Save the date! Join us December 4 for the panel discussion Counterhistories of Latinx Social Media The program is moderated by Urayoán Noel and marks the launch of his new book Virtually Latinx: Identities in the Age of Social Media (University of Texas Press) which shows how historically marginalized Latinxs—including Black, Trans, undocumented, and disabled people—have used digital platforms to challenge hegemonic Latinidad and to build alternatives communities.

About the Book

In the first-ever study of Latinx social media, Urayoán Noel shows how historically marginalized Latinxs—including Black, Trans, undocumented, and disabled people—have used digital platforms to challenge hegemonic Latinidad and to build alternatives communities.

Incorporating elements of history, ethnography, and performance studies, Virtually Latinx traces the evolution of Latinx social media and blogging since the early 1990s, focusing on creative movements and vocabularies emerging and consolidating online. From Chicano/LatinoNet, Latina Lista, and Remezcla, to activists and performers on TikTok, online creators and platforms have spurred modes of art and activism that counter both Latinidad’s essentialized body politics and Big Tech’s domination of the information sphere. In dialogue with scholars of media, virtuality, and identity, Noel theorizes how hashtags like #Afrolatina, #Latinx, and #Latine have not only facilitated online exchange but also nurtured new knowledge formations surrounding Black, feminist, undocuqueer, Trans, and disability poetics and politics. Click to learn more and purchase the book.