Truth in Our Existence: Racialized Decolonialites in Tami Charles's Freedom Soup

• In Event: Rememorying With Picture Books in the Formation of New Diasporic Literary and Anticolonial Caribbean Knowledges

Abstract

In Latinx communities, one issue is the lack of analysis to understand equitable representations of Afro-Latinx communities in children’s literature (García-Medina, 2020). The idea of “common latinidad”, while empowering, creates a perception that people from Latinx backgrounds are the same and sustains notions of color blindness (Caminero-Santangelo, 2007; Jimenez & Flores, 2010). This presentation shares the results of a year-long investigation examining how racial literary imaginaries (Morison, 2007) either perpetuate or disrupt dominant views of a homogenous Latinx society. Research questions:
● How is the Latinx racial literary imaginary constituted?
● How as both, Afro and white passing, Latinx subjects, the researchers engage in the process of rememorying to reconfigure a new vision for Afrolatinx identities in children’s literature?
Decolonial feminist theorist Rhee (2021) proposes “rememorying” as the tracing of feelings with fictional texts. It is a constant unmaking and making of self (Rhee, 2021) in literary acts. Rememory allows a connection to readers' roots regardless of their positionality which allows them to reimagine possibilities within the work. Using rememory suggests the truths hidden in education and reveal the consequential stories of people of color.
We align our work with the trajectory of critical content analysis (Johnson, Matis, Short, 2017) through decolonial (Quijano, 1992), critical race theory (Collins, 1998), indigenous critical theory (Grande, 2015). As Thomas (2016) highlights, all stories are not privileged in the literary landscape and with our work, we answer Thomas (2016) recommendation to “ supports authors, publishers, illustrators, and booksellers whose work represents multiple perspectives and cultural diversity in the lives of all children (120).”
We draw on an anticolonial and afro centered critical content analysis design for the evaluation of Afro-Latinx Children’s literature (citations). The study took place over a year. The researchers (Jamaican and Puerto Rican) identified, classified, and analyzed a variety of texts. An open thematic coding served to create general categories that were then revisited through anti-colonial and afro centered concepts such as the unmaking of identities, joy as critical survival tool, tracing oppressive histories, restoration, and connectivity.
Tami Charles Freedom Soup from Haiti, serves as the key text for this presentation. This picture book tells the story of Haiti’s independence history passed across generations in the tradition of cooking a traditional soup. An overarching theme is history as living in the imagination and unveiling itself in the present while providing an outlook for the future. Within this, we identified critical themes: cultural traditions passing across generations as tactics to maintain connections; embodied identities focusing on affective expressions, relationships, and creative expressions; agency in cultural and political production.
Through this analysis, it is possible to develop an understanding of racial dynamics in the selection and evaluation of reading materials for young readers. Our work emerging from Afro Latinx knowledge allows for new ways of imagining with literature to occur. The analysis in our work foregrounds fluid practices of meaning making from positions outside of the Western canon and facilitates visions to read by understanding who we are in relation to the world.

Authors

• Dianne T. Wellington, SUNY - College at Cortland
  Presenting Author

• Carmen L. Medina, Indiana University
  Presenting Author