Teorizando las literaturas indígenas contemporáneas ed. by Emilio del Valle Escalante (review)

Teorizando las literaturas indígenas contemporáneas is a collection of critical essays edited by Emilio del Valle Escalante, one of the leading academics working on Maya literature today. It comprises eight pieces focused on contemporary Indigenous literatures in Latin America (Mapuche, Wayuu, Kichwa, Nahua, Maya Yukatec, Guaraní-Kaiowá, Ixil, and K’iche’), each emerging from a specific regional context (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and Guatemala). With chapters in both English and Spanish, the book represents the culmination of a special dossier on Indigenous literatures published in 2013 through North Carolina State University’s journal A Contracorriente. The collection is a welcome addition to the study of Indigenous literatures in the Americas, as it brings them under a lens that is broad enough to allow for regional difference and specific enough to permit arriving at an understanding of Indigenous literature in its context. Specifically, the 1990s serve as a point of departure, observing the rise of Indigenous social movements, which have made their mark and demand that issues of citizenship, inclusion, and autonomy be reconsidered. This sets the stage for a better understanding of the emergence and visibilization of this literature in or against Latin America.

The introduction by del Valle Escalante frames the dossier’s goals and objectives, its critical considerations, and outlines each of the chapters. He also provides a concise but comprehensive overview of Indigenous literatures in Latin America that emphasizes the importance of political, social and cultural contexts, as well as major historical shifts in the development of these literatures. His introduction deftly lays out some of the major challenges that writers of Indigenous literatures face, and identifies some of the tasks ahead for readers and critics of this cultural production. These tasks range from understanding Indigenous cultural production through its own particular context(s) and as part of a long-standing tradition, to developing ways of thinking about it that resist deterritorialization and emphasize the importance of knowledge produced within.

Of two sections, the first details the historical development of a particular contemporary Indigenous literature in its specific context, and the second presents in depth-analyses of particular works. The first section is an excellent starting point for those new to the field of Indigenous literatures, as it outlines the emergence of contemporary literary traditions in Chile, Peru and Colombia. Contributors include Mapuche poet Maribel Curriao, and literary critics Ulises Juan Zevallos Aguilar and Miguel Rocha Vivas. While the 1990s figure prominently as a key decade in the development of these literary productions, reflecting the increased mobilization of Indigenous groups and recognition of cultural and political rights of Indigenous people on the world stage, the authors trace these literatures further back, understanding Indigenous literature not as a new phenomenon but an updated tradition. Moreover, the authors discuss the development of these literatures alongside significant political, social, and cultural events, showing that they are part of a broader movement toward self-representation and renewed ways of participating in the nation-state.

The second group of essays offers solid analyses that reflect current debates and approaches on the subject. To me, this section is where the book really delivers, and, incidentally, has some of the collection’s stand-out pieces: Arturo Arias’ “Indigenous Women at War: Discourses on Revolutionary Combat,” Paul Worley’s “U páajtalil maaya ko’olel: Briceida Cuevas Cob’s Je’bix k’in and the Rights of Maya Women,” and Adam W. Coon’s “El rescoldo del tlicuil: Visceral Resistance and Generational Tension Among Contemporary Nahua Authors.” These papers are of note because their particular approaches are representative of the most up-to-date critical inquiries into the subject, favoring Indigenous voices or perspectives, and a decolonial shift that comes from within.

Arias identifies the emergence of an “indigenous discursivity of the war” (121) in the testimonials of Ixil and K’ich’e women ex-combatants, published in a book...