Reading Trauma and Violence in U.S. Latina/o Children’s Literature

Abstract

My writing about children’s literature here is part of my larger work in trauma theory and Latina/o literary and cultural studies. In this essay, I explore the ways four writers, Luis Rodriguez, Julia Alvarez, Gloria Anzaldua, and Roberto Gonzalez, extend their engagements with matters of violence and trauma from their writing for adult audiences into their children’s literature. Reading the movement of their writing across genres illustrates the distinct ways authors dealing with matters of trauma and violence repeatedly return to certain scenes of memory and event not so much for finding resolution as for making meaning and instigating change.