ABSTRACT
The concept of intersectionality is widely acknowledged as coined in 1989 by black feminist legal scholar, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw. First wave Latina feminists and queer creators such as Gloria Anzaldua, Cherrie Moraga, Chela Sandoval, Maria Herrera-Sobek, Norma Cantu, Emma Perez, among legions of others, embraced and affirmed Latinx intersectional identities. The legacy of the early borderland, interstitial, and intersectional scholars, creators and activists continues to be seen in much Latinx Studies scholarship. In Next of Kin Richard T. Rodriguez excavates an intersectional cultural imaginary grown from Latinx queer contingent kinship and discourse practices. For Michael Hames-Lorena Garcia, Latinx identities grow within a historical process of “gender and sexual domination of racially subordinated peoples”. In addition to sexuality, Latinx scholars focus on highlighting other categories such as land, nation, and citizenry. An intersectional lens has come to inform the way Latinx literary and cultural studies takes place.
