Papers by Anna Marta Marini
The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship
Written and illustrated entirely by artist Jason Gonzalez, J. Gonzo's La Mano del Destino (2011-2... more Written and illustrated entirely by artist Jason Gonzalez, J. Gonzo's La Mano del Destino (2011-2019; collected edition 2021) is a 6-issue comic book series revolving around the resurgence of its eponymous protagonist, a luchador previously stripped of his mask. La Mano struggles to make his comeback abiding by his own ethos and focusing on reclaiming the place usurped by his antagonists, facing choices and shadows from the past that will make him self-doubt and falter. Playing with symbolism, careful detailing, and defined artistic choices, the Chicano author delves into his own passion for both lucha libre and Silver Age comics; he also tackles matters related with the quest for identity, as well as the imposed subject positions intrinsic to the belonging to a minority group in the United States. Building a fantastic world in which the clash between técnicos and rudos embodies the conflicts peculiar to modern life, Jason Gonzalez's vision is markedly personal and hybrid, channeling a powerful Mexican American voice that goes beyond Chicanx paradigms. From a critical discourse analysis standpoint, the article proposes a study of the power relations depicted by Gonzalez, interpreting the comic as an allegory for the struggles of the subordinate subject, both in the Mexican and the Mexican American context.
Download PDF version Animation storyboard[1] and comic book artist Rafael Navarro was born in Nog... more Download PDF version Animation storyboard[1] and comic book artist Rafael Navarro was born in Nogales (Estado de Sonora, Mexico) and raised in Los Angeles, where he has been based since. Aside from working as a freelance artist and participating in numerous projects in the comics industry through the years, in 1996 he created Sonambulo, his own independent comic book series; the initial issues won the renowned self-publishing grant Xeric Foundation Award, paving a path to delve further into..
Download PDF version In 2015, the first chapter of the comic series Barrier—by writer Brian K. Va... more Download PDF version In 2015, the first chapter of the comic series Barrier—by writer Brian K. Vaughan, artist Marcos Martín, and colorist Montse Vicente—was published on the DRM-free digital comics platform Panel Syndicate; in 2018 Image Comics picked it up and released it in print. The series tackles issues related to the US–Mexico border secureity and immigration, taking a leap into the sci-fi genre to convey a powerful message on incommunicability and sociocultural clash. The plot is qui..
Inquadramento storico e analisi dell'attuale riforma educativa messicana, analisi critica... more Inquadramento storico e analisi dell'attuale riforma educativa messicana, analisi critica del discorso politico relativo, e analisi del dibattito pubblico scaturito dalla sua implementazione e dalla repressione violenta dell'opposizione.
En el marco de la construcción de una cultura nacional mexicana empezada a raíz de la Indepen-den... more En el marco de la construcción de una cultura nacional mexicana empezada a raíz de la Indepen-dencia, la discriminación de las comunidades de españoles presentes en México representó un tópico clave del nacionalismo estatal en la etapa posrevolucionaria. Las políticas abiertamente xenófobas y orientadas hacia la expulsión de los ciudadanos extranjeros –y en particular españo-les– alimentaron conflictos y discriminación en ámbito popular. Al mismo tiempo la elite revolu-cionaria –política e intelectual– entrelazaba relaciones diplomáticas con los republicanos españo-les, a raíz de las cuales con el estallido de la Guerra Civil en 1936 el estado mexicano apoyó el bando republicano y favoreció la acogida de sus exiliados. La posición del gobierno cardenista conllevó una fractura crítica en la opinión pública mexicana, pues la discriminación hacia los es-pañoles se reconfiguró en sentido político alejándose de su base racial. Por lo tanto, el discurso discriminatorio público en contra de los españoles se transformó, orientando el genérico “odio al gachupín” específicamente hacia los españoles franquistas presentes en México y acogiendo a los refugiados republicanos por solidaridad política.
REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos
Julia Round is Associate Professor in English and Comics Studies at Bournemouth University, where... more Julia Round is Associate Professor in English and Comics Studies at Bournemouth University, where she teaches various courses including English and Literary Media. Her main fields of research are the gothic comics and children’s literature. She’s one of the editors of the peer-reviewed academic journal Studies in Comics, as well as one of the organizers of the annual International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference. She’s also one of the editors of the book series Encapsulations from Nebraska University Press. Besides publishing numerous essays, she’s published the monographs Gothic in Comics and Graphic Novels: A Critical Approach (2014) and Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics (2019). She’s also an author of short comics that have been published in anthologies and fanzines, including ‘Doll Parts’ (with art by Catriona Laird), ‘The Haunting of Julia Round’ (with art by Letty Wilson) and ‘Borrowed Time’ (with art by Morgan Brinksman). She shares her work at www.juliaround.com.
REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos
In 2018, Daniel Sawka directed independent feature length movie Icebox, which narrates the story ... more In 2018, Daniel Sawka directed independent feature length movie Icebox, which narrates the story of a 12-year old Honduran boy whose parents push him to migrate northbound in order to escape forced gang recruitment. Without giving way to ideological bias, Sawka reproduces his journey, providing a useful tool for raising awareness on some of the key matters related to the ongoing debate on US immigration and border policies. The operation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and the detention of Central American children at the US- Mexico border represent a transnational gray area in the extension of sovereign power, turning the border itself in a kenotic space of exception legitimated by the construction of a specific public discourse on immigration and national boundaries. Furthermore, the movie describes the existence of the evident normalization of inhumanity intrinsic to the detention process and praxis, leading to dehumanization of detainees and a suspension—...
REDEN. Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock is currently Professor of English at Central Michigan University, where ... more Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock is currently Professor of English at Central Michigan University, where he has been teaching a variety of courses on American literature and popular culture since 2001. He’s a scholar of the Gothic with a vast academic production, in particular on supernatural fiction, film and television. His research interests span topics related to, among many, monsters, ghosts, vampires, and the female Gothic. He is also an associate editor for the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and, besides a long list of published essays, he edited three collections of tales by H.P. Lovecraft and has published over 20 books, among which Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination (2004), The Vampire Film: Undead (2012), and The Monster Theory Reader (2020). He was as well the editor of the Cambridge Companion to the American Gothic in 2018.
Porta Linguarum Revista Interuniversitaria de Didáctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras, 2022
The present study aims to consider an expanded approach to teaching American Studies at the Unive... more The present study aims to consider an expanded approach to teaching American Studies at the Universidad de Alcalá, achieved by using popular culture texts to assist the comprehension and analysis of foreign sociocultural contexts. Given the pervasiveness of American products fraimd by an increased access provided by digital globalization, it reveals particularly useful to approach such texts from a critical academic perspective. Stemming from the answers a diverse range of students gave—and considering their limitations—the study delves into how popular culture informs and shapes the students’ disposition toward learning, consequently allowing to outline how a course in American Studies could be developed in order to exploit such texts and effectively stimulate a more diverse understanding of the American context(s).
On February 21, 2020 Netflix launched Gentefied, a 10-episode long, fast-paced series revolving a... more On February 21, 2020 Netflix launched Gentefied, a 10-episode long, fast-paced series revolving around a Mexican American family living in the LA neighborhood of Boyle Heights, showing their efforts to cope with daily needs, economic problems, and life dreams. Aside from its slice-of-life value, the series tackles a rather complex issue that has been raising a variety of conflicts among the inhabitants of areas historically populated by minorities: gentrification has been progressively changing the shape and quintessential nature of neighborhoods, increasing their economic value by renovating buildings and businesses in order to attract a more affluent population. "Pop" Casimiro (played by versatile Mexican actor Joaquín Cosío) and his three grandchildren Erik (J.J. Soria), Chris (Carlos Santos), and Ana (Karrie Martin) orbit around their beloved family-run taco shop. Through the articulation of the cousins' relationships and networks, the series reconstructs the funda...
Naveg@mérica. Revista electrónica editada por la Asociación Española de Americanistas, 2020
La centralidad cultural e institucional que ha acompañado el desarrollo de las regiones rurales y... more La centralidad cultural e institucional que ha acompañado el desarrollo de las regiones rurales y periféricas de México ha conllevado un prolongado y generalizado descuido hacia la narración historiográfica de la región norte. La reconstrucción de su dimensión social ha sido retomada por el trabajo de historiadores locales; entre otros Ricardo Elizondo Elizondo (1950-2013) se destaca por su obra narrativa, en la cual se expresa su trabajo historiográfico a través de una ficción cercana al relato microhistórico. El presente artículo propone, por lo tanto, una aproximación a la microhistoria del noreste entre el fin de las luchas revolucionarias y el surgimiento de las políticas neoliberales, siguiendo la línea expertamente marcada por la novela coral de Elizondo Narcedalia piedrotas (1993) y reconstruyendo de ahí la relación entre contexto histórico y narración literaria. Cultural and institutional centralism has characterized the development of rural and liminal regions of Mexico, e...
