Latinx, a complex and vital literature

The literature produced by Latinos in the United States is a faithful reflection of the fluctuations experienced by the different communities that make up the ethnic minority that is most prominent in the country's population as a whole.

The first issue to be resolved is terminological.

What is the most appropriate name to designate an extremely heterogeneous cultural conglomerate?

The dispute between the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" was settled long ago in favor of the latter, for reasons of political correctness.

The words "Hispanic" and "Hispanic" provoke rejection because they emphasize the weight of the Spanish legacy, something that is felt to be urgently erased in order to make way for an alternative vision of history.

In recent years, the label “latinx” or “latinex” has acquired preponderance, an inclusive category whose purpose is to take into account sexual orientation and gender.

It is the term favored in academic circles, although the communities that it seeks to represent with it do not feel it as their own.

According to a report by the prestigious Pew Institute published last August, the term

is widely unknown and rarely used by the people it seeks to designate.

Be that as it may, the truth is that the signs of a

identity

shared by the various communities of Latin American origin throughout the United States

are increasingly consolidated

.

Among them, the most numerous and established, with more than 170 years of history, is that of Mexican origin (the Chicanos, although the term has also been discussed).

The next group by numerical importance is made up of the communities of Caribbean origin, with roots in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

In decreasing order of presence are those of Central and South American origin.

It is important to note that, in parallel to the process of consolidating a common Latino identity and regardless of the links that unite the different communities with their countries of origin, Latinos in the United States feel North American, hence to refer to themselves incorporate the

word

into their signs of national identity: Latinos are

How is all this reflected in the literature?

In the same way that it is not possible to speak of a Latin identity without taking into account the nuances, the existence of a hypothetical Latin literary canon cannot be postulated without making important clarifications.

The first is historical in nature: we are facing a set of literary traditions whose central trunk dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, when Mexico ceded half of its national territory to the United States.

Taking a leap of a hundred years in time, we stumble upon a solid corpus that confirms the reality of a new literary sensibility.

If you want to give a minimum sense of continuity to a set of traditions that, although heterogeneous, have ended up converging, and at the risk of incurring inexcusable omissions, it is imperative to mention the Puerto Rican Jesús Colón.

Within the Chicano tradition, Gloria Anzaldúa, Tomás Rivera and Rudolfo Anaya stand out, and especially the outstanding figure of Rolando Hinojosa-Smith.

Decades later, towards the end of the 20th century, at the epicenter of what could be characterized as the

in Latin literature, some key names emerged, such as those of Óscar Hijuelos and Cristina García among Cuban-Americans;

Dagoberto Gilb, Sandra Cisneros, and Luis Alberto Urrea among Mexican-Americans, and Julia Álvarez and Junot Díaz, among Dominican-Americans.

The latter is the Latin author who has achieved greater prominence internationally, without the industry having yet managed to find a successor.

Already in the 21st century, the number of titles that come to light each year under the heading of Latin literature is overwhelming, but in addition to the fact that there are very few authors who manage to arouse the interest of the publishing world or the general reading public, the medium quality level often leaves much to be desired.

Some of the names that have sounded more recently are Justin Torres (

2011), Cristina Henríquez (

2014) and Angie Cruz (

2019).

One of the most powerful and original storytellers, Carmen María Machado (

2017), transcends ethnic concerns in her work.

Unforgivably, poetry, one of the most fertile and interesting areas of this literature, with names of undeniable stature, from the combative Martín Espada to Richard Blanco and Elizabeth Azevedo, are left out of this calculation. In the field of non-fiction, journalists Héctor Tobar (

2005) and Rubén Martínez (

, 2012) stand out. Mentioning a title or author implies silencing dozens. It is simply not possible to synthesize in a few lines the richness and diversity of a literary tradition as solid, complex and vital as that of the Latinos in the United States.