Famous writers I should have known about, or should have worked with more

I really do not get out enough. My students should know about Mario Bellatín, Hilda HIlst, Pedro Lemebel, Naty Menstrual, and Eugenia Prado. It seems that they, together with Diamela Eltit and others, wrote or are writing the nueva narrativa femenina latinoamericana. I should have told my student about Sarduy, Escrito sobre un cuerpo, and … More Famous writers I should have known about, or should have worked with more

Encore des nouvelles. On modernity, and on race.

– Thursday is César Vallejo’s birthday and he will be 125. – This, as we know, could also be about Vallejo, as it is about many: Living in Budapest, connected to a self-confident and industrializing West but set apart from it by language and often religion, Polanyi and his contemporaries embodied one of the central … More Encore des nouvelles. On modernity, and on race.

Beatriz Preciado

¿Y qué aportan esos ‘detritus del sistema’, como usted los llama? Inventan nuevas formas de relación personal y política que se salen de una coordenada que engancha con las políticas coloniales del siglo XV y que tienen que ver con la familia, la nación, la raza. Esa línea se ha agotado, hay que abrirse a … More Beatriz Preciado

She is Cuba

I have to get this book at Tulane. It is so tempting to just click “buy,” but no. Ideally, I not even check the book out: I will go there, read, and leave having actually conducted research. Or I will become very serious and use interlibrary loan, despite not liking to do this online. I … More She is Cuba

The sacrifice zone

Nowhere is the abuse as frightening as in Louisiana—with the exception, perhaps, of its neighbor to the east (“Thank God for Mississippi!” is the unofficial state motto). Louisiana is the second-poorest state and second-to-last in human development, which is a measure of individual freedom. The state’s rate of fatal cancers is about 30 percent higher … More The sacrifice zone