La poesía como recurso colectivo frente al imperialismo cultural hacia los mexicoamericanos. El caso de la poesía de José Olivarez

Abstract

Cultural imperialism is a condition of oppression that consists in dominant narratives of society making invisible invisible the particular perspective of minority groups while stigmatizing them based on impoverished and degrading concepts. As a consequence, members of minority groups internalize oppression and experience moral cruelty. In this article it is proposed that poetry can be a collective resource to counteract such symbolic damage. Following Sandra Faulkner's proposal on poetic research, I use the poetry of the Mexican-American poet Jose Olivarez to show how poetry is a tool to question stigmatized stereotypes, make visible the subjective experiences of minority groups, counteract the humiliation generated by the stigmas, and retake the leading role in identity negotiation processes from which Mexican Americans have been excluded because of cultural imperialism.