Resources for SPA 336: Traveling Home: Literature for/by US Latinas

This study examines works that address the spatial location of Latinidades, especially Latina, identity by subverting literary history and literary theory through testimonio, hybrid genres, social activism, metafiction, and solidarity.

A collection of fiction, poetry, drama, and essays written by forty-five Latina writers of the United States, arranged by genre, and including brief biographical information about each author.

This book examines the ways that recent U.S. Latina literature challenges popular definitions of nationhood and national identity. It explores the works of Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American writers Denise Chavez, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Esmeralda Santiago, and Himilce Novas to show how these texts argue for the legitimate belonging of Latino/as within U.S. borders and counter much of today's anti-immigration rhetoric.

A recent study examining how contemporary fiction depicts being Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, or Puerto Rican within Chicana/o and Latina/o America.

Examines twenty-first-century Latina narratives by female authors of diverse Latin American heritages based in the U.S. This book draws on the work of Denise Chávez, Sandra Cisneros, Marta Moreno Vega, Angie Cruz, and Marie Arana, as well as a diverse blend of popular culture.

This book examines literary representations of harm inflicted on Latinas' minds and bodies, and on the places Latinas inhabit, but also explores how hope can be found amid so much harm. Analyzing contemporary memoirs and novels by Irene Vilar, Loida Maritza Perez, Ana Castillo, Cristina García, and Julia Alvarez, the author argues that the individual harm experienced by Latinas needs to be understood in relation to the collective histories of aggression against their communities.

Remembering Maternal Bodies is a collection of essays about the writings of several Latina and Latin American women writers who remember their mothers, and/or challenge our commonly held beliefs about motherhood and maternity, in an effort to stop depression and melancholy.