Insurgent Poetics: Indigenous Cultural Revitalization in Contemporary Latin America

Dr. Hannah Burdette 
Faculty, Department of International Languages, 
Literature's, & Cultures, CSU, Chico 

“Our word is our weapon” is a saying of the Zapatista movement of indigenous people resisting the dominant culture in southern Mexico. Dr. Hannah Burdette states that several issues have created indigenous social movements in Latin America, including environmental concerns, self-determination, ongoing effects of imperialism and colonialism, relative invisibility in society, and the threat of linguistic death and cultural assimilation. Of those, she focuses on the last issue, as she points out that language is one way of cultural revitalization. To that end, Dr. Burdette defines the role of literature by contemporary indigenous authors as “insurgent poetics.” She uses the term to get at the interplay between poetics and politics. 

Recorded: March 1, 2016