Hello everyone, my name is Marisa. As you can tell, I am joining the class late but I can’t overstate my excitement to get started. I am a fifth-year Combined Major in Science student, studying Life Sciences, Earth & Ocean Sciences, and Statistics. If everything goes to plan, this will be my last term at UBC! I’m filled with equal amounts of trepidation and excitement. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but my family emigrated from the Dominican Republic. My experience with Latin American and Hispanic literature – outside of a handful of Dominican authors – is very sparse, so I’m incredibly eager to dive into these works.

The aspect of this course that interests me most is our exploration of “the gap between the representational and the real,” as Jon described it. “América Latina: Un pueblo sin piernas, pero que camina” is a quote that always comes to mind when I reflect on the region of my ancestors. It’s a lyric from the band Calle 13, hailing from Puerto Rico, and I think it does an incredible job of capturing the spirit of LATAM people. A people plagued by war, corruption, colonialism, globalization, violence, exploitation, and natural disasters – yet one that unceasingly reaches for the light, so birthing revolution, art, hope, innovation, resistance, and collective dreams. In this lens, it is clear to me how a genre like magical realism emerges. I expect the literature we read in this course to occupy a similar role in its contexts: a tool for imagining futures. Imagination is capable of bridging this gap. Imagination is required for walking (“camina”) without legs (“sin piernas”). I’m curious to see how these authors and poets have generated futures throughout history and hardship.

Although excited, I have to admit I find this course a bit daunting. My background is extremely STEM-heavy, and I don’t have much practice expressing my thoughts and observations in this way. In addition, beyond lived experience, I’m not fluent in the language of politics, international relations, anthropology, history, or the like, so I am anticipating a challenge in articulating some of the more nuanced sociopolitical themes in these works. In that sense, I expect this course to challenge me to stretch myself out of my comfort zone. Nonetheless, I’m hopeful that this foray into LATAM literature will invite me to appreciate the power of imagination in translation and leave me feeling more connected to my culture.

Question for discussion: When choosing your reading list, were there any themes, locations, or identities you were cognizant of selecting? Why was this important to you?