Description
Book SynopsisUncovers an important, otherwise unrecognized century-long archive of literature and performance that reveals Cuban America as a space of overlapping Cuban and African diasporic experiences.
Trade ReviewUnbecoming Blacknessis a stunning tour de force: it serves as a call for those critically engaged in the African diaspora work with a focus on Latin America to return to the archive and to study the wealth of information that remains there, unnoticed....Lopez forces readers to rethink notions of blackness so that these ideas are specific to place, yet also to consider the fluidity of these discourses in relation to physical movement and their reestablishment in new locations. His study also demands fluent interdisciplinarity: Lopez analyzes texts, photographs, sound recordings, and film, all of which challenge readers to expand beyond their comfort zone as scholars. This text is an extraordinary addition to Cuban studies, Cuban American studies, US Latina/o and Latin American studies, American studies, African American studies, and African diasporic studies. -- Vanessa K. Valdes * MELUS: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States *
Unbecoming Blackness promises to make a transformative impact on Cuban American Literary Studies; it will certainly put López on the map as one of the fields most important and groundbreaking scholars. -- Ricardo Ortiz,author of Cultural Erotics in Cuban America
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1 Alberto O'Farrill: A Negrito in Harlem 2 Re/Citing Eusebia Cosme3 Supplementary Careers, Boricua Identifications4 Around 1979: Mariel, McDuffie, and the Afterlives of Antonio 5 Cosa de Blancos: Cuban American Whiteness and the Afro-Cuban-Occupied House Conclusion: "Write the Word Black Twice"Notes Index About the Author
