Creating Places: Paseos, Vaivén and Compadrazgo in Latinx Romance

Paseos, vaivén y compadrazgo en la ficción romántica Latinx

Abstract

This article examines the practices of place-making in 21st-century Latinx romance. In specific locations characters feel safe and connected within a thriving intergenerational social world indissociable from civic engagement rooted in local histories. Through the lense of geographical theories of place-making, I will examine the Love & Tacos series by Alana Quintana Albertson, the Vega Family series by Natalie Caña and the Milagro Street series by Angelina M. Lopez, in which gentrification and agroindustry threaten to erase the many historical traces that make places meaningful when culture and context intersect, to argue that the romantic plot is a reclamation story which locates Latinx communities at the heart of urban life and economic activity in the US.