp. 54–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aparicio, Frances R. “From Ethnicity to Multiculturalism: An Historical Overview of Puerto Rican Literature in the United States.” Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States: Literature and Art, edited by Lomelí, Francisco, Estela-Fabregat, Claudio, and Kanellos, Nicolás. Arte Público, 1993, pp. 19–39.Google Scholar
Arias, Arturo. “Central American-Americans: Invisibility, Power and Representation in the US Latino World.” Latino Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2003, pp. 168–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrera, Mario. Race and Class in the Southwest: A Theory of Racial Inequality. U of Notre Dame P, 1979.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter. “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nicolai Leskov.” 1955. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. Translated by Harry Zohn, edited by Arendt, Hannah. Schocken Books, 1968.Google Scholar
Cárdenas, Maritza E. Constituting Central American-Americans: Transnational Identities and the Politics of Dislocation. Rutgers UP, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavez, Leo R. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford UP, 2008.Google Scholar
Cordova, Cary. The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco. U of Pennsylvania P, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornejo, Kency. “US Central Americans in Art and Visual Culture.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford UP. https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-434.Google Scholar
Cutler, John Alba. “Disappeared Men: Chicana/o Authenticity and the American War in Viet Nam.” American Literature, vol. 81, no. 3, 2009, pp. 583–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, John Alba. Ends of Assimilation: The Formation of Chicano Literature. Oxford UP, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia. The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire. U of California P, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandin, Greg. Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism. Metropolitan Books, 2006.Google Scholar
Herrera-Sobek, María. “The Wounds of War: Mapping Geographies of Trauma in Rolando Hinojosa’s Korean Love Songs.” Rolando Hinojosa’s Klail City Death Trip Series: A Retrospective, New Directions. Arte Público, 2013, pp. 135–153.Google Scholar
Hinojosa, Rolando. From Klail City to Korea with Love: Two Master Works. Arte Público, 2017.Google Scholar
Kapadia, Ronak. Insurgent Aesthetics: Security and the Queer Life of the Forever War. Duke UP, 2019.Google Scholar
López, Marissa K. Chicano Nations: The Hemispheric Origins of Mexican American Literature. New York UP, 2011.Google Scholar
Molina, Natalia. How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts. U of California P, 2014.Google Scholar
Olguín, B. V. Violentologies: Violence, Identity and Ideology in Latina/o Literature. Oxford UP, 2021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rincón, Belinda Linn. Bodies at War: Genealogies of Militarism in Chicana Literature and Culture. U of Arizona P, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez, Ana Patricia. “The Fiction of Solidarity: Transfronterista Feminisms and Anti-Imperialist Struggles in Central American Transnational Narratives.” Feminist Studies, vol. 34, nos. 1–2, 2008, pp. 199–226.Google Scholar
Rosado, Carmen García. Las WACS: Participación de la Mujer Boricua en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Unknown publisher, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruiz de Burton, María Amparo. Who Would Have Thought It? Introduction and edited by Montes, Amelia María de la Luz. Penguin Classics, 2009.Google Scholar
Saldaña-Portillo, María Josefina. Indian Given: Racial Geographies Across Mexico and the United States. Duke UP, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarry, Elaine. The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. Oxford UP, 1985.Google Scholar
Tafolla, Santiago. A Life Crossing Borders: Memoir of a Mexican-American Confederate Soldier, edited by Carmen, and Tafolla, Laura. Arte Público, 2014.Google Scholar
Vargas, Roberto. Nicaragua, yo te canto besos, balas y sueños de libertad. Editorial Pocho-Che, 1980.Google Scholar
Vega, Bernardo. Memoirs of Bernardo Vega: A Contribution to the History of the Puerto Rican Community in New York. Translated by César Andreu Iglesias. Monthly Review P, 1984.Google Scholar
Vigil, Ariana E. War Echoes: Gender and Militarization in US Latina/o Cultural Production. Rutgers UP, 2014.Google Scholar