Inframundos: Mexican/American Underworlds

From pre-Columbian times to the diasporic present in the United States, Mexican history and culture are filled with references to underworlds as sites of transgression. The Christian hell and Colonial mine became default spots for native bodies, while prison cells, tunnels and subterranean trains lodge today’s poor and disenfranchised. This seminar will visit these sites through literature, film, music and journalism to question which subjects have been read as transgressors through time and why. Authors discussed will include Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, Verónica Gerber, Yuri Herrera, Valeria Luiselli, and Myriam Gurba. Taught in Spanish; Spanglish welcome.