Technofuturos offers a critical and innovative exploration of the forms of representation found in Latina/o studies. The editors, Nancy Raquel Mirabal and Agustin La-Montes, challenge conventional notions of Latina/o identities, histories, and cultures by historicizing and differentiating the multiple discourses of Latinidad. The essays examine the temporality and spatiality of socio-historical processes, the multiple and varied constellations of power, and the complicated geographies of desire. By analyzing the discursive, performative, and aesthetic dimensions of knowledge, this book contests and reconstructs Latina/o studies. Technofuturos is a captivating and sophisticated read that will appeal to scholars of Latina/o studies and those interested in postcolonial critique.

Technofuturos offers a critical and innovative exploration of the forms of representation found in Latina/o studies. The editors, Nancy Raquel Mirabal and Agustin Lao-Montes, challenge conventional notions of Latina/o identities, histories, and cultures by historicizing and differentiating the multiple discourses of Latinidad. The essays examine the temporality and spatiality of socio-historical processes, the multiple and varied constellations of power, and the complicated geographies of desire. By analyzing the discursive, performative, and aesthetic dimensions of knowledge, this book contests and reconstructs Latina/o studies. Technofuturos is a captivating and sophisticated read that will appeal to scholars of Latina/o studies and those interested in postcolonial critique.

Central Americans are one of the largest Latino population groups in the United States. Yet, Arturo Arias argues, the cultural production of Central Americans remains little known to North Americans.
In "Taking Their Word," Arias complicates notions of the cultural production of Central America, from Mexico in the North to Panama in the South. He charts the literature of Central America's liberation struggles of the 1970s and 1980s, its transformation after peace treaties were signed, the emergence of a new Maya literature that decenters Latin American literature written in Spanish, and the rise and fall of "testimonio," Arias demonstrates that Central America and its literature are marked by an indigenousness that has never before been fully theorized or critically grasped. Never one to avoid controversy, Arias proffers his views of how the immigration of Central Americans to North America has changed the cultural topography of both zones.
With this groundbreaking work, Arias establishes the importance of Central American literature and provides a frame for future studies of the region's culture.
Arturo Arias is director of Latin American studies at the University of Redlands. He is the author of six novels in Spanish and editor of "The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy" (Minnesota, 2001).

Guatemalan indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchu first came to international prominence following the 1983 publication of her memoir, I, Rigoberta Menchu, which chronicled in compelling detail the violence and misery that she and her people suffered during her country's brutal civil war. The book focused world attention on Guatemala and led to her being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. In 1999, a book by David Stoll challenged the veracity of key details in Menchu's account, generating a storm of controversy. Journalists and scholars squared off regarding whether Menchu had lied about her past and, if so, what that would mean about the larger truths revealed in her book.

In The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy, Arturo Arias has assembled a casebook that offers a balanced perspective on the debate. The first section of this volume collects the primary documents -- newspaper articles, interviews, and official statements -- in which the debate raged, many translated into English for the first time. In the second section, a distinguished group of international scholars assesses the political, historical, and cultural contexts of the debate, and considers its implications for such issues as the "culture wars", historical truth, and the politics of memory. Also included is a new essay by David Stoll in which he responds to his critics.

"The Other Latinos" addresses an important topic: the presence in the United States of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants from countries other than Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Focusing on the Andes, Central America, and Brazil, the book brings together essays by a number of accomplished scholars.

Michael Jones-Correa's chapter is a lucid study of the complex issues in posing "established" and "other," and "old" and "new" in the discussion of Latino immigrant groups. Helen B. Marrow follows with general observations that bring out the many facets of race, ethnicity, and identity. Claret Vargas analyzes the poetry of Eduardo Mitre, followed by Edmundo Paz Soldan's reflections on Bolivians' "obsessive signs of identity." Nestor Rodriguez discusses the tensions between Mexican and Central American immigrants, while Arturo Arias's piece on Central Americans moves brilliantly between the literary (and the cinematic), the historical, and the material. Four Brazilian chapters complete the work.

The editors hope that this introductory work will inspire others to continue these initial inquiries so as to construct a more complete understanding of the realities of Latin American migration into the United States.