Through her epistolary correspondence and her novel "Ifigenia" (1924), Teresa de la Parra (1889-1936) questions racial stratification systems reminiscent of colonial times and still present in twentieth-century Venezuela. Parra establishes the malleability of racial categories through a moderate racial discourse that intends to…

This article examines Peruvian-American Marie Arana's second novel "Lima Nights" (2008) in which she represents Amazonian indigenous migrations to Lima, Peru during and after the Shining Path civil war years (1986-2006). As part of a generation of transnational US Latina authors in the post-2000 period, Arana recovers the image of the…

While the first wave of Caribbean immigrant writers brilliantly explored race-related issues, black Britons like Andrea Levy, Zadie Smith and Caryl Phillips, among others, have sought to depart from earlier fiction, motivated in their project by the changing white face of Britain. In this article, I would like to argue that cultural change in…

The sociopolitical, sociocultural, and sociolinguistic issues many Latino immigrants face as they embark on the process of adjusting to American society have been depicted by many Hispanic American writers in the United States. Julia Álvarez's "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" attempts to raise awareness of these issues through…

Alberto Fuguet, one of the leaders of the McOndo writers who seek cultural direction from the United States and exploit mass-media formulas, is a polarizing figure in contemporary Latin American culture. His most recent full-length novel, the semi-autobiographical "Las peliculas de mi vida" (2003), has led many to conclude that Fuguet is simply a…

Writers of Caribbean ancestry who live outside of the region are usually described as having dual allegiance (Caribbean/American for example). This is eminently justifiable, since there is usually a recognizable Caribbean flavour to the writing. This paper focuses on one feature of Caribbean culture incorporated in three texts: "Praisesong…

This paper profiles representative Afro-Brazilian writers and provides a guide to English language translations and critical studies of their work. The aim is to encourage instructors to broaden the scope of current curricula in black and Latin American studies courses. Recent studies estimate that more than 40 percent of Brazil's inhabitants are…

A discussion of biliteracy development for Latino adolescents and young adults in the public schools focuses on the situation in one high school, examining its dynamics, tensions, and possibilities. It is found that while the students in question are often over 16 and taught in high school, they are surrounded by the conceptions, orientations, and…