Overview

Connecting past and present, Central American Counterpoetics proposes the concepts of rememory and counterpoetics as decolonial tools for studying the art, popular culture, literature music, and healing practices of Central America and the diaspora in the United States. Author Karina Alma offers a systemic method and artistic mode for unpacking social and political memory formation that resists dominant histories. Central American Counterpoetics responds to political repression through acts of creativity that prioritize the well-being of anticolonial communities. Building on Toni Morrison’s theory of rememory, the volume examines the concept as an embodied experience of a sensory place and time lived in the here and now. By employing primary sources of image and word, interviews of creatives, and a critical self-reflection as a Salvadoran immigrant woman in academia, Alma’s research breaks ground in subject matter and methods by considering cultural and historical ties across countries, regions, and traditions. The diverse creatives included explore critical perspectives on topics such as immigration, forced assimilation, maternal love, gender violence, community arts, and decolonization.

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9780816552573

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Reviews

“This comprehensive and innovative study provides a new iteration of theory in the flesh in a Central American diasporic context. Alma celebrates and presents our perspectives and privileges our voices. Alma takes care to include critical context and framing. She credits and codifies the different phases and people that have contributed to the building of Central American studies. She invokes the historic and pioneering work of Chicanx, African American, and BIPOC activists and scholars while naming the legacy of white supremacy and colonialism. She focuses on acts of resistance that portray embodied survivors and practitioners in areas as diverse as cumbia, literature, community medicine, and comedic performance.”—Leticia HernÁndez-Linares, author of Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl: Poems

"""This comprehensive and innovative study provides a new iteration of theory in the flesh in a Central American diasporic context. Alma celebrates and presents our perspectives and privileges our voices. Alma takes care to include critical context and framing. She credits and codifies the different phases and people that have contributed to the building of Central American studies. She invokes the historic and pioneering work of Chicanx, African American, and BIPOC activists and scholars while naming the legacy of white supremacy and colonialism. She focuses on acts of resistance that portray embodied survivors and practitioners in areas as diverse as cumbia, literature, community medicine, and comedic performance.""--Leticia Hernández-Linares, author of Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl: Poems"

Author Information

Karina Alma is an assistant professor in the Chicano/a and Central American Studies Department at University of California, Los Angeles, and a co-editor of U.S. Central Americans: Reconstructing Memories, Struggles, and Communities of Resistance.

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