Frederick Luis Aldama

Mex-Ciné: Mexican Filmmaking, Production, and Consumption in the Twenty-first Century

Mex-Cine offers an accessibly written, multidisciplinary investigation of contemporary Mexican cinema that combines industrial, technical, and sociopolitical analysis with analyses of modes of reception through cognitive theory. Mex-Cine aims to make visible the 21st-century Mexican film industry, its blueprints, and the cognitive and emotive faculties involved in making and consuming its corpus. A sustained, free-flowing book-length conversation between two leading scholars, Mex-Cine enriches our understanding of the way contemporary Mexican directors use specific technical devices, structures, and characterisations in making films in ways that guide the perceptual, emotive, and cognitive faculties of their ideal audiences, while providing the historical contexts in which these films are made and consumed.

The Routledge concise history of Latino/a literature

Introduction 1. Who is a Latino/a Author? What is Latino/a Literature? 2. Latino/a Literary Foundations 3. Latino/a Literary Renaissance 4. Feminist and Queer Turns 5. New Latino/a Forms Coda: Production, Dissemination, and Consumption on a Global Stage

Intellectual relevance: an interview with Michael Bérubé

ABSTRACT This essay provides an overview of the career of distinguished literary scholar and defender of the humanities Michael Bérubé, followed by a transcription of his interview with Frederick Aldama in which he discusses his own life and the current state of humanistic study.

Three Latino Legends: Snapshot by Interview

“Three Latino Legends: Snapshot by Interview,” includes conversations we conducted with three Latino football pioneers: Joe Kapp, Tom Flores, and Jim Plunkett. We turn to our elders to learn from their wealth of experience and wisdom as significant shapers in the history of the NFL.

The Blitz … Heroes, Saviors, Saints, and Sinners

“The Blitz … Heroes, Saviors, Saints, and Sinners,” considers the role of the community, the media, and capitalism generally in the rise and fall of Latino superstar players.

Sidelined … No Más!

“Sidelined … No Mas!” considers issues of access to education (GI Bill, athletic scholarships, and Affirmative Action), the increased diversification in the regional and heritage of Latino players (from urban to rural and from Mexican to Puerto Rican to Dominican and Cuban of origin), and the presence of Latinos in the globalization of the game.

From Punishing Penalties to Brown Bodies Raiding the NFL

“From Punishing Penalties to Brown Bodies Raiding the NFL” considers several significant moments when Latinos broke through the brown color line, including the pivotal moment when two of the NFL’s most significant Latino figures Tom Flores (coach) and Jim Plunkett (quarterback) took the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories.

From Scrimmage Lines to End Zones: Latinos in the National Football League

“A Question of the Brown Scrimmage Line” provides a nuanced socio-cultural analysis of exclusionary practices and trends in the early history of the pro leagues—or what the authors identify as the brown color line.

Prologue: Kick Offs

Prologue, “Kick Offs,” establishes the parameters for Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher Gonzalez’s conversacion de sobremesa—a tradition in Latino culture of discussing subjects in great detail and at great length after dinner. They begin by juxtaposing their own autobiographical experience with lucid cultural analysis of Latinos in pro football leagues—and not futbol as in soccer. They offer a hermeneutical approach that seeks to assign meaning to the material and intellectual culture of Latinos in the NFL; they establish their approach to assess and assert the value and importance of the struggles and victories experienced by the significant yet oft-overlooked presence of Latinos in the history of pro football.

Rhina P. Espaillat

Rhina P. Espaillat (1932–) published her first book of poetry in 1992 when she was sixty years old. She began publishing poetry after having first devoted herself to teaching junior and high school English in the New York City public schools—and to raising a family of three boys. In spite of what might appear to be a late start to her career as a poet she has produced a weighty body of work. Her 11 poetry collections include Lapsing to Grace: Poems and Drawings (1992); Where Horizons Go (1998); Rehearsing Absence (2001); Mundo y Palabra/The World and the Word (2001); Troves of the Sea (2002); The Shadow I Dress In (2004); The Story-Teller’s Hour (2004); Playing Stillness (2005); and Her Place in These Designs (2008). Her poetry has been recognized with top awards, including the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award (twice), the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the Richard Wilbur Award, among many others. She has also won awards for her translation into Spanish of Robert Frost and of the translation into English of Dominican poet Cesar Sanchez Beras. She is founding member and former director of the New Formalist poets known as the Powow River Poets.