Mapping the New Latinx Identity: How Native Beliefs and Magic Realism in Latinx Literature and Culture Extrapolate the Need to Develop One's Identity Through the Retention of Native Origins

Authors

Megan Hansen, Utah State UniversityFollow

Files

Description

The disparity between the yearning to belong to a society and the inability to find acceptance within it plagues Latinx immigrants as they struggle to establish a balance between their culture of origin and the need for assimilation in the United States. A partial formation of identity in both spaces leaves Latinx immigrants torn between assimilation or isolation, creating internal conflict as they strive to locate a space to belong. Using the theme of folk religion under the scope of magic realism as the canvas, Latinx authors, such as Ernesto Quiñónez in Changó´s Fire and Taína, Érika Sánchez in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Sandra Cisneros in The House on Mango Street, and Roberto Fernández in “Raining Backwards”, paint a vivid picture of the necessity to maintain familiarity with national and religious origins during assimilation. This analysis seeks to establish the need that Latinx immigrants have to create a new space where both assimilation into the new culture and conservation of the old can coexist to develop an amalgamated identity.

Publication Date

12-9-2021

City

Logan, UT

Keywords

Latinx immigrants, acceptance, identity, folk religion

Disciplines

Latin American Languages and Societies | Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature

Recommended Citation

Hansen, Megan, "Mapping the New Latinx Identity: How Native Beliefs and Magic Realism in Latinx Literature and Culture Extrapolate the Need to Develop One's Identity Through the Retention of Native Origins" (2021). Fall Student Research Symposium 2021. 78.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/fsrs2021/78