She a Rican or Something? Making a (Literary) Case for Danzy Senna's Afro Latinidad

Abstract

In this paper I aim to argue for a lax definition of Latino/a identity, one which would be justified by a constructionist approach to race and by the pitfalls of strict identity politics, as well as by the demographic fact that multiracial Latinos in the U.S. are on the rise, which has moved experts to foretell a future when fewer and fewer Americans will identify as Hispanic despite the existence of a Spanish-speaking ancestor in their family trees. Danzy Senna’s life and work will be used to exemplify the complexity that Latino/a identity is acquiring in recent years, to explore the benefits of defining Latino/a identity in a broad way and of claiming, more specifically, for Senna’s Afro Latinidad.