Comparing U.S. Latinx and African American Literature - Research Paper

Introduction

This study will use the texts Introduction: The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature by Suzanne Bost and Frances R. Aparicio and Gates Talking Books by Henry Louis Gates and Valerie Smith, which are U.S. Latinx Literature and African American literature respectively. The two texts will be used to carry out a comparative analysis that will emphasize the origin and development of the literature. This study aims to explore two forms of literature, Latina and African American, to discuss the relationship between language and identity.

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The African American literature's origin can be traced back in the 1700s during the era of Enlightenment, and the peculiar institutions of slavery (Gates and Smith 33). The art was used in the struggle to fight against black slavery and oppression at this time, black literacy was criticized, and even the authors declined opportunities to showcase their work or pursue literature-related careers. Len Deutsch, a black scholar, was rejected from writing a doctoral dissertation with the professor arguing that the dissertation calls for summing-up world thoughts and materials which they though Negros were incapable of. The first black author was James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, who wrote an autobiography which largely embarked on a thematic plot on slavery and ethnic racism (Gates and Smith 34). A piece of his autobiography explains how his master used to read prayers from a book to the ship's crew every Sabbath, and when the master was through, the author could pick it, but he was always disappointed. After all, he could not even get a chance to publish one, and no one could believe in his art because black people were despised. However, Gronniosaw's work demonstrated that people with African descent possessed the capability and all requisites in creating literature, not to mention that they were full and equal, like other members of the community who could indeed write. Gronniosaw's sentiments spurred the other five ex-slave authors across America and England to commence their process of writing (Gates and Smith 34). The authors' work was duped the talking books since it carried similitudes with Gronniosaw's autobiography, including themes and structures adding content to the slave narrative genre.

U.S. Latina literature's origin was as a result of cross-border interactions resulting in intermixture of culture, language, words, and identities across America and beyond. This brings to attention that the contributors to this art are from diverse ethnic groupings and at large from different nations like Western Europe, Russia, North America, and Australia, among others demonstrating the breadth of Latina literacy at the global level (Bost and Aparicio 1). The Hispanic and Latino terminologies that identify the literature originated from the U.S and were to distinguish the persons from Latin American descent. Some of the characteristics of this group of people are have adopted the European lifestyle. Still, they were generally formed from the mixture of indigenous and African people, meaning that they as a result of the racial and cultural mixture. The term Hispanic was initially popular and formulated by the U.S. government for the national census. However, it faced some degree of resistance because it confused where it was to identify the racial whites but sounded Spanish. Latin preferably received acceptance since it precisely differentiated European from the Latino Americans. The term Latina has been revised severally to consider gender inclusion, which brings together all nationalities across the U.S (Garcia 6). Looking at Latinos nationality, they term themselves as U.S. Americans, a word that does not exist in English, which sometimes means the same as American. Moreover, using terms as U.S. citizen to refer to a group of unidentified Latinos in the U.S., is still not a better way of seeing to them since not all Latinos are U.S. immigrants, some are from Mexico and other Asian countries who found themselves in the U.S. as a result of land annexation and colonialization. For inclusion, Latinos can refer people who live in the U.S., those who move to other countries and back to the U.S. or those who migrated to other countries permanently but are still influenced the U.S. culture and lifestyle (Bost and Aparicio 2). While the U.S. Latinas are identifying themselves, they refer to their nationality, sub-national groupings to acquire ethnical solidarity and inclusion.

The Latina literature constitutes diverse identities, locations, cultural forms, historical perceptions, and traditions; thus, its analysis requires bringing these constituents together. Latina as an identity is in a broader sense inclusive of all gender and nations of origin, including Central and South America, characterized by political and intellectual friction (Bost and Aparicio 2). Latina Literature is one of the fast-growing literary studies which is changing dramatically conjointly with the demographics of the population growth and immigration. The history of Latina literature is unique and has lots of distinctions from others like African American literature since it was a product of colonialization and cultural mixture. The events happened way back in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries when most of the Latin American nation's achievement of independence and Latin literature continued to flourish even after the nineteenth century during the imperialism until date. The reach and timing of the U.S. imperialism across the American land was different and resulted in rising colonial realities, politically isolated nations such as Cuba, and conquered territories in Latin America despite these nations having independent and healthy economies. The growth of Latina identities combined the transnational force, which spurred resistance against imperialism, which emerged at different historical moments for different groupings, which happened between the nineteenth-century and 1960s (Bost and Aparicio 3). The entries and development of literary revolve around the historical resistance era, where each Latina group joined the movement in their own distinct time depending on their locations. In some regions like the South and Central America, writers contextualized the historical aspects and the impacts of the U.S. imperialism on Latin America. The writers' work embarked on the U.S. dictatorship and authoritarian regimes, which were characterized by genocides, civil wars, and economic marginalization of indigenous populations.

