Latinx Talk invites your submission of 2000 words or less on any topic related to Latinx Studies or Latinx communities.
We welcome all research, commentary, and reviews and are especially interested in the following topics:
Latinx Literatures of Migration 2023
Following our series in 2020, Latinx Talk invites submissions about migration in the literary imagination. The decades-long irresolution of U.S. domestic policy on immigration quotas and pathways to citizenship has led to an abundance of Latinx creative expression addressing the condition, situation, and experience of migration and immigration, the difficulties of incorporation into the U.S., and the ethical, moral, and philosophical questions this poses for the U.S. as a nation. This abundance has manifested in virtual reality installations such as Carne y Arena by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (2017), performances such as Teatro Vista’s production of Brian Quijada’s Somewhere Over the Border (2022), first-person accounts of migration, life in mixed-status families, or adaption to the U.S. such as Marcelo Hernandez Castillo’s Children of the Land (2020), Myriam Gurba’s Mean (2017) and Reyna Grande’s A Distance Between Us (2012), Javier Zamora’s Solito (2022), as well as fictional portrayals such as Angie Cruz’s How Not to Drown in A Glass of Water (2022), Cristina Henríquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans (2014) or Manuel Muñoz’s The Consequences (2022). This wealth of literature in multiple genres and formats explores questions of belonging, sexuality, disability, labor exploitation, divided families and families divided by immigration policy or detention. We welcome pieces that analyze, unpack, critique, and reflect upon these and other literary and performative explorations of migration in Latinx communities.
Sustainability
A second topic on which we invite submissions is sustainability. The climate report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2023 sounds the alarm on the need for immediate changes in sustainability practices. In line with this new research we welcome submissions that address the following questions: How are Latinx communities responding to the climate crisis? What are Latinx responses to the varied diagnosis and proposed solutions? What knowledges do our communities hold that might be valuable in developing solutions to the climate crisis? How are Latinx communities particularly vulnerable to climate crisis? What is Latinx research showing us about our role?
Latina Reproductive Health Care
A December 13, 2022 policy paper by Josefina Flores Morales and Julia Hernandez Nierenberg for the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute found that “in abortion-restrictive states, a greater share of Latina women are of childbearing age compared to non-Hispanic white women,” making this denial of reproductive health care a dire situation for Latinx communities. How have Latinas organized and fought for reproductive rights in the U.S.? How have Latinas been harmed by the attacks of reproductive rights? What are the current experiences and situations of Latinas facing these new restrictions? How do these restrictions intersect with immigration status to delimit who has access to reproductive rights? Why are people in Latin America organizing toward the codification of full reproductive rights whereas in the U.S. we see movement toward restriction?
Latinx Media
In addition to several new and exciting series about Latinx life that have emerged on streaming platforms – some perhaps with too-short screen lives – we have noticed an increase in podcasts and radio programs geared toward Latinx audiences. In what new ways do streaming/television series imagine Latinx life? What accounts for the early cancellation of Latinx media productions in English? How is gender significant in these new series? Is Spanish-language media more appealing to Latinx audiences than English-language media? Radio and podcast programming has grown in both mainstream and independent sources in English, Spanish and indigenous languages. This has opened space for innovation and depth of coverage. With reference to radio and podcasts, beyond language preferences, how do the soundscapes of Latinidad and indigeneity shape a listening positionality? What can we learn about audiences, media productions, and digital storytelling by Latinx and indigenous creatives in radio and podcasting?
Submissions will be accepted throughout 2023 via email at latinxtalk@gmail.com. They will then be sent out for peer review and afterwards scheduled for publication. Please direct submission and/or any questions to latinxtalk@gmail.com.
Latinx Talk is an online, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, and moderated forum for the circulation of original research, commentary, and creative work in brief and diverse formats ranging from 500-2,000 words. For more information about the genres in which we publish, please see our Submission Guidelines.