Project MUSE®: Diálogo - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Diálogo.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 17 (2014) through current issueLatest Articles: DiálogoTWOProject MUSE®Diálogo2471-10391090-4972Latest articles in Diálogo. Feed provided by Project MUSE®About the Artist: Sandy Rodriguez
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986525
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Sandy Rodriguez is a Los Angeles–based Chicana artist and researcher who works in drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation. Her art has long centered the culture, politics, and histories of California, the Southwestern United States, and Mexico. After a long career in museum education at the Getty Museum, she turned to artmaking full time in 2017. The following year, she launched the ongoing map series, Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón, which presents critical cartographies of the Southwest and beyond, drawing inspiration from colonial Mexican manuscripts, especially the sixteenth-century codices informed by Indigenous survivors of the Conquest and created by their descendants. Rodriguez produces her own large-scale
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallAbout the Artist: Sandy Rodriguez2026-03-21text/htmlen-USAbout the Artist: Sandy Rodriguez2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®224922026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21From the Guest Thematic Editors: Belonging Afuera—Undisciplining and (Re)Creating the Latinx Outdoors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986526
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While it is true that political, social, and economic forces have shaped who can be out of doors, at what times, in what capacities, and at what costs to their lives, it is also the case that people imagined to exist outside only as exploited laborers or romanticized symbols have, in fact, lived large and impactful lives outdoors.Those of us who are made to unbelong experience the violence of exclusion everywhere. My unbelonging to the university comes from the structures of colonialism and racism that continue to shape all our institutions to date—the nation, our schools, our justice system. They are ingrained in the fabric of our society; therefore, to change, we need more than inclusion and diversity; we need
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallFrom the Guest Thematic Editors: Belonging Afuera—Undisciplining and (Re)Creating the Latinx Outdoors2026-03-21text/htmlen-USFrom the Guest Thematic Editors: Belonging Afuera—Undisciplining and (Re)Creating the Latinx Outdoors2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®789212026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21A Place to Get Away: Researching the Archival Whispers of Latinx Environmental History
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986527
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On almost any warm and sunny day in Southern California, you can drive twenty-five miles from downtown Los Angeles to Cabrillo Beach, where you will find Latinx families and groups enjoying picnics, youths kicking a soccer ball in the sand, friends and families fishing on the jetty, couples holding hands, and children splashing in the waves (see fig. 1).1 The smell of carne asada on the grill wafts through the air as you walk by the picnic tables. Beach visitors speak in a mixture of Spanish and English. While there are also white, Black, and Asian beachgoers, most of the groups of people at this beach are Latinx. This is likely because Cabrillo Beach has become an outdoor public gathering place for the residents
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallA Place to Get Away: Researching the Archival Whispers of Latinx Environmental History2026-03-21text/htmlen-USA Place to Get Away: Researching the Archival Whispers of Latinx Environmental History2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®768602026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Homies Who Hike: An Interview on How Susana Cruz Promotes Nature for BIPOC Communities
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986528
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Susana Cruz, a Chicana naturalist in the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) area in Texas, dedicates her time to teaching individuals about the value of spending time with Mother Nature. Cruz created the social media handle @ChicanainNature to raise awareness for the activities she creates to provide “opportunities for BIPOC communities to learn about and promote enjoyment of the outdoors! Discover what’s around you in DFW, affordably,” as her Instagram biography states. This description succinctly communicates Cruz’s focus on the BIPOC community, her local area, and affordable experiences. In other words, her work emphasizes access. Priscilla Solis Ybarra and I had the pleasure of interviewing Cruz to learn more of the story
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallHomies Who Hike: An Interview on How Susana Cruz Promotes Nature for BIPOC Communities2026-03-21text/htmlen-USHomies Who Hike: An Interview on How Susana Cruz Promotes Nature for BIPOC Communities2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®351072026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Latino(s) Outdoors, At Home, and In Community: A Critical Diálogo on Land Relations, Leisure, and Environmentalism
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986529
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It is a myth that Latines and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities are not active participants in the outdoors, particularly in outdoor and leisure recreation and in environmentalism. The following diálogo aims to reframe how we understand outdoor recreational programming and leisure activities to account for the disparity between the number of Latines that engage in the outdoors and utilize public lands, and the fact that Latines comprise the largest racial minority population in the United States (Thomas, Sánchez, and Flores 25). The co-authors affirm that culturally sensitive, accessible, and community-based outdoor programming is foundational to how Latines partake of the outdoors.
