Latina O Discourse In Vernacular Spaces

Taking up the charge to study discourses of marginalized groups, while simultaneously extending scholarship about Latina/os in the field of Communication, Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces: Somos de Una Voz? provides the most current work examining the vernacular voices of Latina/os. The editors of this diverse collection structure the book along four topics_Locating Foundations, Citizenship and Belonging, The Politics of Self-Representation, and Trans/National Voces_that are guided by the organizing principle of voz/voces [voice/voces]. Voz/voces resonates not only in intellectual endeavors but also in public arenas in which perceptions of Latina/os' being of one voice circulate. The study of voz/voces proceeds from a variety of sites including cultural myth, social movement, music, testimonios, a website, and autoethnographic performance. By questioning and addressing the politics of voz/voces, the essays collectively underscore the complexity that shapes Latina/o multivocality. Ultimately, the contours of Latina/o vernacular expressions call attention to the ways that these unique communities continue to craft identities that transform social understandings of who Latina/os are, to engage in forms of resistance that alter relations of power, and to challenge self- and dominant representations.

The story of an academic discipline is usually conveyed in grand movements and long spans, but it can also be told through the lives of individual scholars, through the development of specialties, through the creation and change of departments, and through the formation and transformation of organizations. Using twelve histories of micro-dimensions of communication studies, this volume shows how sometimes small decisions, single scholars, individual departments, and marginalized voices can have dramatic roles in the history and future of an academic discipline. As a compilation of micro-histories with macro-lessons this volume stands alone in communication studies. Read as a companion to A Century of Communication Studies, the National Communication Association’s centennial volume, it offers rich detail, missing links, and local narratives that fully flesh out the discipline. In either case, no education in communication studies is complete without an understanding of the themes, challenges, and triumphs embodied by the twelve micro-histories offered in this book. This book was originally published as two special issues of Review of Communication.

Latina/o/x Communication Studies: Theories, Methods, and Practice spotlights contemporary Latina/o/x Communication Studies research in various theoretical, methodological, and academic contexts. Leandra H. Hernández, Diana I. Bowen, Sara De Los Santos Upton, and Amanda R. Martinez have assembled a collection of case studies that focus on health, media, rhetoric, identity, organizations, the environment, and academia. Contributors expand upon previous Latina/o/x Communication Studies scholarship by examining identity and academic experiences in our current political climate; the role of language, identity, and Latinidades in health and media contexts; and the role of social activism in rhetorical, environmental, organizational, and border studies contexts. Scholars of communication, Latin American Studies, rhetoric, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

The cultural politics creating and consuming Latina/o mass media. Just ten years ago, discussions of Latina/o media could be safely reduced to a handful of TV channels, dominated by Univision and Telemundo. Today, dramatic changes in the global political economy have resulted in an unprecedented rise in major new media ventures for Latinos as everyone seems to want a piece of the Latina/o media market. While current scholarship on Latina/o media have mostly revolved around important issues of representation and stereotypes, this approach does not provide the entire story. In Contemporary Latina/o Media, Arlene Dávila and Yeidy M. Rivero bring together an impressive range of leading scholars to move beyond analyses of media representations, going behind the scenes to explore issues of production, circulation, consumption, and political economy that affect Latina/o mass media. Working across the disciplines of Latina/o media, cultural studies, and communication, the contributors examine how Latinos are being affected both by the continued Latin Americanization of genres, products, and audiences, as well as by the whitewashing of “mainstream” Hollywood media where Latinos have been consistently bypassed. While focusing on Spanish-language television and radio, the essays also touch on the state of Latinos in prime-time television and in digital and alternative media. Using a transnational approach, the volume as a whole explores the ownership, importation, and circulation of talent and content from Latin America, placing the dynamics of the global political economy and cultural politics in the foreground of contemporary analysis of Latina/o media.

In the current geopolitical climate—in which unaccompanied children cross the border in record numbers, and debates on the topic swing violently from pole to pole—the subject of immigration demands innovative inquiry. In The Rhetorics of US Immigration, some of the most prominent and prolific scholars in immigration studies come together to discuss the many facets of immigration rhetoric in the United States. The Rhetorics of US Immigration provides readers with an integrated sense of the rhetorical multiplicity circulating among and about immigrants. Whereas extant literature on immigration rhetoric tends to focus on the media, this work extends the conversation to the immigrants themselves, among others. A collection whose own eclecticism highlights the complexity of the issue, The Rhetorics of US Immigration is not only a study in the language of immigration but also a frank discussion of who is doing the talking and what it means for the future. From questions of activism, authority, and citizenship to the influence of Hollywood, the LGBTQ community, and the church, The Rhetorics of US Immigration considers the myriad venues in which the American immigration question emerges—and the interpretive framework suited to account for it. Along with the editor, the contributors are Claudia Anguiano, Karma R. Chávez, Terence Check, Jay P. Childers, J. David Cisneros, Lisa M. Corrigan, D. Robert DeChaine, Anne Teresa Demo, Dina Gavrilos, Emily Ironside, Christine Jasken, Yazmin Lazcano-Pry, Michael Lechuga, and Alessandra B. Von Burg.

Explores efforts to restrict and expand notions of US citizenship as they relate specifically to the US-Mexico border and Latina/o identity Borders and citizenship go hand in hand. Borders define a nation as a territorial entity and create the parameters for national belonging. But the relationship between borders and citizenship breeds perpetual anxiety over the purported sanctity of the border, the security of a nation, and the integrity of civic identity. In The Border Crossed Us, Josue David Cisneros addresses these themes as they relate to the US-Mexico border, arguing that issues ranging from the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848 to contemporary debates about Latina/o immigration and border security are negotiated rhetorically through public discourse. He explores these rhetorical battles through case studies of specific Latina/o struggles for civil rights and citizenship, including debates about Mexican American citizenship in the 1849 California Constitutional Convention, 1960s Chicana/o civil rights movements, and modern-day immigrant activism. Cisneros posits that borders—both geographic and civic—have crossed and recrossed Latina/o communities throughout history (the book’s title derives from the popular activist chant, “We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us!”) and that Latina/os in the United States have long contributed to, struggled with, and sought to cross or challenge the borders of belonging, including race, culture, language, and gender. The Border Crossed Us illuminates the enduring significance and evolution of US borders and citizenship, and provides programmatic and theoretical suggestions for the continued study of these critical issues.

Race(ing) Intercultural Communication signals a crucial intervention in the field, as well as in wider society, where social and political events are calling for new ways of making sense of race in the 21st century. Contributors to this book work at multiple intersections, theoretically and methodologically, in order to highlight relational (im)possibilities for intercultural communication. Chapters underscore the continuing importance of studying race, and the diverse mechanisms that maintain racial logics both in the U. S. and globally. In the so-called ‘post-racial’ era in which we live, not only are disrupting notions of colour-blindness crucially important, but so too are imagining new ways of thinking through racial matters. Ranging from discussions of new media, popular culture, and political discourse, to resistance literature, gay culture, and academia, contributors produce incisive analyses of the operations of race and white domination, including the myriad ways in which these discourses are reproduced and disrupted. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.

This Bridge We Call Communication: Anzaldúan Approaches to Theory, Method, and Praxis explores contemporary communication research studies, performative writing, poetry, Latina/o studies, and gender studies through the lens of Gloria Anzaldúa’s theories, methods, and concepts. Utilizing different methodologies and approaches—testimonio, performative writing, and interpretive, rhetorical, and critical methodologies—the contributors provide original research on contexts including healing and pain, woundedness, identity, Chicana and black feminisms, and experiences in academia.