The events surrounding the Trayvon Martin murder, trial and acquittal bring to public and private discourse the violent, brutal murders of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Dr. King, while bringing back to memory the racially provoked murders of Black American and Black immigrant men such as Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant and more recently, Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York. The name of Trayvon Martin has become trope in the 21st century, which crystallizes US racial politics regarding Blackness, specifically the Black male: a metaphoric symbol of this history of America's regard for Black bodies, as well as a metonym, a name that has become a contemporary substitute for terrorist attacks targeting Black bodies. The works included here imply that Trayvon Martin, as trope, reverberates in the most conscientious of 'US'; and, this epic tragedy is one that has plagued 'US' since Africans and people of African descent first arrived to the Americas. The essays range from the profoundly personal to the thoroughly investigated, and conclude with the statement from President Barack H. Obama in the epilogue. The Trayvon Martin in US is essential reading for anyone who is involved in race relations or teaches the topic.

After generations of being rendered virtually invisible by the US academy in critical anthologies and literary histories, writing by Latin Americans of African ancestry has become represented by a booming corpus of intellectual and critical investigation. This volume aims to provide an introduction to the literary worlds and perceptions of national culture and identity of authors from Spanish-America, Brazil, and uniquely, Equatorial Guinea, thus contextually connecting Africa to the history of Spanish colonization. The importance of Latin America literature to the discipline of African Diaspora studies is immeasurable, and this edited collection provides a ripe cultural context for critical comparative analysis among the vast geographies that encompass African and African Diaspora studies. Scholars in the area of African Diaspora Studies, Black Studies, Latin American Studies, and American literature will be able to utilize the eleven essays in this edition to enhance classroom instruction and further academic research.

After generations of being rendered virtually invisible by the US academy in critical anthologies and literary histories, writing by Latin Americans of African ancestry has become represented by a booming corpus of intellectual and critical investigation. This volume aims to provide an introduction to the literary worlds and perceptions of national culture and identity of authors from Spanish-America, Brazil, and uniquely, Equatorial Guinea, thus contextually connecting Africa to the history of Spanish colonization. The importance of Latin America literature to the discipline of African Diaspora studies is immeasurable, and this edited collection provides a ripe cultural context for critical comparative analysis among the vast geographies that encompass African and African Diaspora studies. Scholars in the area of African Diaspora Studies, Black Studies, Latin American Studies, and American literature will be able to utilize the eleven essays in this edition to enhance classroom instruction and further academic research.

(Re)Considering Blackness in Contemporary Afro-Brazilian (Con)Texts critically interrogates the issue of Blackness in Brazil under the lens of cultural studies - broadly defined to include utterances on transnationalism and cosmopolitanism. From a multidisciplinary perspective, this collection of scholarly articles queries the notions of national and racial identity and ambivalence, through critical analysis of contemporary (mid-twentieth century to the present) Brazilian cultural materiality, including literature, religion, film/video and theatrical production, and cultural anthropological manifestations. The book's purpose is to understand how multiethnic nations, such as Brazil, negotiate issues of Blackness in contemporary contexts. All of the contributing authors are leading Brazilian scholars in the areas of race, gender, theatre, music, literature, film, and religion studies. By concentrating on how these disciplines and ideologies relate to matters concerning Blackness in the construction of identities in Brazil, this book will be of significant value to scholars in the areas of Brazilian studies, Latin American studies, interdisciplinary studies, cultural studies, and African Diaspora studies.

The growing prominence of afrocentricity has contributed to the increase in black Hispanic literature and the emergence of Afro-Hispanism as a legitimate genre of historical and sociocultural study. From Nicolas Guillen to Manuel Zapata Olivella and Nancy Morejon, Spanish-speaking black writers have been steadily pressing against the invisibility of black culture. In The Afro-Hispanic Reader, editors Paulette A. Ramsay and Antonio D. Tillis, together with their contributors, present the writings of prominent and emerging Afro-Hispanic writers in a critical study of the work of this seldom-recognised body of scholars. Bilingual in its presentation in both Spanish and English, the reader provides a fulsome discussion on African Diasporic literature and cultural forms and a wider embrace of cultural production by writers in the Americas, the Caribbean and in Africa. The book is divided into four parts, the first two focusing on a specific country in the Caribbean, Central and Latin America, Mexico and Equatorial Guinea. An overview of the black presence is discussed together with the historical, political, and sociocultural issues that have emerged in each country. The work and contribution of an individual writer is also presented with questions for discussion to enable a deeper understanding of the writer's context and themes. Parts three and four present additional excerpts from black Hispanic writers showcasing the rich body of literature and further highlighting the enduring legacy of the African Diaspora. A welcomed addition to the field of literary criticism, this reader will significantly contribute to the increasing recognition and regeneration of Afro-Hispanism.