From the Editor: The Autumn of Our Discontent

Abstract

From the EditorThe Autumn of Our Discontent John Nieto-Phillips (bio) 25 de Abril Esta é a madrugada que eu esperavaO dia inicial inteiro e limpoOnde emergimos da noite e do silêncioE livres habitamos a substância do tempo Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, 1974 A new day has dawned, at least in theory. One week ago, voters in the United States chose Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to lead the country. The election was not the landslide "blue wave" many had expected, but a nail-biter that hinged on mail-in ballots and marginal victories in swing states. A record 78 million Americans voted for Biden and Harris, 5 million more than voted for President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Though Electoral College votes for well exceed the 270 threshold for a Biden/Harris win, the incumbents refuse to concede, alleging (without evidence) massive fraud by election officials. The election was stolen, they claim. Defying decades of practice and convention, Trump loyalists insist there will be no "smooth transition" of power. And COVID-19 is raging. For those who have endured four years of precarity, loss, and hardship, Biden's election bodes important changes. Their hopes are distilled in the words of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen: "Esta é a madrugada que eu esperava." The iconic poem "25 de Abril" captured the resonant promise of a new day, when Portugal's dictatorship was peacefully deposed, "o dia inicial inteiro e limpo / onde emergimos da noite e do silêncio." Famously, no shots were fired during the 1974 Carnation Revolution. Instead, celebrants filled the streets and followed the example of the pacifist Celeste Caeiro in placing carnations in the muzzles of armed soldiers. May our political transition be as peaceful. The election portends a new day for many Latinx voters, many of whom have borne the brunt of Trump's draconian policies on immigration, healthcare, education, the economy, and the environment. Exit polls suggest that Latinx voters, impressively, cast 13% of all votes, equaling the figure for African Americans for the first time in a national election. However, this election has also reminded us that Latinx votes are neither homogenous nor predictable. There is no uniform [End Page 1] "Hispanic vote." Rather, Latinx citizens are incredibly diverse in their views and votes, according to Geraldo Cadava, author of The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump (2020). Fully one-third of self-identified Hispanic or Latina/o voters opted for Trump. In Florida, for example, Cuban and Venezuelan Americans helped Trump win the state by three percentage points. What, exactly, does the future hold for most Latinx communities and individuals? What will be the fate of more than 700,000 Dreamers, whose legal status hangs in the balance? Or the 545 migrant children who were separated from their families by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and whose parents cannot be located? These and many other issues impacting Latinx communities are the source of intense speculation. One thing is clear, however: in the face of a pandemic and innumerable challenges, Latinx voters mobilized and voted in larger numbers than ever before. The long-vaunted Sleeping Giant—so dubbed by media outlets to describe the Latinx population's massive yet latent political power—has been roused. And it is far from monolithic. This issue is a compendium, of sorts, focusing on migrant stories, lives, and futurities. It features an exclusive interview by Ylce Irizarry of the acclaimed writer Angie Cruz. In scholarly articles by Micah Donohue, Amanda Ellis, and Gretel Vera-Rosas, we learn how both fiction and documentary film mediate and map transborder lives and bodies. In moving essays by Francesca Cricelli, Andrew Bentley, Guillermo Reyes, and Cecilia Villarruel, we discern, variously, the adventure or the angst of the uprooted (os desenraizados, in Portuguese), and psychic toll imposed by one's coming and going (el vaivén, in Spanish) between home and homeland, between languages and social codes. Our pages also are graced with creative works by Rodrigo Figueroa Obregón, Ana María Hontanilla, Christen Sperry García, Joe Crawford, and María del Rosario Lara, and Diego Javier...