At the Intersections of Latinx Studies and ChYALit

• In Event: Child Pedagogues of Dissent: Reading the Lessons of Young People in Literature and Performance

Abstract

The phrase “side-by-side” normally connotes a sense of camaraderie and companionship. This is implied in illustrator Joe Cepeda's rendering of César Chavez and Dolores Huerta on the cover of the picture-book Side-by-Side/ Lado a Lado (2010) by Monica Brown, the picture suggesting you can’t have one without the other. As much as “side-by-side” connotes friendship, I have found this phrase helpful in my research on Latinx literature for youth: a literary and cultural tradition rich in unlikely pairings created not so much by choice, but by necessity. The picture celebrates the coming together of Chavez and Huerta, yet we see that English and Spanish are also placed side-by-side: two languages with a violent history facing each other, but separated by a division on the page. Chavez and Huerta’s hands bridge the divide, yet that division between cultures and languages running side-by-side remains. U.S. children’s literature evidences these splits, switches, breaks, and unlikely pairings—these parallel stories and traditions greet us with a history of delight, violence, and contradiction. I use this as an illustration to explain the kind of methodology I use as an interdisciplinary scholar in Latinx Studies and literature, literature for youth, and pedagogy. My research has demanded that I negotiate divisions both in the field of Latinx studies and children’s literature in order to exist in academia, and to dwell on the parallels, the intersections and the contradictions. Here, I emphasize a history of children’s literature in the academy, and the place of Latinx literature for youth in the larger conversation on what it means to study American childhood and youth. Particularly, I underline how children’s literature in the humanities and Latinx Studies converge in ways that render Latinx authors for youth visible in multiple fields.

Author

• Marilisa Jimenez, Lehigh University