Latin American and Caribbean colonial studies and/in the decolonial turn

Latin America and the Caribbean served as massive laboratories for multiple forms of colonization and social control that became central in the formation of Western modernity. The decolonial turn calls attention to the constitutive character of colonization in the formation of modern institutions and culture, both in Europe and in current and former colonial territories. It also highlights the relevance of decolonization struggles, which it considers to be ongoing and unfinished. Focusing on the groundbreaking work of Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano and the Afro-Caribbean theorist and novelist Sylvia Wynter, this chapter explores the relevance of Latin American and Caribbean colonial studies for the decolonial turn, and identifies contributions of the decolonial turn to the formulation of a transdisciplinary, theoretical, and relational conceptualization of Caribbean and Latin American colonial studies.