Through a collection of critical essays, this work explores twelve keywords central in Latin American and Caribbean Studies: indigenismo, Americanism, colonialism, criollismo, race, transculturation, modernity, nation, gender, sexuality, testimonio, and popular culture. The central question motivating this work is how to think—epistemologically and pedagogically—about Latin American and Caribbean Studies as fields that have had different historical and institutional trajectories across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States.

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel is Professor of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, USA. She is author of From Lack to Excess: 'Minor' Readings of Colonial Latin American Literature and Coloniality of Diasporas: Rethinking Intra-colonial Migrations in a Pan Caribbean Context.

Ben. Sifuentes-Jáuregui is Associate Professor of American Studies and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, USA. He is author of Transvestism, Masculinity, and Latin American Literature and The Avowal of Difference: Queer Latino American Narratives.