ABSTRACT
By analyzing two art pieces by Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, I explore how Derrida's theory of hospitality works in the context of Latin American studies, reflect on its limitations, and suggest the need for a new theory of hospitality that is more appropriate to Latin American culture. First, I analyze Derrida's hospitality, a metaphor about welcoming the immigrant Other, and engage with key postcolonial and Latin American studies scholars who have used this paradigm to discuss social phenomena aligned with immigration in relation to colonialism and internal racism. Then, I compare Bruguera's piece about immigration with her collective reading of Hannah Arendt while under house arrest. I elaborate the idea of sharing shelter as a guerrilla tactic among the relatively powerless. I define such hospitality as a horizontal social practice that blends art, politics, ethics, and sociability with either implicit or explicit objective of mitigating or even defying an authoritarian state. An art that uses hospitality as a medium reveals a deep awareness of contingency. It implies sharing luck with others. It promotes ethics of care with the hope of creating more hospitable worlds.
