Narrando con Vos: Central American Transnational Narrative in the United States

Abstract

By the first decade of the 21st century, the Central American population in the United States has become the third largest group of Hispanic or Latinx origin; however, their involvement in various aspects of US society (e.g. literature) is still disproportionally representative of the population. The purpose of this dissertation is to critically study transnational Central American narratives, including literature and film, produced in the United States from 1980 to the present, seeking to contribute to the effort of expanding the representation in the academic realm of this rapidly growing transmigrant community. It will be presented a framework to the US-Central American transnational narrative will be presented, focusing on how the narrative of Guatemalan-American professor, journalist and novelist Francisco Goldman; Guatemalan author and journalist Héctor Tobar; Honduran author Roberto Quesada; Salvadoran-American professor and author Marco Villatoro; Salvadoran author and painter Mario Bencastro; Nicaraguan-American author Silvio Sirias; Guatemalan novelist and critic Arturo Arias and Garifuna director Ruben Reyes broaden the heretofore accepted meaning of the socially constructed term Latinx, (commonly identified as of Cuban, Puerto Rican or Mexican origins) by introducing to US Latinx narrative ‘Central American themes,’ including the seldom studied Central American immigrant, a political agenda regarding US-Central American relationship and the inclusion of subjects from minority groups such as Mayan and Garinagu.