Building Sustainable Worlds

Latina/o/x places exist as both tangible physical phenomena and gatherings created and maintained by creative cultural practices. In this collection, an interdisciplinary group of contributors critically examines the many ways that varied Latina/o/x communities cohere through cultural expression. Authors consider how our embodied experiences of place, together with our histories and knowledge, inform our imagination and reimagination of our surroundings in acts of placemaking. This placemaking often considers environmental sustainability as it helps to sustain communities in the face of xenophobia and racism through cultural expression ranging from festivals to zines to sanctuary movements. It emerges not only in specific locations but as movement within and between sites; not only as part of a built environment, but also as an aesthetic practice; and not only because of efforts by cultural, political, and institutional leaders, but through mass media and countless human interactions.

A rare and crucial perspective on Latina/o/x people in the Midwest, Building Sustainable Worlds reveals how expressive culture contributes to, and sustains, a sense of place in an uncertain era.

"Building Sustainable Worlds is a transdisciplinary tour de force of Latinx Studies scholarship that captures the vibrancy, resiliency, diversity, and idiosyncrasy of Latinx expressive culture in the Midwest! This wonderfully curated collection of essays serves as an outstanding contribution to the new scholarship on the Latinx Midwest."--Louis Mendoza, author of A Journey Around Our America: A Memoir on Cycling, Immigration, and the Latinoization of the U.S.