Introduction

Cosmopolitan Strangers in US Latinx Literature and Culture: Building Bridges, Not Walls presents a study of the figure of the stranger in US Latinx literary and cultural forms, ranging from contemporary novels through essays to film and transborder art activism. While Latinxs have shouldered the burden of strange(r)ness since the end of the nineteenth century, the stigma of otherness has been more readily associated with Latinx immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, people without citizenship, and undocumented/illegal ‘aliens,’ “other others” from Central America and Mexico knocking on the country’s doors. Mexicans and Central Americans have been the main targets of former President Trump’s anti-immigrant legislation. Picturing imaginative solutions toward the reduction of inequalities and social exclusion in contemporary societies, establishing a dialogue, a conversation, and opening lines of “undistorted communication” are the first steps toward developing habits of peaceful coexistence.