Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA

Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA is a timely collection of poetry and prose reflecting on women’s lived experiences and the ways that Latinas address the relationship between gender and social change. The contributors are poets, activists, educators, artists, and journalists engaged in a variety of work from community organizing to university teaching. Edited by longtime activist Iris Morales, the selections illustrate how Latinas understand the gendered conditions of their lives and discuss inequities faced as women and also by class, race, ethnicity, national origin, and immigration status. The volume is most closely aligned with the view of feminism as a movement to end sexist oppression, both its institutional and individual manifestations.

The anthology includes a mix of genres—poems, personal narratives, blog posts, lyrics, excerpts from plays, artwork, scholarly essays, and herstories—looking across time, generational, and geographic boundaries. Each piece is unique. Taken together they open a window that reveals Latina perspectives about contemporary socio-political and cultural issues, and activism. They also share imaginings for a different future, dreams of a just world and sisterhood, and more humane ways of living, relating to one another, and organizing societies in harmony with the Earth and the needs of the people.

“This anthology is especially urgent in a moment marked by the "silence breakers" . . . and the simultaneous silencing of women of color within these narratives. Latinas, in particular, have much to teach us as we face escalated attacks on Latinx immigrants, the U.S.-fueled crisis in Puerto Rico, and the misogyny that guides legislation against health care….”
Dr. Deborah Paredez, Co-Director and Co-Founder of CantoMundo, Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Writing Program at Columbia University, and author of This Side of Skin and Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory.

Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA reaffirms the important role of Latina activism in the struggle for human rights.

An impressive list of contributors are featured in the collection. They are Amanda Alcantara, Gloria Amescua, Nia Andino, Tania Asili, Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Ariana Brown, Rosa Clemente, Karla Cordero, Johanna Fernández, Maria Teresa “Mariposa” Fernández, Marisa Franco, Katherine Garcia, Claudia Sofia Garriga López, Magdalena Gómez, Jessica González-Rojas, Ysabel Y. González, Nancy Lorenza Green, Elena Gutíerrez, Jennicet Gutíerrez, Leticia Hernández-Linares, Karen Jaime, Aurora Levins Morales, Iris Morales, Stephanie Llanes, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Florencia Milito, Lenina Nadal, Myrna Nieves, Emily Perez, Mónica Ramírez, Raquel Reichard, Carmen Rivera, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Dominque Salas, Aida Salazar, Ruth Irupé Sanabria, Norma Liliana Valdez, Liliana Valenzuela, Vickie Vértiz, and Anjela Villarreal Ratliff.

Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USAis edited by Iris Morales, an educator and activist dedicated to social justice and the decolonization of Puerto Rico. She is the author of Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: the Young Lords 1969 -1976, the first account about women’s experiences in the organization. Morales holds a JD from New York University School of Law and an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College in New York.