Outline on The Central American transnational imaginary: Defining the transnational and gendered contours of Central American immigrant experience by Yajaira Padilla

Here is my outline. I did it as if i was just jotting down notes. It is research for Spanish Seminar so enjoy!

1.       The article begins with a discussion and growth in Central American Representation from film to literature

a.       Also, discusses how their “trans migrant lives “related to economic instability as well as a history of social and political conflict

b.       Formulates claim of this rise of medium of expression

                                                               i.      itself, a broader reflection of how the Central American presence is transforming the country’s multicultural milieu. They are also, however, suggestive of the ways in which northbound migration and transnationalism have impacted notions of Central American collective identity and immigrant integration into the United States. As I contend, such works signal and are instrumental to the existence of a “Central American transnational imaginary,” one marked by memories of war, settlement in the United States, and crossings through Mexico, and in which individual and communal identities are being continuously defined and renegotiated (151)

2.       Lists the three works that she will work with Bernardo the virgin, December Sky, and Sin Nombre

a.       These three she says give an “expansive view of the diverse experiences and salient issues that characterize Central American immigrant reality . . . the Central American transnational imaginary” (151)

b.       Moreover, in these texts women are prominent figures. This fact underscores the need to consider gender as an inherent aspect of Central American international migration and of the collective imaginings and subject formations of Central Americans that have resulted from such migration. (151)

3.       Central American migration motivated by/post migration

a.       Recent waves caused by economic policies and loss of occupation

b.       Prior waves caused by civil wars

c.       Exclusionary policies imposed by the US by their migration

d.       Community stilled thrived

4.       Central American as a Transnational identity

a.       These immigrant communities have fostered and maintained strong economic, political and cultural ties to their countries of origin that have taken the form of transnational practices and enterprises.6 Remittances, which have become an integral part of the national economies of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, are a key example. 152

b.       By these actions and communities, the sense of “nation” is disrupted

                                                               i.      Quotes Saldivar to better define it Fundamental to Saldıvar’s conceptualization of the transnational imaginary is Taylor’s discussion of the “social imaginary,” defined as “the ways people imagine their social existence,” and a process achieved by and expressed through “images, stories, and legends” (153)

                                                             ii.      Proposes this similar transnational community for central Americans

                                                           iii.      But also, recognizes the contentious history behind a “united” Central America and refers that that this imaginary from this connected history

                                                           iv.      Better definition of her claim of Central American transnational imaginary Central American transnational imaginary is a new articulation that has been engendered precisely by the international migration of scores of Central Americans to the United States and their transnational undertakings in the latter half of the twentieth century. It needs to be understood in this specific context. It is an emerging site that includes Central Americans both in and outside of the region, recalling what Homi Bhabha denotes as a “third space” in which hegemonic structures are reaffirmed and reproduced, but also challenged, and identities and strategies of selfhood are claimed and redefined at both the individual and communal level (Rutherford, 1990).  154

5.       Her title of the section Affective Representations and Gendered Visions

a.       Narratives created by Central American “transnational imaginary”

                                                               i.      Creates a “social practice” that provides images and stories about civil wars, migration, and integration 154

b.        Discusses issues of emotion as well

                                                               i.      The ability of Central Americans to engage in such forms of transnational imagining does not only rest, however, on a mutual recognition of the shared experiences recounted through these images and stories, but also on the registry of emotions such images and stories likewise evoke (154)

c.       Also, discusses role of women in transnational scheme

                                                               i.      Usually allegorical reps as left behind or “republican mothers”

                                                             ii.      Used as a lens to explore migration and immigrant community building

1.       Shows patriarchy

d.       Argues a bit differently “the female portrayals in these written and visual narratives perform a similar critical role in that they too call attention to the gendered tensions and aspects that characterize the Central American immigrant experience.” (155)

e.       Argues through the portrayal and focus of women on the works she analyzes he Central American transnational imaginary is not only the “emergence of new citizen-subjects and the construction of new spaces for the enactment of their politics outside the realm of the purely national” (Saldivar, 2006, 59), but also how these developments intersect with and are shaped by other factors such as ethnicity, citizenship status, class, and most notably, gender. (156-157)

6.       Nicaraguan Immigrants Before and After the Wars her title of the section

a.       Highlights that the novel “Sirias’s Bernardo and the Virgin affords a dynamic depiction of Central American international migration and of the different processes of identity formation taking place among Nicaraguan immigrants in the United States” (156)

b.       Discusses how the book shifts the outlook of Nicaraguan women by viewing them as pioneers

c.       Discusses the complications of integration and culture keeping within the novel to form ethnic identity

7.       Salvadorans living the “American Dream”? her title

a.       Discusses how November sky illustrates “that migrant narratives constitute “political acts” that, on the one hand, “narrate a condition of alterity to, or exclusion from, the nation,” and on the other, “enunciate a collective desire for a different order of space and belonging” “(159)

8.       A Modern Tale of Migration

a.       Looks at Sin nombre by looking at the female protagonist Sayra  

b.       Looked through her perspective how Mexico is “an extended border zone” (161) for all Central American immigrants

                                                               i.      Through the deportation of her father illustrates the reality of deportation and “the undesirability of Honduran immigrants as citizen-subjects of the United States and, by extension, of Mexico, which enforces the same discriminatory immigration policies.” (162)

                                                             ii.      more than just political boundaries, meaning they also “traverse social planes of race, class, and gender relations,” certain groups such as women, who are often the victims of violent sexual assault, become more susceptible than others (2007, 83). Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pivotal scene in which Sayra is almost raped by the gang leader, Lil’ Mago. (162)

1.       illustrates how immigration makes women more susceptible

c.       probably more important point “As Sayra moves forward and, perhaps, becomes trapped in the same cycle of undocumented labor and exploitation as her father, the only thing for certain is that her crossing through Mexico’s border zone will play a key role in the type of life she leads in the United States and the struggles she will face as she tries to acquire a new sense of belonging and identity as a Central American, an immigrant, and as a woman.” (163)

                                                               i.      illustrates that reality of immigrant struggle and a possible cycle to create belonging or identity not. Not too sure what is added with this point.

9.       Expanding the Discussion: From Immigrants to Central American-Americans

a.       Basically, concludes the work by saying its complicated and needs to be fleshed out more

                                                               i.      . By exposing the varied transnational and gendered historical, political and social aspects that define the Central American immigrant experience, authors such as Sirias and Cortez Davis, themselves part of these newer generations, have laid the foundation for future and needed inquiries, including the notion of Central American Latino lives. Such issues and debates will, undoubtedly, be of importance in the near future and lead to the further expansion and transformation of the Central American transnational imaginary. (164)