AfroChicanx Digital Humanities:

Memories, Narratives, and Oppositional Consciousness of Black Diaspora

This project examines the identities, experiences, and histories of people of African descent within Mexican and Chicanx communities as they constitute and shape the various national and ethnic identities that comprise Latinidad. We are particularly interested in the genesis of “Afro-Mexican'' and “Afro-Chicanx” identities in the United States. Despite the long presence of African/Black people in the continent, fields like Latinx and Chicanx Studies have not fully attuned themselves to the specificities of African/Black experiences and histories.

Research Questions

  • How do Afro-Mexican and Afro-Chicanx communities disrupt, navigate, and negotiate colonial-capitalist configurations in Mexico and the United States to generate greater awareness of the connective materials and practices that these communities share?

  • How do individuals who occupy these identities build shared identities that may be embraced across international and political borders?

  • What are the real and imagined “lived differences” between these identities and expressions?

  • How does our understanding of these identities help us to better understand Latino Humanities Studies?

  • What are the political and social problems and opportunities facing individuals who embrace these lived identities?

Principal Investigators

  • Doris E. Careaga Coleman

    Assistant Professor, Chicana & Chicano Studies, University of New Mexico

  • Michelle Téllez

    Associate Professor, Mexican American Studies, University of Arizona

  • Micaela J. Díaz-Sánchez

    Assistant Professor Chicana and Chicano Studies and Feminist Studies, University of California Santa Barbara

Investigators

  • Irene Vásquez

    Founding chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department and Director of Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, University of New Mexico

Fellows

  • Gustavo Garcia

    Mexican and Chicana/o Indigeneities, Migration, and (De) Coloniality, University of New Mexico

  • Maria Sanchez

    Psychology, Latinx Populations, and Afro Latinx Studies, Texas Tech University

  • Natalia M. Toscano

    Chicana/o/x Transnational Studies and Chicana Feminist Perspectives, University of New Mexico

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