Latinx Geographies

My research working with Q'eqchi' land activists challenged me to rethink my assumptions about solidarities in transnational Latinidades. My current research is developing with a settler of color analytic, seeking to grapple with my work as a settler of color on Coast Salish lands. I am particularly challenged to think about the ways in which Latinx communities in the US appropriate Indigenous language and culture (or just claim to be Indigenous) while refusing to be accountable to their role in settler colonialism. I think we need to develop capacious understanding of "settler," one that can acknowledge the complexities of relation that ensue when Q'eqchi' Maya migrants seek asylum in the US, permission with American Indian tribes, and the dream of repatriation of their homelands in Guatemala. I hope that my work can be part of a broader conversation that calls for all of us to be accountable to Indigenous nations.

  • Indigenous to where?

    This paper centers the importance of homelands in the distinction between indigeneity and Latinidades, or multiple Latinx identities. I emphasize the political nature of indigeneity, where the nation (pueblo) has the collective right to determine who is a member of their group. Latinidades, on the other hand, emerged as a racialized category under US imperialism and immigration. In thinking through solidarity work with Q’eqchi’ migrants who seek asylum in the US as part of a broader strategy to recuperate their homelands, I explore this question: Why do some families, like mine, cease to be Indigenous, while others endure? What does this mean for intergenerational identity claims? I identify a split between backward-looking claims to distant ancestry and forward-looking claims grounded in relationality with homelands and Indigenous kin. In conclusion, I invite Latino studies scholars to move beyond individualized identities and develop solidarities grounded on constellations of kinship across Abiayala.

    Ybarra, M (2023) Indigenous to Where? Homelands and nation (pueblo) in Indigenous Latinx studies. Latino Studies 21: 22-41

  • Latinx Geographies

    This chapter explores the trajectory of Latinx geographies within human geography, highlighting the contributions of Latinx scholars and examining the intersectionality of Latinx identities with race, gender, and indigeneity. It traces the emerging scholarship that grapples with anti-Blackness, Indigenous settler appropriations and language justice. By engaging with migration, border politics, and place-making, Latinx geographies offer valuable insights into the complexities of Latinx identities and their intersections with broader social and political processes. Latinx geographies provide a vital space for Latinx scholars to reclaim their narratives and challenge dominant discourses within human geography.

    Muñoz, L and Ybarra, M (2024) Latinx geographies. In Chen, G and Eaves, L (eds) How to Foster Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice in Geography. (pp 74-81). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar

  • Migration

    How we think about race and indigeneity depends on where we are thinking from. Rather than fixed assumptions about where borders are and how settler colonialism works, I build with conversations that meet people where they are at, and how that shapes their relationship to state violence, identify formations, and solidarities.

    Ybarra, M and Peña, IL (2017) “We Don’t Need Money, We Need to be Together”: Forced Transnationality in Deportation’s Afterlives. Geopolitics 22: 34-50

    Ybarra, M (2019) 'We are not ignorant': Transnational migrants’ experiences of racialized securitization. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.