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1. The Intersection of Poetry and U.S.-Mexican Border Affairs in Natalie Scenters-Zapico’s “Lima :: Limón”

Author:
Gabriel Panuco-Mercado
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Natalie Scenters-Zapico is a poet from the United States-Mexico border towns of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Her work, like her origin, is about borders. In her debut collection, The Verging Cities, Scenters-Zapico explores immigration, marriage, and femicide in the realm of border culture and identity [1]. She expands these themes in her second collection, Lima :: Limón, where she creates a scathing depiction of the brutal machismo that conditions a Mexican woman’s experience. Lima :: Limon is especially personal to Scenters-Zapico. Her lyrical passages draw from the music of her childhood. In an age where distorted narratives about immigration lead to family separation and threaten asylum seekers, Lima :: Limon’s intimacy is especially critical. Unlike the efficacy of border policy or trade negotiations, Scenters-Zapico’s personal narrative is undeniable—as are the harrowing experiences of millions of Mexican women.
Topic:
Immigration, Women, Borders, and Literature
Political Geography:
Central America, North America, Mexico, and United States of America

2. Representations of Power in Mayombe: “Men Will Be Prisoners of the Structures They Will Have Created”

Author:
Carolina Bezerra Machado
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
The novel Mayombe, in which the character “Milagre” assumes the first person of the narrative, is fundamental to rethink the process of creating the state in Angola, based on the internal political disputes that still occurred during the colonial period and that extended into post-independence. The controversies about Angolan nationalism and identity were woven from different interests among the groups that disputed political power, which in their way, supported on the disqualification of others, proclaimed themselves as genuinely Angolan. The policy of favoritism, based on privileges for the closest ones, cases of corruption, ideological differences, and regional disputes that will characterize post-independence in Angola, were also already present in the anti-colonial struggle, despite of there seeming to be plenty of time available to fix them and maintain the dream of a more egalitarian and democratic society. Written during the guerrilla war, but published only in 1980, a period in which there was a political discourse of national mobilization, from the defense of the construction of a “New Man”, the book also brings an enriching debate about the ethnic and racial fissures that existed within the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA, in portuguese), as well as in Angolan society. As the proposal here is to address the power relations and micro-powers that have been built between the state and the Angolan society in the post-independence through the reading of Mayombe, it is valid to return to these issues. It is noted how much ethnic and racial tensions remained in the political arena after the country’s independence and contributed, in a significant way, to the political structuring of Angola, guided by the MPLA, which sought to detach itself from these debates, diminishing them and treating them on the margins. After all, the tension surrounding this discourse contributed to the political escalation among nationalist movements and to the mobilization for civil war, which is inseparable from the process of formation of the post-colonial Angolan state.
Topic:
Nationalism, Post Colonialism, Emerging States, and Literature
Political Geography:
Africa, Brazil, and Angola