ABSTRACT
Taking a capacious view of the genres which U.S.-Central American and Central American refugee narratives employ as well as their relationship to the Latin American testimonio tradition, this chapter traces how the “voice” of Central American refugees has been mediated by non-Central American actors through the collaborative genre of testimonio. However, these testimonios have often been racialized to center ladino (mestizo/non-Indigenous) and non-Black voices, so the chapter also examines refugee narratives that reclaim Black Central American, Indigenous, and gendered voices that do not easily map onto Cold War narratives. The chapter ends with a pedagogical reflection on teaching Héctor Tobar's The Tattooed Soldier.
