NeMLA 2023: Literature of Resistance
For people of Latin America and the Caribbean, centuries of modernity/coloniality have resulted in continuous and compounding traumas that demand resilience. Yet, when we talk of resilience, are we ever naturalizing trauma and legitimizing the status quo, accepting that the way to be of oppressed peoples must always be in response to abusive conditions? Is it not possible that in focusing on resilience, we enable the continuation of unequal power structures by putting pressure on the oppressed to learn to adapt to what hurts us, rather than putting pressure on the world to destroy oppressive systems including racism, patriarchy, and capitalism? Instead of focusing on resilience, we should be imagining and enacting ways of being otherwise.