A Mexican State of Mind:
New York City & the New Borderlands of Culture
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to the Atlantic Borderlands Ch. 1: Mexican Manzana: The Next Great Migration Ch. 2: Sólo Queremos El Respeto: Racialization of labor and hierarchal culture in the US Restaurant Industry Ch. 3: “Hermandad, Arte y Rebeldía": Art Collectives and Entrepreneurship in Mexican New York Ch. 4: "Dejamos una huella": Border Atlantic Rasquachismo and Guerrilla Memorialization of Nueva York Ch. 5: Yo Soy Hip Hop: Transnationalism and Authenticity in Mexican New York Ch. 6: Fantasia y Fantasma: Mexican Hauntings in the NYC literature of Valeria Luiselli and Carmen Boullosa Epilogue For a full accounting of scholarly activities, download my CV here: 
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Project Overview:
The final image of Alex Rivera’s film trilogy “Visible Border,” is a haunting x-ray of immigrant bodies hiding as bananas inside a shipping container (The Borders Trilogy). In bringing together the container and the immigrant body in this evocative picture of global labor and economy another equally horrifying images arises. The visual similarities of these government x-rays to abolitionist pamphlets that incorporated navel style drawings of slave ships is startling. Representations like “Description of a Slave Ship” (1789), were exemplars of navel drawing’s precision for schematic diagrams, in this case of seven numbered sections, each filled with tiny darkened figures representing the bodies of slaves. Like the bright white x-rayed images, there are no distinguishable individuals, just interchangeable laboring bodies that must be transported and/or deported. In The Black Atlantic, Paul Gilroy uses the “image of ships in motion” as his central organizing principle for understanding and analyzing what he terms “the Black Atlantic,” his mode of analysis in critiquing and expanding thought around black diasporas and black identities. In highlighting the similarities between the current day situation of immigrant transfer in containers and the legacies of the middle passage, Alex Rivera’s work and others, not only brings attention to new ways the borderland is being represented and imagined, but also, the impact of legacies of slavery on these conceptions. As such, I propose that reading these two units of analysis – that of the Borderlands and the Black Atlantic, two influential and foundational modes of thinking - highlights important considerations about how the brown laboring body in movement is being replicated and responded to today. In an attempt to bring the Black Atlantic into the modern day borderlands, this “Atlantic Borderlands” offers a new means of critique in an new age of global labor. My dissertation, “A Mexican State of Mind: New York City and the New Borderlands of Culture" establishes a much needed dialogue between African American and Borderlands studies by considering the recent history of Mexican migration to New York within the context of a much longer history of black and brown laboring bodies. In particular, I introduce a new theoretical framework, "the Atlantic Borderlands," which allows me to make three key interventions in the fields of Latin@, migration, and Mexican/ Chican@ studies. First, it brings Mexicans to the Atlantic Ocean – New York – to understand how they are changing, and have changed the US's most iconic immigrant city, as well as the global economic center of the US. Next, this shift moves border studies geographically out from the Southwest in order to develop a new meaning of border in which the Wall both haunts but is not visibly present. Instead, consumption and containment as symbolized by the shipping container becomes a central metaphor of post-NAFTA global trade, which has motivated so many Mexicans to new destinations, such as New York City. Lastly, the Atlantic Borderlands puts Chican@/ Latin@ studies into dialogue with African American Studies in new and profound ways. Beyond the Afro-Latin@ subject, then, I ask what does it mean to truly place Black and Latin@ theory into difficult and often uncomfortable conversations? What can be learned from these confluences and conflicts? And most importantly, what is gained from un-privileging a white western theoretical model of comparison? | ||
Related Scholarship & Teaching:
Articles & Book Chapters:
“The Atlantic Borderlands: Mexican American Countercultures of New York City.” Centering Borders: Explorations in South Asia and Latin America. Kavita Panjabi and Debra Castillo editors. Forthcoming Kolkota: Worldview, Spring 2017.
“Hermandad, Arte y Rebeldía: Mexican Popular Art of NYC.” The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Popular Culture. Frederick Luis Aldama, editor. Routledge, June 2016.
“Yo Soy Hip Hop: Performing an Authentic Mexican Hip Hop in New York.” Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture. 6.1 (Spring 2015).
“La Lucha Sigue: The Legacy and Lessons of Gloria Anzaldúa for Latinas in Academia.” Border – Lines. Journal of the Latino Research Center, University of Nevada, Reno. Vol. VIII (Fall 2014).
Essays
"Taming the Wild Tongue: A New Call for Young Latina Writers." The Ethnic Reporter. Newsletter of the National Association for Ethnic Studies. 33.3 (Winter 2010).
"Life with a Hyphen." Cartographies of Affect: Across borders in South Asia and the Americas. (Worldview Press 2010).
Teaching & Invited Lectures
"Yo Soy Hip Hop": Transnationalism and Authenticity in Mexican New York." Seoul National University, Korea (Oct. 2, 2016).
