The University of Arizona Press
Publishing Latinidad
Latinx Literary and Intellectual Production, 1880–1960
Publishing Latinidad brings to light the overlooked contributions of early Latinx writers and intellectuals, offering a fresh perspective on their roles in shaping American literary and cultural landscapes.
Jose O. Fernandez meticulously examines the works of notable figures like José Martí, Arturo Schomburg, Jesús Colón, José de la Luz Sáenz, Adela Sloss-Vento, and Américo Paredes, illuminating their innovative approaches to circumventing exclusionary practices in the publishing world. He demonstrates how these writers and intellectuals entered literary, cultural, and intellectual discourses through alternative modes of literary production: crónicas, translations, paratexts, bibliographies, archival practices, sketches, diaries, biographies, unpublished fiction, and scholarly monographs. Through these examples, Fernandez situates Latinx literary production in this time period within the broader context of racial and ethnic solidarity movements in the United States.
Publishing Latinidad is essential reading for anyone interested in the social and cultural underpinnings of Latinx literature and intellectual thought. It challenges traditional narratives and enriches our appreciation of the diverse voices that have long been instrumental in the fight for justice.
“Publishing Latinidad is a very valuable addition to Latino literary history and the understanding of Latino identity formation over a century and a half. It correctly and insightfully brings to the fore the importance of overlooked modes of literary production and, more than any other scholarship to date, places Latino literature within the context of literary creativity of other communities of color. Jose Fernandez’s reading and marshaling of the broad range of American literary history enriches his highly original approach.”—Nicolás Kanellos, author of Latinos and Nationhood: Two Centuries of Intellectual Thought
