Nuyorican and Diasporican Visual Art

“An indispensable volume that traces the formation of Nuyorican identity through the intersections of visual and performance art with urban activist politics. The art of all marginalized people is inherently political, and these cogent and impactful essays by an array of quintessential contributors are a loving tribute to Puerto Rico’s rapidly expanding diasporic arts community. From the Nuyorican Poets Café to Taller Boricua to barrio aesthetics in Philadelphia, Chicago, and beyond, Nuyorican and Diasporican Visual Art finally brings a long-ignored story to light.” - Ed Morales, author of Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico

“Making an important contribution to the fields of art history and cultural studies, this volume constitutes a groundbreaking study of the varied and wide-ranging visual art and aesthetics of Nuyorican and Diasporican communities. This unique and much-needed book challenges the elitism and racism that continues to characterize the art world and demonstrates that art-historical accounts of American and contemporary art that ignore or obscure the contributions of Nuyorican/Diasporican artists are incomplete and uninformed.” - Adriana Zavala, author of Becoming Modern, Becoming Tradition: Women, Gender, and Representation in Mexican Art

"What these and so many more Nuyorican/Diasporican artists share is a perspective that confronts an increasingly aggressive financial speculation in housing and space in contemporary cities. Their art comprises a demand to be visible, recognised, and valued in a metropolitan space ordered by an imperial culture bent on erasing the singularity of its colonial peoples." - Gavin O'Toole, Latin American Review of Books

"Taken as a whole, the book uplifts art as both resistance and blueprint for collective future-making. In the end, Nuyorican & Diasporican Visual Art is not just a book. It is a map, a record, and a movement. It reminds us that the work of liberation is collective and ongoing, and that visual art has always been a powerful force in that struggle." - Alicia Grullón, Hyperallergic

"This publication dismantles narratives of exclusion that have dominated canonical art history and represents artists whose activism and visions for a radical avant-garde are rooted in belonging and place. Recommended. All readership levels." - L. Estevez, Choice

"In uniting a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, editors Dávila and Ramirez have realized a major achievement in the ongoing study and visibility of Nuyorican and Diasporican visual culture." - Susanna V. Temkin, Centro Journal