Latin American Studies

Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima Book Cover

Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy, and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima

"Fractional Freedoms explores how thousands of slaves in colonial Peru were able to secure their freedom, keep their families intact, negotiate lower self-purchase prices, and arrange transfers of ownership by filing legal claims. Through extensive archival research, Michelle McKinley excavates the experiences of enslaved women whose historical footprint is barely visible in the official record.

Author
Michelle McKinley
Publication
2016
When We Love Someone We Sing to Them Book Cover

When We Love Someone We Sing to Them

"This children’s book tells the story of a Mexican-American boy who learns from his parents about serenatas and why demonstrating romantic affection proudly, publicly, and through song is such a treasured Mexican tradition. One day, the boy asks his parents if there is a song for a boy who loves a boy. The parents, surprised by the question and unsure of how to answer, must decide how to honor their son and how to reimagine a beloved tradition."

Reflections Press, 32 pages

Author
Ernesto Martínez
Publication
2018
La Serenata Cover

La Serenata

Directed by Adelina Anthony Written by Ernesto Javier Martínez 2019 | Short Film / Aderisa Productions

Synopsis: A Mexican-American boy learns from his parents about  serenatas, and why demonstrating romantic affection proudly, publicly, and through song is such a treasured Mexican tradition. One day, the boy asks his parents if there is a song for a boy who loves a boy. The parents, surprised by the question and unsure of how to answer, must decide how to honor their son and how to reimagine a beloved tradition.

Author
Ernesto Javier Martínez
Publication
2019
Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic Book Cover

Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic

"This book is an exploration of the ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer persons exercise power in a Catholic Hispanic heteropatriarchal nation-state, namely the Dominican Republic. Lara presents the specific strategies employed by LGBTQ community leaders in the Dominican Republic in their struggle for subjectivity, recognition, and rights.

Author
Ana-Maurine Lara
Publication
2020
Stories That Make History: Mexico through Elena Poniatowska’s Crónicas Book Cover

Stories That Make History: Mexico through Elena Poniatowska’s Crónicas

"From covering the massacre of students at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the 1985 earthquake to the Zapatista rebellion in 1994 and the disappearance of forty-three students in 2014, Elena Poniatowska has been one of the most important chroniclers of Mexican social, cultural, and political life. In Stories That Make History, Lynn Stephen examines Poniatowska’s writing, activism, and political participation, using them as a lens through which to understand critical moments in contemporary Mexican history.

Author
Lynn Stephen
Publication
2021