Unlike the Latin literature, which was a result of colonialism and immigration, African American literacy in the eighteenth century had a direct correlation between literacy and quest for freedom, meaning that the art was used as a channel to demonstrate and resist the oppressive regime. In 1739 before the American Revolution, for example, the rise of Stono Rebellion among the African slaves in the colonies where legislators implemented a law prohibiting two literacy and termed them as unlawful, the mastery of writing and the mastery of drum (Gates and Smith 35). Flouting this law was punishable where one could be fined a sum of one hundred pound money, and therefore was meant to cover the upcoming writers. The rule against drumming was emphasized prohibiting the gathering and wandering of Negroes and other slaves. Carrying and possession of wooden weapons, horns, drums, and other loud instruments was unlawful regardless of their purpose. The masters who shall permit their slaves to carry this equipment was to forfeit penalty as well (Gates and Smith 35). The slaves in the Stono Rebellion leveraged the two forms of literacy; English and black vernacular, which played a vital role in the resistance.

Latino literature is considered to be one of the impacts of the U.S. identity movement from the 1960s, which saw numerous literary publications on multiculturalism and ethnic studies in the 1980s with more milestones achieved until the present date (Bost and Aparicio 4). The movement saw a literary boom of writers who are out spacing the work of writers that did not possess fetishized traits like colored and attractive book covers. Latino literature has since in the ninetieth century been working to trace the literary critics that arose during the colonialism period when Spain lost control of America, and the U.S. took over Spain colonies controlling the lands. The recovery projects of this kind of history have availed the information that has been lost because of a lack of readership, thus increasing the popularity of the Latina literature. The literature available before the 1960s failed to reach the set federal standards as well as the aesthetic desires of the publishers, thus leveraging on the Latino literature boom to rewrite it (Bost and Aparicio 4). The recovery projects of texts introduced the concept of translation since many of the readers in the nineteenth century had started to acquire the preference and taste for Spanish. Latina literature has posed the language challenge where some writers fall in a dilemma on whether to publish their work in English or Spanish for U.S. readers. The most fortunate writers can use bilingual texts in their work while others find it worth publishing in the English language. However, there are still benefits of incorporating Spanish in their work since it is a tool of creating a social identity. Moreover, Spanish included more indigenous words, including British words in American history. We must also consider the fact that some writers grew up speaking English as their first language since the colonial education system thus are inconvenienced while using other languages. During this time, the findings directed to publishing books were conditioned in that they were only to be published in the English language. Still, later after the discovery of increased Spanish readership in the U.S. and globally, the funding was as well directed to the translation of many writers' work. These political developments and historical perspectives impacted Latina literature, becoming a multilingual field.

On the other hand, the African American has received recognition with some authors like Toni Marrison receiving a noble prize for literature 220 years after Wheatley's work was rejected (Gates and Smith 33). African American literature has had massive popularity due to the quality and quantity of the writers' work. The number of prizes won in the past thirty years has increased dramatically as well as the number of female writers, an indication that African American literature has been embraced across the world. Since 1990 a total number of four black authors have been listed as the best-seller list of the New York Times, showing that the black literature readership has flourished crossing all racial borders (Gates and Smith 34). Black literature in higher education institutions has become a mandatory subject in English departments, departments of American studies, African American studies, and women's studies. The African American literature has been accepted in a political viewpoint, for example, during the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993 Maya Angelou delivered a poem, the Barrack Obama's inauguration in 2009 and Rita Dove was appointed twice as the Poet Laureate of the United States (Gates and Smith 34). The African American literature is evident with the work of Barack Obama, Dreams from my Father, which emphasized the African setting, and also I was here. Still, I disappeared by Wesley Brown (Miller 391). These events are a clear indication of the pervasive presence of African American literature in the United States and across the borders. The development and globalization of hip hop music genre in the past three decades, which is said to be the dominant form of music in America, has not only led to the establishment of spoken art movements but...