COMPLIT 77N: Ink and Resistance: Unraveling Latin American Narratives
General Education Requirements
Course Description
In El Centro Chicano y Latino at Stanford, there is a mural by Chicana artist Juana Alicia titled The Spiral Word: Codex Estánfor, which draws inspiration from the history and literature of multiethnic Latin America, from ancient texts like the Mayan Popol Vuh to contemporary Chicanx poetry. Through close examination of the mural and the texts it references, this course will delve into the shared cultural history of Latin America, the current diversity within the Latinx community in the United States, and future visions centered on ecological renewal.
We will analyze short texts by authors directly featured in the mural, including Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, José Martí, Gabriela Mistral, and the Zapatistas in Chiapas, México. Additionally, we will explore works by other authors who influenced Juana Alicia, such as Miguel de Cervantes, Jorge Luis Borges, and Junot Diaz. Central moments that have shaped the cultural history of the Américas, such as the Zapatista Movement in Mexico and the struggles of Black freedom fighters, will also be examined. By the course's conclusion, we will have explored foundational texts and events that define Latin America's cultural and literary history. Moreover, we will gain insight into how these foundational authors have been interpreted and reinterpreted within both Latinx and Latin American literary traditions.
Meet the Instructor: Regina Pieck
“I am a writer and scholar from Mexico City. In my academic work, I seek to trace the continuities and discontinuities between pre-colonial and contemporary cultural production, the human and the nonhuman, the subterranean and the efflorescent. My book project 'Refounding the Underground' focuses on the Indigenous, Latinx, and Latin American writers and artists who encourage us to think about our world from the perspective of underground spaces, such as mines, roots, mass graves, and tectonic plates, thereby uncovering the buried colonial foundations that still underlie so much of contemporary life. My interest in the underground is rooted in my awareness of growing up in a city built partly on top of a lake, partly on volcanic rock, and partly on pre-colonial ruins.”
