"Mapping South American Latina/a Literature in the United States: Interviews with Contemporary Writers by Juanita Heredia is a welcome critical Intervention ... . The volume is overall a much-needed contribution to the growing field of Latina/o literature in the United States. ... Mapping will be valuable to scholars of Latina/o and Latin American contemporary literature, queer and gender studies, and multi-ethnic U.S. literature; and a companion to students reading works by these twelve authors in undergraduate or graduate courses." (Manuela Borzone, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature STTCL, Vol. 46 (1), 2022) "This text may serve as a useful resource for educators wishing to provide students with a contemporary context to the works studied in their courses, and would also be an enjoyable read for the general intellectual." (Carolyn González, Latino Studies, Vol. 19, 2021)
1. Introduction: Mapping South American Latinidad in the United States.
2. The Task of the Translator: Daniel Alarcón.
3. Bridges across Lima and Washington D.C.: Marie Arana.
4. Dreaming in Brazilian: Kathleen De Azevedo.
5. It Takes Two to Tango across Montevideo and California: Carolina De Robertis.
6. Traveling the Caribbean, Colombia, and the U.S.: Patricia Engel.
7. My Poetic Feminism between Peru and the U.S.: Carmen Giménez Smith.
8. Gender and Spirituality in Colombia, Cuba and New Jersey: Daisy Hernández.
9. The Colombiano of Greenwich Village: Jaime Manrique.
10. A Meditation on Parenting from Syria to Peru to the U.S: Farid Matuk.
11. From Dirty Wars in Argentina and Latvia to Listening to Music: Julie Sophia Paegle.
12. Writing the Chilena NuYorker Experience: Mariana Romo-Carmona.
13. Returning to the Fervor of Buenos Aires from the U.S.: Sergio Waisman.
Juanita Heredia is Professor of Spanish at Northern Arizona University, USA. She is the author of Transnational Latina Narratives in the Twenty-first Century: The Politics of Gender, Race and Migrations (2009) and co-editor of Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers (2000). While she was a post-doctoral Fellow at UCLA she advanced work on her critical monograph, Transnational Latinas/os and the City: Negotiating Urban Experiences in Twenty-first Century Literature and Culture.
This collection of interviews demonstrates that U.S. Latinas/os of South American background have contributed pioneering work to U.S. Latina/o literature and culture in the twenty-first century. In conversation with twelve significant authors of South American descent in the United States, Juanita Heredia reveals that, through their transnational experiences, they have developed multicultural identities throughout different regions and cities across the country. However, these authors' works also exemplify a return to their heritage in South America through memory and travel, often showing that they maintain strong cultural and literary ties across national borders. As such, they have created a new chapter in trans-American history by finding new ways of imagining South America from their formation and influences in the U.S.