“Acknowledgments” in “Latining America”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Latining America: Black-Brown Passages and the Coloring of Latino/a Studies came to fruition because my guiding forces, Jon Smith, Riché Richardson, and Nancy Grayson, willed it into being. I recognize, first and foremost, my deepest gratitude and appreciation to Jon, Riché, and Nancy for their bold vision, wholehearted commitment, promptness, and tremendous support.
To add to the pleasures of getting this text off the ground, the University of Georgia Press fortuitously rewarded me with two splendid interlocutors. I would like to duly credit and submit my overdue thanks to the anonymous reviewers solicited by the Press, who dedicated hours reading and laboriously thinking about this study, proffering substantive, cogent, and lightning-fast critiques that refined this work.
Particular thanks are due to Beth Snead at the University of Georgia Press for her ever-present resourcefulness, attentiveness, and editorial talents. Continued thanks to Erin Kirk New for her dedication to the production of handsome books. Super thanks, Susan Silver, for your expert eagle eye, meticulousness, and professionalism.
This project was also made possible by a Donald C. Gallup Fellowship in American Literature from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Many and most sincere thanks to the Beinecke staff for their unsparing assistance, especially to Leah Jehan for her archival know-how and more-than-generous willingness to help me with my endless requests.
For financial support that made this volume’s visual economy possible, I thank the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Duke University.
I have drawn on and revised parts of two previous publications for this writing. Parts of chapter 3 are gathered from “Playing with the Dark: Africana and Latino Literary Imaginations,” in A Companion to African American Studies, edited by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 543–67, used by permission of Wiley-Blackwell. Portions from chapter 4 and the epilogue build on “Central American–Americanness, Latino/a Studies, and the Global South,” Global South 5, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 137–52, and appear here courtesy of Indiana University Press.
I am incalculably indebted to José David Saldívar for being an enthusiastic advocate of this monograph from the beginning. José David is herewith proclaimed as this book’s padrino. The influence and presence of his phenomenal scholarship also permeates throughout these pages.
I have been indefatigably aided and abetted along the way by the superb and gracious Arturo Arias, whose inestimable efforts and contributions to Central American studies have opened the door wide in clear encouragement to future generations.
I gratefully acknowledge the camaraderie of my confreres in the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University for taking a chance on an unknown scholar, for institutionally “homing” me, and for nourishing me with a truly dynamic space. Infinite thank yous, respect, and admiration to Roberto Dainotto, Esther Gabara, Margaret Greer, Walter Mignolo, and Richard Rosa for enriching my workdays and for caring about this book nearly as much as I have.
A great and special homage to the wise and fabulous Antonio Viego for the spirited exchange of ideas, engaged support, music recommendations, and terrific inspiration.
I have been quite fortunate to count on the generous Karen Inouye, Sean Metzger, and Maritza Stanchich as early listeners and as an invaluable community of preliminary readers. I am obliged to them for shepherding me to the present stage of this endeavor and for being so detailed and rigorous.
It has been a privilege to work with Marc Schachter and to rely on him as a treasured friend. My gratitude to him is boundless for his kindness and benevolence, unflagging interest, and illuminating comments. He organically harvests, without exception, meaningful fruits of collaboration.
The supportive and wonderful friendship of Francisco-J. Hernández Adrián has meant the world to me: it underscores that writing is hardly accomplished in isolation. A standing ovation to him for being an unbroken source of intellectual stimulation, for furnishing me with his genius and inimitable wit, and for helping me through all my rough patches.
Platinum-level gratefulness to Anna Krylova, my critical titan, for her receptiveness and intellectual moxie, which contributed to the story of this book.
My profound word of thanks to the marvelous and peerless Izel Vargas for his exquisite oeuvre. His imaginative and intuitive eye helped me achieve what I visually wanted for this volume.
Enormous and heartfelt thanks to Holly Ackerman, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Michaeline A. Crichlow, Leslie Damasceno, Sarah Deutsch, Natalie Hartman, Pedro Lasch, Randall Love, J. Lorand Matory, Mark Anthony Neal, Diane Nelson, Charles Piot, Richard J. Powell, Charles Thompson, Priscilla Wald, Catherine Walsh, and Jenny Snead Williams. I send an equally lasting mention, too, to Bunmi Fatoye-Matory, Edna Goldstaub, and C. T. Woods.
