Decolonization in Latino culture

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Decolonization in Latino culture refers to contemporary treatment of and work with past colonialist and imperialist influences on Latin American society in the US.

Contents

History

Decolonization is a term that refers to a period in history, but it has evolved to become a theme in many studies revolving around Latino literature, studies and arts. It arose as a response to the rule of many states by a bigger, usually more powerful, nation. It “was interpreted to be both a calculated process of military engagement and diplomatic negotiation between the two contending parties: colonial and anti-colonial”. [1] It first became prominent after World War I, being that Europe lost manpower, finances, and confidence and, at the same time, anti-colonial resentment grew through European colonies especially in literature and in an increase of strikes. [1]  Decolonization usually involved the removal of European influence which led to greater implications for the newly freed states.  These implications involved gaining independent economic control, amongst other things. [1]   The aftermath of decolonization left these states to rebuild themselves and, in many cases, end up mimicking the Western world which they rid themselves of in the first place.

Modern decolonization

Decolonization is now seen as more than ridding European influences. The modern definition involves “obtaining constitutional independence”. [2] This definition, however, has been critiqued to disregard the “economic, social and cultural implications” of the process. [2] In an attempt to incorporate this aspect, the definition has been repurposed to be the “reversal of the process of European imperial expansion with all it political, economic, social, cultural and linguistic consequences”. [2] This, however, is also critiqued because it is difficult to reverse history and the “remnant of its colonial past”. [2] So, decolonization as a theory arose.  Decolonization, as a theory, involves assessing history in order to benefit the advancement of society on an international level, during the process of world-making. [3] It involves better assessing the failures and limitations of decolonization in history and anti-imperial efforts to benefit remaking the international order. [3] It also involves detaching from “the overall structure of knowledges in order to engage in epistemic reconstruction”. [4]

Critique of decolonization

The increased popularity and usage of decolonization has also caused critiques. These critiques, mainly emphasizing that “decolonization is not a metaphor” argue that decolonization has been more popularly used to characterize things that must be fixed or improved in society which gives the term a metaphorical implication. This is said to be dangerous because some of the objectives it is being applied to may not always be in alignment with decolonization’s true definition. [5] Metaphorizing decolonization is critiqued to be a result of “attempt[ing] to reconcile settler guilt and complicity, and rescue settler futurity”. [5]

Decolonization of Latino studies

Decolonizing Latino archives involves undertaking a “decolonial reading of colonial test with Latino literary history”. [6]  Scholars, such as Yolanda Martinez San Miguel, theorize that in order to decolonialize the colonial dimensions that appear in United States Latino archives, colonial tests must be read with a decolonial perspective.  This would consequently open up Latino studies to its blind spots that are embedded in its teachings. These blind spots, which results from colonization, include lack of collaboration, erasure of some countries and the invisibility of some cultures, such as, indigenous or Asian peoples. [6]  Decolonizing how Latino archives are read, also brings in the different engagement with Americanness and the incorporation of experiences of displacement. Decolonization as a theme is thought to have the power to diversify the Latino archives that play a role in Latino studies and diversify the definition of latinidad by dismantling blind spots. [6]

Decolonization as a theme in Latino arts

Decolonization has been incorporated into films, books, music and many other forms of art by Latino artists in order to dismantle the influence that historical colonial efforts has on said art-types. This is popularly seen in the characters and plots that work to critique or comment on society or simply offer stories that break out of the colonial norm known in the field.

Books and writers

These books are written by Latino writers that challenge the norms of society and therefore give a decolonized perspective in their stories.

Film

Many films have offered a decolonial perspective on Latin American science fiction media.  These films usually involve showcasing utopian and dystopian tales and incorporate Latin American identities and ideas. Cinema Tropical and the Museum of the Moving Image offered some examples of these films in their film program for “Uchronias and Dystopian Futures: Latin American Science Fiction Cinema of the 21st Century.” [8]

The films included were: [8]

Related Research Articles

Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby a nation establishes and maintains its domination of foreign territories. The concept particularly applies to the dismantlement, during the second half of the 20th century, of the colonial empires established prior to World War I throughout the world. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on the movements in the colonies demanding independence, such as Creole nationalism.

Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism originated in the 1980s as a critique of feminist theorists in developed countries pointing out the universalizing tendencies of mainstream feminist ideas and argues that women living in non-Western countries are misrepresented.

Latin American poetry is the poetry written by Latin America authors. Latin American poetry is often written in Spanish, but is also composed in Portuguese, Mapuche, Nahuatl, Quechua, Mazatec, Zapotec, Ladino, English, and Spanglish. The unification of Indigenous and imperial cultures produced a unique and extraordinary body of literature in this region. Later with the introduction of African slaves to the new world, African traditions greatly influenced Latin American poetry. Many great works of poetry were written in the colonial and pre-colonial time periods, but it was in the 1960s that the world began to notice the poetry of Latin America. Through the modernismo movement, and the international success of Latin American authors, poetry from this region became increasingly influential.

Latino poetry is a branch of American poetry written by poets born or living in the United States who are of Latin American origin or descent and whose roots are tied to the Americas and their languages, cultures, and geography.

Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and the indigenous languages of the Americas. It rose to particular prominence globally during the second half of the 20th century, largely due to the international success of the style known as magical realism. As such, the region's literature is often associated solely with this style, with the 20th century literary movement known as Latin American Boom, and with its most famous exponent, Gabriel García Márquez. Latin American literature has a rich and complex tradition of literary production that dates back many centuries.

McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks with the magical realism mode of narration, and counters it with languages borrowed from mass media. The literature of McOndo presents urban Latin American life, in opposition to the rural Latin America of Macondo.

Giannina Braschi Puerto Rican writer

Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include Empire of Dreams (1988), Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) and United States of Banana (2011).

Postdevelopment theory holds that the whole concept and practice of development is a reflection of Western-Northern hegemony over the rest of the world. Postdevelopment thought arose in the 1980s out of criticisms voiced against development projects and development theory, which justified them.

Speculative fiction is defined as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Within those categories exists many other subcategories, for example cyberpunk, magical realism, and psychological horror.

Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of imperial power.

Dystopia Community or society that is undesirable or frightening

A dystopia is a fictional community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is often treated as an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty. But the relationship between utopia and dystopia is more complex than this, as there exist utopian elements in many dystopias, and vice-versa. Also, utopia and dystopia are not precise opposites. Utopia implies a perfectly or completely good society, while dystopia does not imply a completely bad society.

The coloniality of power is a concept interrelating the practices and legacies of European colonialism in social orders and forms of knowledge, advanced in postcolonial studies, decoloniality, and Latin American subaltern studies, most prominently by Anibal Quijano. It identifies and describes the living legacy of colonialism in contemporary societies in the form of social discrimination that outlived formal colonialism and became integrated in succeeding social orders. The concept identifies the racial, political and social hierarchical orders imposed by European colonialism in Latin America that prescribed value to certain peoples/societies while disenfranchising others.

María Lugones was an Argentine feminist philosopher, activist, and Professor of Comparative Literature and of women's studies at Carleton College in Northfield, MN and at Binghamton University in New York State. She identified as a U.S-based woman of color and theorized this category as a political identity forged through feminist coalitional work.

Decoloniality or decolonialism is a school of thought used principally by an emerging Latin American movement which focuses on untangling the production of knowledge from what they claim is a primarily Eurocentric episteme. It critiques the perceived universality of Western knowledge and the superiority of Western culture. Decolonial perspectives see this hegemony as the basis of Western imperialism.

Latino literature is literature written by people of Latin American ancestry, often but not always in English, most notably by Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Dominican Americans, many of whom were born in the United States. Notable writers include Elizabeth Acevedo, Julia Alvarez, Gloria Anzaldua, Rudolfo Anaya, Giannina Braschi, Julia de Burgos, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Christina Garcia, Oscar Hijuelos, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Piri Thomas, among others.

Latinx is a gender-neutral English neologism, sometimes used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of Latino and Latina that are typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. Its plural is Latinxs. Words used for similar purposes include Latin@ and Latine. Related gender-neutral neologisms include Chicanx and Xicanx.

Carmen Maria Machado American writer

Carmen Maria Machado is an American short story author, essayist, and critic frequently published in The New Yorker, Granta, Lightspeed Magazine, and other publications. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette. Her stories have been reprinted in Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Horror of the Year,The New Voices of Fantasy, and Best Women's Erotica. Her story collection Her Body and Other Parties was published in 2017. Her memoir In the Dream House was published in 2019 and won the 2021 Folio Prize. Machado is queer and lives in Philadelphia with her wife Val Howlett.

Ramón Grosfoguel is a Puerto Rican sociologist who belongs to the Modernity / Coloniality Group who is a full Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of California, Berkeley.

Xicanx is a gender-neutral neologism and identity mostly used to refer to people of Mexican and Latin American descent in the United States. The ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of Chicano and Chicana that are typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. The term is commonly used to reference a connection to Indigeneity, decolonial consciousness, inclusion of genders outside the Western gender binary imposed through colonialism, and transnationality. In contrast, most Hispanics define themselves in nationalist terms, such as by a Latin American country of origin.

Decolonization of knowledge is a concept advanced in decolonial scholarship that critiques the perceived universality of what the decolonial scholars refer to as the hegemonic Western knowledge system. It seeks to construct and legitimize other knowledge systems by exploring alternative epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies. It is also an intellectual project that aims to “disinfect” academic activities that are believed to have little connection with the objective pursuit of knowledge and truth. The presumption is that if curricula, theories, and knowledge are colonized, it means they have been partly influenced by political, economic, social and cultural considerations. The decolonial knowledge perspective covers a wide variety of subjects including epistemology, natural sciences, science history, and other fundamental categories in social science.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Betts, Raymond F. Beyond Empire and Nation.
  2. 1 2 3 4 von Bismarck, Helene. "Defining Decolonization". The British Scholar Society.
  3. 1 2 Getachew, Adom (2019). Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-18434-0.
  4. ↑ "Interview - Walter Mignolo/Part 2: Key Concepts". E-International Relations. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  5. 1 2 Tuck, Eve; Yang, K. Wayne. "Decolonization is not a metaphor" (PDF). Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. 1: 1–40.
  6. 1 2 3 Miguel, Yolanda Martínez San (February 2018). "Rethinking the Colonial Latinx Literary Imaginary". The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature. doi:10.1017/9781316869468.006 . Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  7. ↑ León, Concepción de (2018-11-29). "8 Books Reshaping Latinx Literature". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  8. 1 2 "Decolonize Sci-Fi: This Film Series Showcases Utopian & Dystopian Tales Set in Latin America". Remezcla. 2019-04-22. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
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