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallLatino(s) Outdoors, At Home, and In Community: A Critical Diálogo on Land Relations, Leisure, and Environmentalism2026-03-21text/htmlen-USLatino(s) Outdoors, At Home, and In Community: A Critical Diálogo on Land Relations, Leisure, and Environmentalism2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®554182026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Falling in Love with Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism by Amanda J. Baugh (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986530
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Amanda J. Baugh’s Falling in Love with Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism takes as its starting point findings from the Public Religion Research Institute that Hispanic Catholics were the demographic that was most likely to care about climate change in the United States. Importantly, the research project also originated in the classroom, where Baugh’s beliefs about environmental identity and behavior were challenged by students in her primarily Hispanic-serving public university in Los Angeles. Although they did not identify as environmentalists within the “white racial frame,” these students detailed lives that made for a low carbon footprint and offered family histories steeped in the values
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallFalling in Love with Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism by Amanda J. Baugh (review)2026-03-21text/htmlen-USFalling in Love with Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism by Amanda J. Baugh (review)2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®121122026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Water, Body, Memory: Expanding Jotería Pedagogies from the Classroom to the Swimming Pool
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986531
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I descend down the steep bluffs to the tide pool terraces between sea and cliffs. Squatting, I stare at the sea anemone in a pocket of water on the pitted rock. Biologically, we are a single gene pool with minor variations and superficial cultural and genetic differences; we are interconnected with all life. I prod the anemone; it shudders and shakes, contracting into a protective ball. We all respond to pain and pleasure in similar ways. Imagination, a function of the soul, has the capacity to extend us beyond the confines of our skin, situation, and condition so we can choose our responses. It enables us to reimagine our lives, rewrite the self and create guiding myths for our times. As I walk back home along the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallWater, Body, Memory: Expanding Jotería Pedagogies from the Classroom to the Swimming Pool2026-03-21text/htmlen-USWater, Body, Memory: Expanding Jotería Pedagogies from the Classroom to the Swimming Pool2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®744152026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Moments of Recognition: An Interview with Sandy Rodriguez
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986532
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On August 10, 2023, Los Angeles–based artist Sandy Rodriguez spoke via Zoom with Dr. Lourdes Alberto (then of the University of Utah) for an interview that lasted approximately one hour. Their conversation covered numerous topics, including the restorative aspects of Rodriguez’s practice of gathering artistic materials in the natural world, the importance of honoring Indigenous medicinal and artistic knowledge, and Indigenous recognition in the artist’s work. Rodriguez also spoke at length about some of the backstories behind individual works of art. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.This themed issue of Diálogo focuses on Latinx culture and the outdoor recreation diversity movement
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallMoments of Recognition: An Interview with Sandy Rodriguez2026-03-21text/htmlen-USMoments of Recognition: An Interview with Sandy Rodriguez2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®510582026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986533
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In Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science, Jessica Hernandez, a Maya Ch’orti’ and Zapotec environmental scientist, guides readers through layered colonialisms and national boundaries and details how they perpetuate ecological and human exploitation. From her expertise as an environmental scientist and her lived experience as an Indigenous woman, Hernandez describes how colonial exploitation perpetuates and maintains ecological crises in Mexico and Central America. In addition to explaining how colonial ecological crises impact Latin America, Hernandez also explores how Western science within the US is saturated by the same limited colonial logic. Fresh Banana Leaves intervenes
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallFresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez (review)2026-03-21text/htmlen-USFresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Jessica Hernandez (review)2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®142142026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21The Importance of Storytelling in Reimagining a Latinx Outdoor Experience
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986534
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When I think of a storyteller, my mind conjures the image of a small Tejana woman rocking on the porch of an old clapboard house in a remote coastal village of Texas, current population recorded at 147. The year is 1934. Around her are dozens of brown niños and niñas, waiting restlessly as she smokes her cigarette slowly. The woman is my great-grandmother—the namesake of my mother—whom I never had the fortune to meet. During my work of collecting stories about people’s outdoor experiences, I learned from my maternal abuela that one of her favorite outdoor memories was sitting on the porch with her primos and primas listening to her mother tell stories in the evening. She said she and her cousins would be outside
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallThe Importance of Storytelling in Reimagining a Latinx Outdoor Experience2026-03-21text/htmlen-USThe Importance of Storytelling in Reimagining a Latinx Outdoor Experience2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®715072026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Off and Running: Latinx Outdoor Recreation with a Dog on the Trails
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986535
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Early one morning on a straight stretch of the trail, the orange and yellow leaves of the large trees that line its sides form a seemingly impenetrable tunnel breached by just enough rays of the rising sun to allow me to see Max running up ahead. Apart from our feet rhythmically crunching gravel and dirt and my somewhat labored breathing, the woods are quiet. Max, framed by the trees, continues to trot in the still waking woods when suddenly his nose shoots into the air, his body stiffens yet maintains his running pace, and then he opens his gait and shoots himself into the dense woods and out of sight. I continue to jog, listening for signs of what he might be doing and where he is: snapping wood helps me to make
