Introduction: My hometown, Silver Spring, and the method of Walk the barrio -- Part I. West : Mexican American East Los Angeles. Californios to Californians : a brief history of Mexican American Los Angeles. "A world built on cement" : the El Monte aesthetic in Salvador Plascencia's The people of paper ; "Earthquakes or earthmovers" : the East L.A. Barrio and Helena María Viramontes's Their dogs came with them -- Part II. West : Central American Downtown Los Angeles. Displacement by and as war : Central American L.A. immigration, 1980-2010. "Los Angeles was the problem" : the war for space in Héctor Tobar's The tattooed soldier ; "The blackouts of a tiny country" : the art of William Archila's Salvadoran exile -- Part III. East : Dominican New York City. "The one from the other life" : the particularities of Dominican transnationalism. "No promises can survive that sea" : diasporic identity in Junot Díaz's This is how you lose her ; "Washington Heights is like a prison sentence" : female surveillance in Angie Cruz's Soledad -- Part IV. South : Cuban Miami. "Brown sugar histories" : Cuba and the United States in the twentieth century ; "Why don't I got a street?" : Little Havana in Richard Blanco's queer Cuban American Bildungsroman -- Conclusion : Your hometown and other barriographies.
Summary:
"The first- and second-generation Latinx authors discussed in Walk the Barrio use their US hometowns as both setting and stylistic inspiration, utilizing various formal techniques to mirror their literary location to the real one. The book presents a "barriography" for each work, which includes first-person reportage, archival research, human geography, relevant theories of space, and interviews with the author, neighbors, or local historians. Authors considered include Helena María Viramontes, Salvador Plascencia, Héctor Tobar, William Archila, Junot Díaz, Angie Cruz, and Richard Blanco"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.