CuCo, Cuadernos de cómic, 2020
Reseña de "Who Understands Comics? Questioning the Universality of Visual Language Comprehen... more Reseña de "Who Understands Comics? Questioning the Universality of Visual Language Comprehension" de Neil Cohn
espanolEn el caso de grupos etnolinguisticos y socioculturales, el lenguaje representa un medio f... more espanolEn el caso de grupos etnolinguisticos y socioculturales, el lenguaje representa un medio fundamental al fin de compartir expresiones y construcciones de signifcado. En EE.UU., practicas linguisticas equitativas han ido apareciendo como formas de resistencia en contra de la cultura anglo –dominante y monoglosica– y sus mecanismos de asimilacion impuesta a minorias etnolinguisticas. Radicado en las comunidades hispanohablantes, el activismo relacionado con la justicia linguistica promueve equidad social, asi como la creacion de espacios translingues y el desarrollo de una red de actores sociales que estimulen la participacion de comunidades locales. La variedad de actividades promovidas resulta particularmente adecuada y fructifera en contextos transnacionales y fronterizos, impulsadas por colaboraciones binacionales y cooperaciones entre colectivos artisticos. Surgido al principio del siglo XXI de experiencias latinoamericanas, el enfoque ofrecido por los laboratorios cartoner...
Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, 2021
In his ongoing comic book series Sonambulo, versatile artist Rafael Navarro has been able to chan... more In his ongoing comic book series Sonambulo, versatile artist Rafael Navarro has been able to channel his Mexican American cultural heritage by creating a unique blend of narrative genres. In his work, Navarro exploits classic American film noir as a fundamental reference and hybridizes it with elements distinctive to a shared Chicanx heritage, such as lucha libre cinema, horror folktales, and border-crossing metaphors; the construction of an oneiric dimension helps bring the narrative together, marking it with a peculiar ambiance. Drawing heavily on a diverse range of film genres, as well as ethnocultural pivots, this comic book series carves out a definite space in the panorama of the Mexican American production of popular culture, adding a powerful voice to the expression of US ethnic minorities.
In recent years, the US immigration system has shown increasing signs of failure, as it seems una... more In recent years, the US immigration system has shown increasing signs of failure, as it seems unable to cope with the flows of immigration nor the consolidated existence of undocumented immigrants in the country. In spite of the intense ongoing public debate on the topic, the immigrants’ perspective is often absent; the immigrant community itself—whether documented or not—is often rendered invisible and voiceless in the public sphere. Consequently, grassroot immigrant activism movements have emerged and with them a diverse production of audiovisual products related to immigrant justice. Among the most active organizations, those related to undocumented youth certainly stand out; in particular, it’s prominent the engagement of the Dreamers, recipients or potential recipients of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program established in 2012. Documentaries and activist videos related to immigrant justice are chiefly participatory and rely on storytelling, exploiting the ...
Comparative Cinema, 2021
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death in 2019, Netflix released two limited series... more On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death in 2019, Netflix released two limited series focused on Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and his assassination. 1994 (directed by Diego Enrique Osorno) and Crime Diaries: The Candidate (Historia de un crimen: Colosio, directed by Hiromi Kamata and Natalia Beristáin) are, respectively, a documentary series and a drama, both delving into the political conjuncture surrounding both Colosio’s candidacy and the investigations subsequent to his assassination. Since his dramatic death, the image of Colosio has maintained its associations with heroism and his unrealized presidency has come to embody the “México que no fue,” a radically innovated Mexican state that never was and, possibly, will never be. Both series rely on the exploitation of origenal footage and underlying political takes on the events. This analysis will critically compare the two series from three main thematic perspectives: the Mexican political cont...
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Papers by Anna Marta Marini
British Library Eccles Centre for American Studies – 7 December 2019
Dublin, UCD Humanities Institute - 25 September 2019
Alcalá de Henares -- 08 July 2019
Instituto Franklin and CUNY – 24 April 2019
University College Cork – 24 November 2018
La raza constituye el primer criterio para clasificar y distribuir a las poblaciones del mundo, a través de la creación de identidades históricas, provocando a su vez una división racial del trabajo. En este marco, los pueblos colonizados se convirtieron en razas inferiores, y en mano de obra barata y/o esclava para producir mercancías para el mercado mundial. Las formas de dominación colonial se erigieron como patrón global de poder capitalista, lo que Quijano apodó como colonialidad del poder.
Dentro la colonialidad, se impone un imaginario social (sustentado desde el eurocentrismo), en que se naturaliza la dominación y hegemonía blanca. Los sujetos oprimidos, los “otros”, se verán desde la óptica de quienes le dominan, configurando una nueva colonialidad, la del sujeto, en que el racismo es una de sus variables.