Afro-Latino Memoirs and their African American Influences

FAIN: FT-278142-21

Trent Masiki
Boston University (Boston, MA 02215-1300)

Research and writing of a book examining Afro-Latino memoirists’ use of African American aesthetics across the 20th century. 

Under contract with the University of North Carolina Press, Afroethnic Renewal: Afro-Latino Memoirs and their African American Influences, examines understudied African American narrative strategies, cultural tropes, and political genealogies in contemporary Afro-Latino coming-of-age memoirs. Using literary and historical analysis, I argue that Afro-Latino memoir writers use their affiliation with the African American condition to authenticate and assert their sense of national and diasporic belonging. The coherence of Afro-Latinidad, I contend, can be better understood by analyzing the depth and scope of its influence by Black nationalism and cosmopolitanism. The book finds that Afro-Latinos are shaping US culture in ways that open and extend the conventional definitions of African American literature and identity. I am applying for an NEH Summer Stipend to research and write the chapter on Marta Moreno Vega’s memoir When the Spirits Dance Mambo: Growing Up Nuyorican in El Barrio.

Associated Products

Six Afro-Latino Memoirists That You Should Know (Article)
Title: Six Afro-Latino Memoirists That You Should Know
Author: JESSICA COLAROSSI
Abstract: Trent Masiki spent this past summer diving headfirst into studying the influence of African American culture in writings from Afro-Latino and Afro-Latina authors spanning the last century. “Scholars in African American literary studies tend not to read into the Latino literary canons, so they miss these relationships,” says Masiki, an affiliate faculty member at Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and a fellow at Amherst College. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Masiki has been researching memoirs produced by first-and second-generation Afro-Latino immigrants, whose memories and recollections often go unseen in the classic canon of African American literature. Black identity in the United States, Masiki’s work suggests, is more transcultural, transnational, and Latino than typically remembered historically.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/trent-masiki-afroethnic-renewal/
Format: Magazine
Publisher: Boston University, The Brink

The Afro-Latino Memoir: Race, Ethnicity, and Literary Interculturalism (Book)
Title: The Afro-Latino Memoir: Race, Ethnicity, and Literary Interculturalism
Author: Trent Masiki, PhD
Abstract: Despite their literary and cultural significance, Afro-Latino memoirs have been marginalized in both Latino and African American studies. Trent Masiki remedies this problem by bringing critical attention to the understudied African American influences in Afro-Latino memoirs published after the advent of the Black Arts movement. Masiki argues that these memoirs expand on the meaning of racial identity for both Latinos and African Americans. Using interpretive strategies and historical methods from literary and cultural studies, Masiki shows how Afro-Latino memoir writers often turn to the African American experience as a model for articulating their Afro-Latinidad. African American literary production, expressive culture, political ideology, and religiosity shaped Afro-Latino subjectivity more profoundly than typically imagined between the post-war and post-soul eras. Masiki recovers this neglected history by exploring how and why Black nationalism shaped Afro-Latinidad in the United States. This book opens the border between the canons of Latino and African American literature, encouraging greater intercultural solidarities between Latinos and African Americans in the era of Black Lives Matter.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469675275/the-afro-latino-memoir/
Primary URL Description: UNC Press webpage
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781469675268
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Worcester Polytechnic Institute New Faculty Lightning Talks (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Worcester Polytechnic Institute New Faculty Lightning Talks
Abstract: 5 min general overview of my research on African American literary, cultural, and political influences in Afro-Latino memoirs
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 3-3-2023
Location: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

“Co-conspirators in the Struggle”: The Afro-Latino Presence in African American Literary History (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Co-conspirators in the Struggle”: The Afro-Latino Presence in African American Literary History
Abstract: A talk exploring Afro-Latino participation in the African American literary tradition by focusing on the personal and professional relationships that Afro-Latino and African American writers developed with each other from the 1890s to the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 4-11-2023
Location: Anna Maria College

“Co-conspirators in the Struggle”: Afro-Latino and African American Literary Fraternalism (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Co-conspirators in the Struggle”: Afro-Latino and African American Literary Fraternalism
Abstract: A talk exploring Afro-Latino participation in the African American literary tradition by focusing on the personal and professional relationships that Afro-Latino and African American writers developed with each other from the 1890s to the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 10-12-2023
Location: Worcester Academy

Meet the Author Series at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Meet the Author Series at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Abstract: A conversation about my book The Afro-Latino Memoir. Dr. Jorge Santos of the College of the Holy Cross conducted the interview.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 11-27-2023
Location: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The Afro-Latino Memoir: New Books Network Podcast (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Afro-Latino Memoir: New Books Network Podcast
Abstract: Dr. Reighan Gillam of Dartmouth College interviewed me about my book on the New Books Network Podcast.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 12-20-2023
Location: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (online)
Primary URL: https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-afro-latino-memoir

"Sharing Black Latine Stories” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: "Sharing Black Latine Stories”
Abstract: A discussion with Trent Masiki and Elizabeth Tiblanc about the Afro-Latino life writing and lived experiences. Moderated by Yvette Modestin and Josue Perea.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 3-30-24
Location: Frugal Bookstore in Boston, MA

A Fireside Chat with Dr. Trent Masiki (about The Afro-Latino Memoir) (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: A Fireside Chat with Dr. Trent Masiki (about The Afro-Latino Memoir)
Abstract: Dr. Trent Masiki discusses his new book with Kalvin Cummings, Assistant Director, Religion and Spiritual Life at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The conversation was part of the WPI Lunch and Learn Series, sponsored by the WPI Office of DEIB.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 4-29-24
Location: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

“Latinx Literary Modernities” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Latinx Literary Modernities”
Abstract: A roundtable at the Latino Studies Association conference | Arizona State University
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 4-19-24
Location: Arizona State University

“New Titles in Latinx Studies” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “New Titles in Latinx Studies”
Abstract: A panel of authors at the Latino Studies Association conference. | Arizona State University
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 4-18-24
Location: Arizona State University

“A Conversation with Dr. Trent Masiki on The Afro-Latino Memoir” (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “A Conversation with Dr. Trent Masiki on The Afro-Latino Memoir”
Abstract: Sankofa Lecture Series at Quinsigamond Community College
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 4-10-24
Location: Quinsigamond Community College | Worcester, MA

“’Co-Conspirators in the Struggle’: Afro-Latino and African American Literary Fraternalism" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “’Co-Conspirators in the Struggle’: Afro-Latino and African American Literary Fraternalism"
Abstract: A talk exploring Afro-Latino participation in the African American literary tradition by focusing on the personal and professional relationships that Afro-Latino and African American writers developed with each other from the 1890s to the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s.
Author: Trent Masiki
Date: 4-3-24
Location: Clark University | Worcester, MA

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