Creative/Critical Latinidades

This roundtable proposes to consider the intersection between the creative and the critical in Latina/o Studies. Following Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderlands paradigm, the creative/critical borderlands constitute a space that is... [ view full abstract ]

This roundtable proposes to consider the intersection between the creative and the critical in Latina/o Studies. Following Gloria Anzaldúa’s borderlands paradigm, the creative/critical borderlands constitute a space that is “not comfortable, but home” (Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, “Preface to the First Edition). Living in the borderlands requires movement, change, and an embrace of contradiction; to resist such contradiction is to court disaster and succumb to chaos and pain. While the borderlands between creative and critical are home, they are also “in a constant state of transition” (Anzaldúa 25). In this roundtable, we will discuss and analyze the act of literally and metaphorically crossing borders and code-switching across the transitional yet permanent home that is Latina/o creative and critical production. Each participant will present brief clips, images, and/or readings of their creative/critical work, negotiating this work as part and parcel of a Latina/o creative/critical borderlands. Finally, we will think the creative/critical borderlands in relation to a series of keywords: image, translation, language, sound, faith, race, gender, sexualities, performance and performativity, dis/abilities, neoliberalism and globalization.