Genealogies of Home: Memory, History, and Storytelling in Twenty-First Century Latina Life Writing

My dissertation analyzes the genealogical methods Latina authors of memoir use to rethink transcultural subjectivity. Through a gender-focused use of genealogy, I consider the ways twenty-first century Latina life writing communicates historical knowledge. As an alternative to traditional patrilineal genealogy in which names, power or property are traced across multiple generations, my project aims to foreground the various ways Latina memoirists use genealogy to share the intersections of female cultural identity and belonging, sexuality, labor politics, and the processes of this communication. My investigation of genealogy in Raquel Cepeda’s Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina (2013), Daisy Hernández’s A Cup of Water Under My Bed (2014), Cherríe Moraga’s Native Country of the Heart (2019) and Myriam Gurba’s Mean (2017) elucidates the methods by which matrilineal histories are passed on from one generation to another