Luis J. Rodríguez’s first collection of poetry, Poems Across the Pavement, was published in 1989, with journalism and individual poem publications preceding this book. But his testimonio, Always Running–La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA, released in 1993 in the aftermath of the LA riots, garnered Rodríguez widespread national and international attention. Always Running is […]
Today’s piece is by Shelby Smith. Let My Name Speak for Itself My name is soft, quiet and unheard; no loud vowels to be spoken out of place, nothing that makes heads shake in disapproval. She sits in the corner, her hands in her lap, behaving and forgotten. She is too mild mannered to […]
This reflection on names and naming comes from Isabella Diane Rizzo: My name is Isabella Diane Rizzo. My first name was given to me because “Isabella” was the only name on my parents’ list that had not been one of my fathers’ exes. The list of girls’ names was short because I was supposed to […]
We continue our series of reflections on names and naming with a poem by Sarah Isabelle. Sarah Isabelle Hayes My name is only two thirds of me Mama told me I’m named after her favorite grandma, Grandma Billy Her name was Isabelle, but that was too girly for her So they called her Billy She […]
The SALSA Collective is delighted to share writing by students at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. In early 2019, Eilidh spent a semester at Trinity as a Fulbright Royal Society of Edinburgh Visiting Scholar working with the inimitable Prof Norma Cantú. In our class ‘Latinx Cultural and Artistic Expressions’ we read and discussed Sandra […]
This year the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) funded two successive annual conference panels that support, promote, and feature the production of research by and about people of color, LGBTQ+ communities, and disability communities. This ‘Targeted Research Panel’ provided the opportunity to “foster and forward research that attends to and includes historically marginalised communities […]
What kind are you? You’re Native American, What type? Says the lady as she sits with curlers setting her hair, looking up at me, bewildered as to why I am slightly bewildered. I am the native whose history has no copy right laws protecting its existence. I am the native whose grandfather has lived almost […]
