Narratives of Deportation in Latino/a Literature

In “Narratives of Deportation in Latino/a Literature,” Esmeralda Arrizón-Palomera notes that the emergence of the Undocumented Youth Movement as a powerful force across the United States coincided with the largest mass... [ view full abstract ]

In “Narratives of Deportation in Latino/a Literature,” Esmeralda Arrizón-Palomera notes that the emergence of the Undocumented Youth Movement as a powerful force across the United States coincided with the largest mass deportation in the history of this country. She is interested in the effects of this mass deportation on those who have legal status. Have the over 2 million deportations in the last five years troubled constructions of citizenship for the legal permanent resident and the U.S. citizen? How? And where do we see a troubling of “facile constructions of citizenship” taking place? Finding the answers to these questions in Latino literature and deportation narratives, Arrizón-Palomera offers an analysis of Maceo Montoya’s The Deportation of Wopper Barraza by zooming in on how Wopper Barraza’s deportation and the concomitant construction of citizenship shape the lives of Wopper’s family, friends, and teachers.