The Fundamental Paradox of <em>Latinidad</em>
For the writer Héctor Tobar, latinidad, which means something like “Latino-ness,” or the condition of being Latino, is both sweeping and particular: It encompasses all those who identify as Latino and at the same time nods to the fact that each Latino experience is highly individual. In his new book, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”, Tobar writes that Latinos “have crossed oceans and deserts, and entered into new and exotic urban ‘barrios’ and ‘ghettos,’ and planted roots in farm towns on vast and verdant plains.” But these shared histories have meant different things for those whose families come from Andalusia, Oaxaca, or Texas. As Tobar writes, Latinos “will not fit in any box.” The feeling of being ni de aquí, ni de allá—from neither here nor there—is the fundamental paradox of latinidad, its very essence.
A professor of journalism and Chicano and Latino studies at UC Irvine, Tobar is the author of several books, including , a novel about a Guatemalan refugee in Los Angeles who is still haunted by his home country’s civil war; , a nonfiction account of the dramatic story, a , an American who died fighting with Central American guerrillas. These other works dovetail with his own lived experience in one way or another, but , which begins with an address to his students, is even more personal. In it, Tobar uses the details of his own life and the broader past of Latinos in America to situate himself within the long sweep of Latino history.