I cherish the intellectual solidarity and motivation along the way from María DeGuzmán, Emilio del Valle Escalante, Jacinta Escudos, Licia Fiol-Matta, Jane Anna Gordon, Paget Henry, Norman Holland, Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo, Marvette Pérez, Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Faith Smith, and Susan Smulyan.
Lewis R. Gordon deserves countless praise for teaching and mentoring me well and for being an inexhaustible voice and pillar of support.
An extra special note of colossal thanks to the vibrant and extraordinary students, current and past, from whom I have also acquired knowledge and whose career trajectories dazzle and inspire me. I salute your immense intellect, your ethic of care, and your friendship. I owe much to Carina Barnett-Loro, Christopher Clayton, Michelle Crow, Rebecca Feinglos, Andrew George, Anna Gravier, Bronwyn Lewis, Joanna Lichter, Catherine Nelson, Andrea Piskora, Jacob Spinner, Camila Vignaud, and Dominique Villegas for revealing that teaching is relational, for giving life to this project, and for joining me in this journey.
A resounding shout-out to Phoebe Lawless and Scratch Baking in Durham for hooking me up with a clean “desk” each morning and setting the right harmonious tone for my working hours. Big thanks to Karen Caffrey, Curtis Cushman, and Hilary Ragin for their warmth, humor, impeccable artistry, and skillful expertise, which consistently accomplishes glorious microfoam high notes.
I extend a tip of the hat to the usual suspects, Austin Bouton, Kyle Cox, Alex Junho Kim, Sumer Mishue, Amanda Lee Morris, Serena Qiu, Courtney Satterfield, and Katie Weeks, for their talented awesomeness.
Thanks, a thousand times over, to friends across multiple geographies who provide joy and comfort: Jane Cruz, Ronaldo Cruz, Bruce Fuller, Wendy Fuller, Holly Kunkel, Nadine Nelson, and Debbie Zambetti.
A fond acknowledgment to the late Humberto Cruz for his gentle presence and selflessness during our formative years at Hampshire College.
For reminding me of the revolutionary power of words and the text beyond the academy, I honor the memory of the late Saúl Solórzano, U.S. Central American community activist and leader. My unceasing gratitude to him for recognizing my potential and for mentoring me. I wish that I could have personally presented a copy of this book, the fruits of my labor, to Saúl, made possible by his magnanimous spirit and foresight.
For the gifts of lifelong friendship, moral support, and all-purpose wisdom, my interminable gratitude and affection go to the exceptional duo Frank Augustine and Aliza Augustine.
I thank my earliest intellectual comrade, Gloria Chacón, for her steadfast sisterhood and for sustaining me emotionally, professionally, and spiritually since our days at Hampshire. Her joie de vivre, kindness, and perspicacity continue to nurture me.
The making of this investigation benefited immeasurably from the dexterity, tolerance, and beauty of Miguel Segovia, my super-smart and never-tiring sounding board. No thanks are enough, Miguel, for living and enlivening every phase of this enterprise with me, for giving up your time to forward the crafting of this book, for sharing your insightful interpretations, and for shaping my thinking in new ways.
I reserve a simple and loving thank you for the magnificent Eduardo Contreras, my secret and critical weapon. Thank you for your humbling goodness, patience, brilliance, creativity, curiosity, and faith in my work. None of these pages could have been conceptualized or written without you.
For years of companionship, I offer this perfect-bound tribute to Theodor W. Adorno, the feline love of my life, for pouncing on my keyboard and reminding me that there is time for writing and time for play.
Dedicated to my mother, Betsy Arias, my source of strength and aspiration. Dedicado a mi madre, Betsy Arias, fuente de fortaleza y razón de mi empeño.
We use cookies to analyze our traffic. Please decide if you are willing to accept cookies from our website. You can change this setting anytime in Privacy Settings.