Browsing by Subject "Latinidad"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

"A mix of everything" : alternative music and alternative Latinidad in the United States
(2016-12) Ramirez, Jeannelle, M. of Music; Moore, Robin D., 1964-; Seeman, Sonia
This study focuses on “Latin Alternative” music in the United States, specifically in New York City, from 2000-2016. An indefinable genre, Latin Alternative challenges existing parameters of Latin music and Latinidad. Reviewing demographic data, performance videos, websites, periodicals, blogs, and notes from concerts and conference events, I construct a picture of the unique qualities of this scene. The data show that musicians, audiences, and other sociomusical agents1 in the scene are invested in “mixing” sounds, as if axiomatically symbolic of their identities. The scene rests on discourses of pan-Latinidad, alternativism, solidarity with other Latinxs and the active inclusion of marginalized groups like Afro-Latinxs and LGBTQ Latinxs. In this context, “Latin music” may be punk, hip-hop, electronica, or any combination of sounds. Building on the work of scholars in ethnomusicology and Latinx studies, I consider several existing theories and their utility. I argue that this scene challenges established ideas about transnational ways of being, calling into question the notion of diaspora and relevance of national origins. The agents in the scene express allegiance to alternativism, futurism, and utopian possibility, pan-Latinidad, and work toward a more inclusive imagined community of Latinxs. Thus, Latin Alternative music calls for new paradigms and modes of analysis.
Constructing a figured world of bilingual education : authoring dreamers and changers with mentor texts, supplemental mentor texts and libritos
(2022-05-09) Lewis, Brenda Ayala; Fránquiz, María E.; Salinas, Cinthia; Worthy, Mary J.; Celedón-Pattichis, Sylvia; Toribio, Jacqueline A.; Leija Lara, María G.
This qualitative case study investigated how mentor texts can be utilized as a pedagogical approach in bilingual instruction to cultivate biliteracy development in bilingual classrooms. Bilingual scholars must heed the call to action for more qualitative studies that present bilingual teachers’ contributions in the development of biliteracy, bilingualism, and biculturalism via mentor texts as tools for recognizing and affirming biliterate identities, responding to texts by taking a stance, and the re-cognizing of social issues to create alternative figured worlds. Utilizing figured worlds and the continua of biliteracy framework, investigation findings expand upon how emergent bilinguals can draw from all points of the biliteracy continua and dispels the notion that one mentor text is sufficient in students’ making connections between protagonist’s lived experiences and their own. This study emphasizes the need to create libritos for each mentor text to support reflective written responses, and supported students authoring of self as dreamers and changers. Supplemental mentor texts were necessary for student development of voice via in-depth study to contextualize the time-period when the protagonists faced unfair situations. Mentor texts, supplemental mentor texts, and libritos were all necessary in authoring new possibilities. Implications suggest that children’s literature promote students seeing themselves represented in the text. Expanding upon the notion of Latinidad demands critical discussion, analysis, and evaluation of protagonists and lived experiences along with the examination of diverse perspectives. As mediating tools, mentor texts, can be used for planning integrated units of study to cultivate critical thinking and writing about social (in)justice. Libritos and mentor texts offer powerful tools for biliteracy development. Adding a sixth condition to Dorfman and Cappelli’s criteria for mentor texts is recommended, since writing responses add to students’ developing understandings about craft, genre, content, style, technique, modalities, etc. A study of curriculum that creates opportunities for social issues to be utilized as a springboard for bilingual student examination of socio-historical and sociocultural contexts contribute to learning more about responsible citizenry. This can begin an examination of student roles as consumers of text and challenge the dominant narratives of marginalized populations using counternarratives.
Destabilizing racialized geographies : the temporality of Blackness in Puerto Rico
(2016-05) Machicote, Michaela Andrea; Arroyo, Jossianna; Leu, Lorraine
In this thesis I analyze the way in which the de-colonial construction of Puerto Rico, and subsequent acquisition by the US as a territory, came to inform and create a whitened identity through the confinement, historicization of African influence, and erasure of Puerto Rico's Black population/heritage component via the narrative of mestizaje and mulataje. I look specifically at Loíza; Loíza is a city celebrated by Puerto Rico as a site of authentic Blackness and exemplifies efforts by the state to commodify and restrict the movements of Black Bodies. It is in these marginalized and racialized spaces that I explore the possibility of self-making and Black identity in Loíza, Puerto Rico.
Developing a hauntology of Latinidad
(2018-05) Albarrán, Lario José; Gonzalez, Rachel Valentina
In this thesis I utilize theories of phenomenology and performance to develop a hauntology of Latinidad. By following the specter of Latinidad, I interrogate imaginative sites constructed through the historical, social, and performative facets of colonialism’s impact in the United States. I do this to theorize notions of Latinidad in order to argue that the multi-faceted relationship between Latinidad and colonialism has summoned a specter that manifest historically, performatively, visually, and phenomenally as Latinidad. As a result, the specter of Latinidad positions marginalized individuals that identify with Latinidad in the United States as bodies “haunted” by their own biological and phenotypical disposition to Latinidad. Placing the theory of Jacques Derrida and Kashif Powell in conversation with scholars such as Avery Gordon, Judith Butler, Gloria Anzaldúa, Juana Rodriguez, and others, I evoke the language and metaphor of haunting to consider the profound effect the relationship between marginalized bodies and the lingering specter of Latinidad.
Me siento : transgender Latinx lives and belonging in the 21st century
(2018-06-26) Padró, Jowell; Arroyo, Jossianna; Browne, Simone
The body facilitates a sense of (not) belonging for transgender Latinx subjects. Looking at contemporary cultural productions of transgender Latinx identity, I unpack the ways in which transgender Latinxs engage with their bodies to “belong” in the everyday. Seeking to contribute to contemporary dialogue surrounding transgender bodies within conceptualizations of latinidad, Chapter 1 critiques representations of transgender Latinxs in contemporary media, such as Mala Mala, Strut, Sirena Selena, and the Salt Mines. I focus specifically on the ways in which the body is engaged with and spoken about by each character, highlighting the tensions and complexities of feeling, belonging to, and embodying both Latinidad and transgenderness. In Chapter 2, I create an exemplary short story titled “Barrio Queer” to illustrate the racialized and cis/gendered dimensions of conceptions of (trans) gender embodiment and Puerto Rican identity, the connection to the divine, national belonging amongst diasporic subjects, and feminist introspection of masculinity. Finally, I conclude that the everyday bodily negotiations, tensions, and practices transgender Latinx subjects experience to foster a sense of (not) belonging to both gender and latinidad are crucial inclusions to narratives and representations of gender embodiment.