Diffracting the North - by Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda & Analays Álvarez Hernández & Zaira Zarza (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The first collection on the lives of Latinx Canadian visual arts creators.

Diffracting the North is the first book to collect and share the experiences and material realities of Latinx Canadian creators of film, media, and visual arts. Bringing together scholars, filmmakers, curators, and artists from a range of Latin American backgrounds, this publication is a forthright and practitioner-driven reflection on the circumstances of producing and disseminating work in a country of predominantly anglophone and francophone environments.

Contributors to the volume explore topics including how Latinx Canadian identity is constructed, negotiated, and expressed, as well as the networks and solidarities that shape Latinx Canadian experiences. These connections include intergenerational mentorships, cross-cultural alliances, and collaborations with Indigenous and other marginalized communities within racialized and gendered frameworks. This volume's contributions also demonstrate strategies of allyship, from learning with Indigenous artists to fostering hemispheric solidarity across feminist and migrant collectives. Moreover, this book highlights how Latinx Canadian art and film productions and experiences both challenge and enrich Canada's cultural landscape by intervening in dominant creative, academic, and curatorial practices. It recovers overlooked cultural histories through a series of analytical essays, interviews with artists and curators, and firsthand accounts of artistic practices, all with a focus on cultural efforts to build community.

Amplifying the voices of Latinx Canadians and their communities and filling a critical gap in scholarship, Diffracting the North showcases the significance of Latin American diasporas within Canadian cultural contexts.

Review Quotes

"Diffracting the North brings a fresh, contemporary, and intersectional perspective to a strong compendium of Latinx Canadian creative practice and experience. The writing is accessible, which is commendable and accords with the ethos of the volume. It is enjoyable to hear the candid and honest accounts of the lives of the contributors. This work will be useful to a range of fields, especially to anyone researching the lived experiences of Latinx Canadian artists, filmmakers, educators, and other professionals in the cultural sector."-- "Migueltzinta C. Solas, University of Lethbridge/Iniskim"

"Diffracting the North is the first book to examine Latinx Canadian arts and media and is an original and necessary publication. It challenges previous assumptions about Latinx communities in diaspora, and particularly challenges notions of how Latinx Canadian cultural productions are lived and experienced in Canada and how they engage with Indigeneity. Without a doubt, this is a groundbreaking multi-disciplinary project that spans forms of artistic and media production, curatorial practices, and cultural studies, without neglecting crucial contextual, socio-political issues pertaining to what it means to be Latinx in diaspora, and to what it means to live and create in Canada."-- "Alessandra Santos, University of British Columbia"

About the Author

Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda is associate professor in the School of Interactive Art and Technology at Simon Fraser University. Analays Álvarez Hernández is associate professor in the Department of Art History, Cinema, and Audiovisual Media at the University of Montréal. Zaira Zarza is assistant professor in the Department of Art History, Cinema, and Audiovisual Media at the University of Montréal.