Oswaldo Estrada – författare

The rewritings of the Mexican colonia discussed in this book question a present reality of marginalities and inequality, of imposed political domination, and of hybrid subjectivities. In their examination of the novels, films, poetry, and chronicles produced in and outside of Mexico since 2000, the critics included in Colonial Itineraries of Contemporary Mexico produce new interpretations, alternative readings, and different angles of analysis that extend far beyond the theories of the new historical novel of the eighties and nineties, and well beyond the limits of the novel as re-creative genre.Through a transformative interdisciplinary lens, this book studies the ultra-contemporary chronicles of Carlos Monsiváis, the poetry of Carmen Boullosa and Luis Felipe Fabre, and the novels of Enrique Serna, Héctor de Mauleón, Mónica Lavín, and Pablo Soler Frost, among others. The book also pays close attention to a good sample of recent children's literature that revisit Mexico's colonia. It includes the transatlantic perspective of Spanish novelist Inma Chacón, and a detailed analysis of the strategies employed by Laura Esquivel in the creation of a best seller. Other chapters are devoted to the study of transnational film productions, a play by Flavio González Mello, and a set of novels set in the nineteenth-century colonia that problematize static notions of both personal and national identity within specific cultural palimpsests. Taken together, these incisive readings open broader conversations about Mexican coloniality as it continues well into the twenty-first century.

In twelve stories, Dreams in Times of War / Soñar en tiempos de guerra brilliantly fictionalizes the lives of Latinx immigrants in the United States. The stories explore themes of violence including toxic masculinity, domestic abuse, and (trans)gender discrimination but also the alternative communities they form that offer solidarity and hope. Readers will celebrate this unflinching but heartfelt look at diverse immigrant experiences in the twenty-first century United States.

Imposible pensar en la literatura mexicana actual sin tomar en cuenta la obra multifacética de Rosa Beltrán (México, 1960) Sus cuentos, novelas y ensayos forman parte fundamental del panorama literario del nuevo milenio, y también su presencia en los medios, sus entrevistas y reseñas, sus artículos en prensa, su labor como gestora cultural, o como crítica y fundadora de varias colecciones literarias. No es raro encontrar los cuentos y ensayos de Rosa Beltrán en antologías de variada índole, donde la autora pone en tela de juicio comportamientos heredados, la supuesta pasividad de las mujeres, las relaciones de pareja, el papel de los "hacedores" y el lugar de las "fabuladoras", o el poder transgresor de la lectura en un mundo hecho por y para los hombres. Para ella, leer y escribir desde el cuerpo ha sido y seguirá siendo una forma de construir nuestra identidad. Los ensayos críticos reunidos en Rosa Beltrán: afectos literarios y el arte de narrar descubre los universos literarios de quien cuestiona el devenir de la historia, calcificadas asignaciones de género y nuestro lugar en el mundo. Si la ficción, como sostiene la narradora de su novela Radicales libres (2021), tiene el poder de "hacernos hablar a través de historias que cuentan otros", la autora lo consigue una y otra vez con personajes que parecen reales y apelan a nuestras emociones desde inquietantes escenarios.

Analyzes literary and cultural representations of iconic Mexican women to explore how these reimaginings can undermine or perpetuate gender norms in contemporary Mexico.2019 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In Troubled Memories, Oswaldo Estrada traces the literary and cultural representations of several iconic Mexican women produced in the midst of neoliberalism, gender debates, and the widespread commodification of cultural memory. He examines recent fictionalizations of Malinche, Hernán Cortés's indigenous translator during the Conquest of Mexico; Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the famous Baroque intellectual of New Spain; Leona Vicario, a supporter of the Mexican War of Independence; the soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution; and Frida Kahlo, the tormented painter of the twentieth century. Long associated with gendered archetypes and symbols, these women have achieved mythical status in Mexican culture and continue to play a complex role in Mexican literature. Focusing on contemporary novels, plays, and chronicles in connection to films, television series, and corridos of the Mexican Revolution, Estrada interrogates how and why authors repeatedly recreate the lives of these historical women from contemporary perspectives, often generating hybrid narratives that fuse history, memory, and fiction. In so doing, he reveals the innovative and sometimes troublesome ways in which authors can challenge or perpetuate gendered conventions of writing women's lives.