Reimagining the Americas: Latinx and Indigenous Stories of Migration

This course explores migration stories that reimagine the territory known today as the Americas, Abya Yala, Turtle Island, and Ixachitlān. It brings together narrators who call into question the idea of the nation and the mechanism of borders. What role does language play in community building as Native peoples face diasporas and become transnational networks? How is mobility bringing forth new forms of storytelling? By engaging with poetry, essays, films and artwork from Indigenous and Latinx writers, class discussions will try to understand Abya Yala in its full complexity. We will pay particular attention to how our course materials depict the environment as they address questions of land ownership, settler colonialism and ties to homelands. Readings will be provided in English and include Leslie Marmon Silko, Yásnaya Aguilar Gil, Natalie Díaz and Yuri Herrera.