Latina/o Literature and Culture

Paper has played a critical role in Latina/o literary production. Though recent interest in Latina/o print culture foregrounds the importance of print materials in a way that emphasizes community histories, identities, and political ideologies, paper itself is under examined.  This panel looks toward a more concise consideration of the physical and material power of paper as a principle agent of analysis.  How does paper coalesce Latina/o identities, social bodies, and cultural formations?  How did the proliferation of Latina/o liberation movements result in the reciprocal generation of paper production?  

Proposals will explore the print of Latina/o print culture explicating the myriad ways in which book culture, political pamphlets, screenprints, graphic arts, and what the Latina Feminist Group calls,  “papelitos guardados,” demonstrate how Latina/o social relations were engendered through paper materials. Talks might explore any aspect of “cultura de papel” as it relates to Latina/o alternative and underground press movements, chapbooks, zines, newspapers, print workshops, photography, scrapbooks, and other modes of creative expression (papel amate, papel picado, flores de papel crepé, or other paper-based border craftworks).  Any paper dealing with Latina/o literature and culture is also welcome.  However, topics that directly relate to the theme of Latina/o print bodies are particularly requested.