Date of Award
Spring 5-3-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Creative Writing
First Advisor
Mychal Denzel Smith
Second Advisor
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
Academic Program Adviser
Michael Rizzo
Abstract
In the vein of the literary and artistic genre of Indigenous Futurisms, the author documents her understanding of indigeneity and the impacts of migration through her relationship with her father and extended family’s culture, one unbeknownst to her until adulthood. Through visitation to her family’s pueblo in Oaxaca, Mexico, her father’s hometown of Mexico City, her hometown in North Carolina, new conversations with family members on their Zapoteco and Mixteco heritage, and re-examination and contextualization of memories, the author begins to understand what the process of ‘reconnecting’ looks like for her family. Particular emphasis is placed on experiences of travel and transit, imagined, experienced, or recounted, as a vehicle for sharing cultural and familial knowledge. The author binds this fragmented work of documentation with visions of world shifts, speculative memories, and political analysis of the circumstances that informed her father’s decision to keep his Indigenous background from the author.
Recommended Citation
Aparicio-Ramírez, Rosalind, "Road Gives Way: Transiting Indigenous Reconnection" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/1176
