Activismo Cultural y Literario: A Decolonial Content Analysis of Contemporary Puerto Rican Picture Books

• In Event: From the Local to the Global: Literature and Literary Knowledge in and Across Context(s)

Abstract

Through a decolonial content analysis, we share findings on the examination of contemporary children’s picture books (2014-2019) written by Puerto Rican authors focusing on social justice and equity. As a Puerto Rican decolonial research project, our work on children’s literature is relational to our family and community stories and experiences. In engaging with this analysis, we see our work as literacy and literary researchers as a part of communal and activist practices that work to foreground Puerto Rican’s hidden stories and knowledges. The analysis focused on mapping the complex and contradictory constructions of 1) diverse socio-political and intersectional perspectives within a Puerto Rican social imaginary 2) perspectives on communal agency, and 3) emerging resistance as decolonial literary acts.

Authors

• Carmen L. Medina, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Francisco Luis Torres

• Javier Cardona Otero, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Nathaly Sujey Batista-Morales, The University of Texas at Austin

• Astrid Nicholl Sambolín Morales, University of Pennsylvania