ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines a specific ethnic phenomenon in terms of relevant literature, cultural and theoretical thought, or historical intervention, relating the given case study to parameters of resonance. It shows that the jarring effect of skewed resonance can be performatively and sociopolitically productive. The book focuses on inequalities in and of Hispanic communities, on the micro and macro levels of what Anamik Saha calls “racialized governmentalities”. It considers the engagement of performers, filmmakers, authors, and bloggers to correct the sustained disadvantaging of AfroCuban citizens. The book deals with the contentious question of appropriate memorialization of ethnic and political Holocaust victims in movies, news coverage, and especially monuments and counteractions. It provides a rhetorical-linguistic approach—featuring cognitive linguists’ notions of “framing” and “conceptual blending”—to outline the intricacies of identity encoded in the African American leader Malcolm X’s autobiography.