Author Talk + Book Signing w/Delia Fernandez-Jones

87 Monroe Center Street NW,Grand Rapids MI 49503

16 March, 2023

Description

We Are LIT, in partnership with Grand Rapids African American Museum is proud to host local historian Delia Fernandez-Jones for an author talk and book signing on Thursday, March 16 at 6:30 pm. Fernandez-Jones is an assistant professor of history at Michigan State University, a core faculty member of Chicano/Latino studies, and the author of Making the MexiRican City: Migration, Placemaking, and Activism in Grand Rapids . (2023, University of Illinois Press). Be our guest! We Are LIT’s owner Kendra will be in conversation with Fernandez-Jones about growing up as a Mexican-Puerto Rican Grand Rapidian and how she drew from her own family‘s history to create a broader body of work that details how Latinos made a home for themselves in Grand Rapids during the early 1900s, and the many ways they have contributed to shaping the City’s culture. A book signing will follow. The event is free to attend, but registration is required. About the BookLarge numbers of Latino migrants began to arrive in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the 1950s. They joined a small but established Spanish-speaking community of people from Texas, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Delia Fernández-Jones merges storytelling with historical analysis to recapture the placemaking practices that these Mexicans, Tejanos, and Puerto Ricans used to create a new home for themselves. Faced with entrenched white racism and hostility, Latinos of different backgrounds formed powerful relationships to better secure material needs like houses and jobs and to recreate community cultural practices. Their pan-Latino solidarity crossed ethnic and racial boundaries and shaped activist efforts that emphasized working within the system to advocate for social change. In time, this interethnic Latino alliance exploited cracks in both overt and structural racism and attracted white and Black partners to fight for equality in social welfare programs, policing, and education. Groundbreaking and revelatory, Making the MexiRican City details how disparate Latino communities came together to respond to social, racial, and economic challenges. Learn more about the book and order a copy from We Are LIT. WATCH!