Specters and Speculations of Latinx Futurities: Towards a radical unbordering of the hierarchical imaginary

• In Event: Rethinking the Status Quo: Toward a More Equitable Future of Latina/o Sociology

Abstract

The future is here! The future is now. The advent of AI, technocratic hegemony, and global multi-cultural authoritarianisms demonstrates that the future is not always equitable and that identities as such do not necessitate liberation for all. How do we imagine a radically anti-hierarchical future, from our standing point as Latinx people? This paper begins to envision something that does not yet exist: a collective sociopolitical reality in which we are all free. We ask, what does an anti-hierarchical Latinx-futurism look like, and how do we get there? We draw from non-linear concepts of time to argue that an equitable Latinx futurism radically contends with the past and present legacies of structural mestizaje in a way that disrupts anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, white supremacist, patriarchal, and homophobic hierarchies that shape Latinidad. We draw from historical, archival research on Mexico’s different mestizaje state sponsored projects and theoretical textual analysis of Gloria Anzaldua’s (1987) Borderlands to envision Latinx futurisms as a relational orientation towards the now, cognizant and constantly reckoning with power dynamics, and always in conversation with Black and Indigenous constructions of sociopolitical realities.

Authors

• Carolina Hernandez, University of Pittsburgh

• Rosa Navarro, University of California-Santa Cruz