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Abstract
This project considers how Afro-Latinas conceptualize their identities through print and digital media outlets. I take as a point of departure the research of Afro-Latina scholars Omaris Zamora, Ana-Maurine Lara, Maritza Quiñones Rivera, and Yomaira Figueroa, whose work on Afro-Latina womanhood supports the articulation of Afro-Latina subjectivities. I analyze the works and productions of Marta Moreno Vega, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Josefina Báez, Destiny Frasqueri, and Elizabeth Acevedo through a decolonial framework, proposing that they are not only resisting acts of coloniality but also forging new epistemologies of Afro-Latinidad. Through the analysis of these five contemporary Afro-Latina writers and performers, my dissertation examines how twenty-first century print and digital media are utilized to explore expressions of Afro-Latinidad and Afro-Latina womanhood. The first two chapters of this project consider the role of religion and spirituality in discourses on Afro-Latina subjectivities through the analysis of fiction and non-fiction printed texts. In the final chapter I shift the focus from religion and spirituality as a central component to identity discourse, in order to center body politics in spoken-word and rap as a basis for exploring Afro-Latina subjectivities in digital spaces. The goal of this project is to better understand the ways in which Afro-Latina women writers and performers from various generations have expressed the intersections of Blackness and Latinidad. I add to already existing research by focusing on changing modes of articulation as evidence of new technologies’ importance in creating space for reconceptualizing discourses around Black women’s bodies.