Buenas noches, American Culture: Latina/o Aesthetics of Night by, María DeGuzmá (review)

Abstract

DeGuzman, Maria. Buenas noches, American Culture: Aesthetics of Night. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2012. 310 pp. Buenas noches, American Culture: Aesthetics of Night further solidifies Maria DeGuzman's already solid reputation as a rigorous, wellread scholar of depth and import in the growing field of literary and cultural studies. While presenting new readings of old favorites (including Americo Paredes, Gloria Anzaldua, Rafael Campo, Miguel Algarin, and many others) but also elucidating lesser known authors and texts (such as Mariana Romo-Carmona, Hector Tobar, and Rane Arroyo, to name but a few), DeGuzman's latest volume is a scholarly tour de force. Buenas noches begins with an excellent introductory chapter, Critically Inhabiting the Night, which examines the prevalence of the trope of night and darkness in culture and literature past and present, asserting that Latina/o figurations of night have constituted an aesthetics of self-representation as well as a form of resistance to compulsory state-sanctioned definitions of identities and conditions for exclusion from or inclusion in the body politic of the United States (2). DeGuzman successfully argues that the recurrence of night and darkness in cultural artifacts has not only aesthetic but also political implications that deserve critical attention. As she describes her own methodology, the chapters that follow present a comparatist approach by considering cultural texts in dialogue not only with each other but also with the U.S. literary tradition more broadly, as well as Latin American literature, a type of transcultural undertaking not very common in either camp. Despite this innovative approach, the four main chapters of the book are divided rather traditionally into geographic areas of origin although they do expand the canon and move beyond the traditional Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Chicano/a groups to include so-called other Latina/os. There is one chapter each on Chicana/o, Caribbean, Central American, and finally, South American texts. DeGuzman's analysis thus challenges dominant, narrow definitions of latinidad; this is a strength of DeGuzman's work and one way in which it clearly contributes to the ever-growing field of studies. In each chapter, DeGuzman discusses an astounding breadth of works, including short fiction, poetry, novels, essays, films, and even photographs, primarily from the 20th and 21st centuries. …