Bienvenidas, bienvenidos, bienvenides. Welcome back everyone! We’re glad you can join us as we begin our 11th season of the podcast! This semester our focus is on Central American Latine communities. We decided to focus on Central America, as a self criticism because the region has been profoundly shaped by U.S. political, military, and economic intervention, yet its histories and communities remain underrepresented in scholarly conversations, in our classes and within our podcast itself. Focusing on Central America helps challenge the tendency to treat Latines as a homogeneous group by highlighting the experiences of migration, civil war, displacement, indigeneity, and diaspora that have shaped Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, and other Central American communities. It also allows us to better understand how empire, race, language, and migration intersect across the Americas. At a moment when Central Americans constitute a significant and growing part of the Latine population in the United States, their stories should not be addressed as peripheral concerns but a crucial lens through which to examine the histories, inequalities, and cultural formations that define both the region and the United States itself. In This Episode we discuss the poetry chapbook, Lineage of Rain, by Janel Pineda. We start out with a brief biography of the poet and some context about the book itself. Then we analyze and discuss a handful of the poems from the collection. Rojo looks at three poems that examine the power of English and its often violent histories, specifically in connection with Salvadoran history, and reflects on the intergenerational impact of language imperialism. Rebecca addresses three poems that focus on family, specifically the importance of sibling relationships for the poet. Her goal is to highlight the joy the poet feels from these relationships and to emphasize the importance of community in the creation of this joy. At the end, we talk about the poem “Fellowship Application,” which seems like a poem that might resonate with many of our students. Follow the podcast: Bluesky and Instagram: @LatinxVisions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hosts: Rojo Robles and Rebecca L. Salois Logo Design: Marcos Toledo Music: Shawn P. Russell Sound Consultant and Mixing: Shawn P. Russell Recording and Editing: Rebecca L. Salois