"Yo Soy Hip Hop: Performing an Authentic Mexican Hip Hop in New York." Long Island University- Brooklyn (April 20, 2016).
Teaching Fellow at Yale University (Aug. 2014 – Present): Teaching assistant for Ethnicity, Race and Migration 200; American Studies 191: The Formation of Modern American Culture, 1919-2015. Duties include running sections, grading papers, advising students, supervising community projects.
Conference Presentations:
American Studies Association Conference, Denver, Co. (Nov. 17-20, 2016): “Yo Soy Hip Hop: Transnationalism and Authenticity in Mexican New York.”
Latin American Studies Association, New York, NY (May 27-30, 2016): “Hermandad, Arte & Rebeldia: Mexican Popular Art in New York City.”
Latino/a Utopias: Futures, Forms and The Will of Literature, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY (April 23-25, 2015): “The Atlantic Borderlands: Mexican American Countercultures of New York City.”
Centering Borders: Narrative Explorations in South Asia and Latin America, Center for Studies in Latin American Literatures and Cultures (CSLALC) at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India (7-8 January 2015): “The Atlantic Borderlands: Mexican American Countercultures of New York City.”
Latino Studies Association, Chicago, IL (July 17-19, 2014): “The Atlantic Borderlands: Container Politics, Migrant Melancholia and the Post Modern Countercultures of Mexican Americans.”
American Studies Association Confernce, Washington, DC (Nov. 21-24, 2013): Sólo Queremos El Respeto: Racialization of labor and hierarchal culture in the US Restaurant Industry.”
El Mundo Zurdo: First International Conference on the Life and Death of Gloria Anzaldúa, University of Texas – San Antonio (May 15-17, 2009): “More than Spanglish: Academic Boundaries and Code Switching in the Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Nueva Mestiza.”
“The Atlantic Borderlands: Mexican American Countercultures of New York City.” Centering Borders: Explorations in South Asia and Latin America. Kavita Panjabi and Debra Castillo editors. Forthcoming Kolkota: Worldview, Spring 2017.
“Hermandad, Arte y Rebeldía: Mexican Popular Art of NYC.” The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Popular Culture. Frederick Luis Aldama, editor. Routledge, June 2016.
“Yo Soy Hip Hop: Performing an Authentic Mexican Hip Hop in New York.” Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture. 6.1 (Spring 2015).
“La Lucha Sigue: The Legacy and Lessons of Gloria Anzaldúa for Latinas in Academia.” Border – Lines. Journal of the Latino Research Center, University of Nevada, Reno. Vol. VIII (Fall 2014).
Essays
"Taming the Wild Tongue: A New Call for Young Latina Writers." The Ethnic Reporter. Newsletter of the National Association for Ethnic Studies. 33.3 (Winter 2010).
"Life with a Hyphen." Cartographies of Affect: Across borders in South Asia and the Americas. (Worldview Press 2010).
Teaching & Invited Lectures
"Yo Soy Hip Hop": Transnationalism and Authenticity in Mexican New York." Seoul National University, Korea (Oct. 2, 2016).
"Yo Soy Hip Hop: Performing an Authentic Mexican Hip Hop in New York." Long Island University- Brooklyn (April 20, 2016).
Teaching Fellow at Yale University (Aug. 2014 – Present): Teaching assistant for Ethnicity, Race and Migration 200; American Studies 191: The Formation of Modern American Culture, 1919-2015. Duties include running sections, grading papers, advising students, supervising community projects.
Conference Presentations:
American Studies Association Conference, Denver, Co. (Nov. 17-20, 2016): “Yo Soy Hip Hop: Transnationalism and Authenticity in Mexican New York.”
Latin American Studies Association, New York, NY (May 27-30, 2016): “Hermandad, Arte & Rebeldia: Mexican Popular Art in New York City.”
Latino/a Utopias: Futures, Forms and The Will of Literature, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY (April 23-25, 2015): “The Atlantic Borderlands: Mexican American Countercultures of New York City.”
Centering Borders: Narrative Explorations in South Asia and Latin America, Center for Studies in Latin American Literatures and Cultures (CSLALC) at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India (7-8 January 2015): “The Atlantic Borderlands: Mexican American Countercultures of New York City.”
Latino Studies Association, Chicago, IL (July 17-19, 2014): “The Atlantic Borderlands: Container Politics, Migrant Melancholia and the Post Modern Countercultures of Mexican Americans.”
American Studies Association Confernce, Washington, DC (Nov. 21-24, 2013): Sólo Queremos El Respeto: Racialization of labor and hierarchal culture in the US Restaurant Industry.”
El Mundo Zurdo: First International Conference on the Life and Death of Gloria Anzaldúa, University of Texas – San Antonio (May 15-17, 2009): “More than Spanglish: Academic Boundaries and Code Switching in the Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Nueva Mestiza.”