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallOff and Running: Latinx Outdoor Recreation with a Dog on the Trails2026-03-21text/htmlen-USOff and Running: Latinx Outdoor Recreation with a Dog on the Trails2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®538192026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21banana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986536
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Poet Paul Hlava Ceballos’s first collection of poetry, banana [ ], is an intricate investigation through form and entwined narrative that confronts the extractivist rhetoric and practices of the United States across the Americas. Winning both the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry and the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, banana [ ] instigates a vital poetic documentation of the environmental injustices and labor rights abuses encompassing the history of the banana. This poetic intervention stimulates a much-needed dialogue on language that obfuscates and perpetuates violence in Latin America broadly, and at the US-Mexico border specifically. Quoting renowned journalist, Eduardo Galeano, in the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallbanana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos (review)2026-03-21text/htmlen-USbanana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos (review)2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®113682026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21El Barbecue as an Act of World-Making: Playfulness, Joy, and the Concept of Al Aire Libre in Outdoor Recreation
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986537
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Growing up in Houston, Texas, where my family moved after my early childhood in México City, I frequently witnessed Latinxs, including my family, barbecuing in local parks. Although I now mostly grill at home, I often visit a local public park with a beach at a lake in North Texas during the hot summers. The lake serves as a site where the distinct cultural practices of Latinx individuals become visibly pronounced through language, music, and cuisine. Picnic sites on the lakeshore abound with high-quality grills from home, various kinds of Spanish music on loudspeakers, and family members ranging from toddlers to grandparents speaking to one another in various Spanish dialects. Central to these social gatherings is
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallEl Barbecue as an Act of World-Making: Playfulness, Joy, and the Concept of Al Aire Libre in Outdoor Recreation2026-03-21text/htmlen-USEl Barbecue as an Act of World-Making: Playfulness, Joy, and the Concept of Al Aire Libre in Outdoor Recreation2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®687282026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21From Protest to Recognition: An Auto-Testimonio of Chicano Park’s National Historic Landmark Nomination Process
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986538
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Chicano Park is a 7.5-acre urban park in San Diego, California, established through protest in 1970 during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. The park is located below the freeway overpasses connecting the Coronado Bay Bridge to Interstate 5, which provide shade, but most impressively the pillars holding up the bridge and overpasses serve as slates for large mural artwork. Chicana/o artists have painted social- and racial justice–themed murals on these freeway overpass pillars since 1973 (Cockcroft, 1984; Delgado, 1998).I also came to know Chicano Park in San Diego’s Barrio Logan through protest. In 1992, my father, a striking drywaller, took me to a labor rights rally at Chicano Park. At the rally in the park’s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallFrom Protest to Recognition: An Auto-Testimonio of Chicano Park’s National Historic Landmark Nomination Process2026-03-21text/htmlen-USFrom Protest to Recognition: An Auto-Testimonio of Chicano Park’s National Historic Landmark Nomination Process2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®692662026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Racing with Corazón: An Interview with Cathryn Merla-Watson
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986539
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On March 29, 2023, Gabriela E. Nuñez (Professor of Chicana/o Studies and Associate Dean for Student Relations) and David Vázquez (Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies and Program Director of Latinx Studies) interviewed Cathryn Merla-Watson. Dr. Merla-Watson is Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies, Director of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the founder of Corazón Racing, the first Latina cycling team in Texas. The interview took place via Zoom and has been lightly edited for clarity.We approached our conversation with Dr. Merla-Watson interested in her cycling background, the connections she makes between cycling and her work as a scholar
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallRacing with Corazón: An Interview with Cathryn Merla-Watson2026-03-21text/htmlen-USRacing with Corazón: An Interview with Cathryn Merla-Watson2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®392792026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Letter from the Editor
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986540
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On the day that I sat down to write my introductory letter for this special issue of Diálogo, the national media reported the occurrence of an extraordinarily disturbing event. On July 7, 2025—an otherwise unremarkable and sunny day in southern California—the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a veritable battalion of armed agents to march intimidatingly through Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, a park located in a predominantly low-income, immigrant community. Masked government agents carrying weapons, including assault rifles, moved through the park accompanied by armored vehicles and other officers mounted on horseback, reportedly to apprehend undocumented migrants.1 No arrests were reported during the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallLetter from the Editor2026-03-21text/htmlen-USLetter from the Editor2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®108522026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21Huesos Ganadores: Domino Play and Parks as Sites of Latinx Pla(y)cemaking
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986541
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People creatively use public parks for various activities centered on leisure and exercise. Within predominantly low-income and Latinx1 communities, parks also serve as critical sites of placemaking practices, where parkgoers (re)imagine and (re)produce elements of home and social belonging. To understand the links between parks, leisure, and community building, we spent over two years in Campagnone Common in Lawrence, Massachusetts, observing how residents collectively use their local parks and engage in playful activities. We learned that Campagnone was significant for Latino men,2 many of whom played or observed dominoes, to build community and feel a sense of belonging. While the role of public parks in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/697/image/coversmallHuesos Ganadores: Domino Play and Parks as Sites of Latinx Pla(y)cemaking2026-03-21text/htmlen-USHuesos Ganadores: Domino Play and Parks as Sites of Latinx Pla(y)cemaking2026-03-212026TWOProject MUSE®880442026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-21