Latina and latino literature is a growing field of study. It is both an emerging literature and a rich historical one that continues to be documented and uncovered in archival and personal collections. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature offers a sweeping introduction to a variety of genres and themes in Latina/o literature from its Latin American origins in the precolonial period to contemporary texts and perspectives. The collection illustrates the historical, social, and political contexts in which successive generations of Latina and Latino authors have written, exploring the interrelationship between geography, national origin, race, gender, sexuality, and other cultural and ethnic identities.
Led by Editor in Chief Louis G. Mendoza and an editorial board of experts, this collection throws light not only on how Latina/o texts have evolved since the contact period, but also on how we have come to understand and conceptualize this work over the past three generations. From the Chicana/o identity to Caribbean and Central American diasporic literature, from Latina/o letters to bilingual texts and graphic novels, the collection explores a variety of issues that are central to the 21st century's American experience, such as feminism, LGBTQA groups, indigeneity, environmental justice, social movements, migration, and US-Mexico borderlands. Each article paints a nuanced and in-depth portrait of Latina/o literary history in a dynamic, complex, and deeply engaging field of study that is at once highly popular, historical, and theoretical. One of the most extensive and detailed surveys of Latina/o literature to date, this encyclopedia shows the historical and cultural significance of
this literary tradition in the American context, challenging readers to revisit conventional literary notions and expand the borders of American literature.

About the Author:
Louis G. Mendoza is Director of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies and Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of A Journey Around Our America: A Memoir on Cycling, Immigration, and the Latinoization of the U.S. (2012), Conversations Across Our America: Talking About Immigration and the Latinoization of the U.S. (2012), and Historia: The Literary Making of Chicana and Chicano History (2001), as well as the editor of raúlrsalinas and the Jail Machine: My Weapon is My Pen (2006), and the co-editor of Crossing Into America: The New Literature of Immigration (2003) and Telling Tongues: A Latin@ Anthology on Language Experience (2007). He is also the director of a short film based on his research entitled, A Journey Across Our America: Observations and Reflections on the Latinoization of the U.S. (2010).