HACIA UNA DEFINICIÓN (FALLIDA) DE LA LITERATURA Y EL CINE ASIÁTICO-LATINOAMERICANOS

Abstract

From the late 19th century until the late 20th century, the presence and relevance of the East Asian population in Latin America were invisibilized, if not openly discriminated, and stereotyped in its cultural productions. During that period, the portrayal of East Asia, East Asians and their descendants in Latin American film and literature was mainly shaped by an orientalist and exoticizing gaze. Nevertheless, since the last decade of the last century—in a context of multiculturalism—Latin American writers and directors of East Asian descent (and East Asians living in Latin America) emerged, narrating from new perspectives. At the same time, Latin American writers and directors of non-Asian descent began to reflect on the Asian component in Latin America, in a different way from the orientalist gaze of the 20th century, with more complex characters and stories. Many of these cultural productions started to be analyzed by scholars in the last twenty years, building the burgeoning field of Asian-Latin American studies. This article aims, firstly, to present a brief overview of the history of Asian-Latin American studies as a research area; secondly, to propose possible categories (and limitations) for the study of Asian-Latin American literature and film; and thirdly, to add up to the bridge between Asian and Latin American scholars, promoting new research on the interconnections between the two regions.