Description:
A transatlantic, more-than-human exploration of LatinX presence, memory, and empire in the heart of Madrid
How does LatinXness begin in the Kingdom of Spain? In The X Catalogue, Claudia Milian offers a vade mecum of Madrid, exploring it as an ecological archive and former imperial metropolis. Approaching the "X" as metaphor, method, and philosophical practice, she extends inquiry beyond the human. Milian traces the "X" through transplanted life from the Americas: the roots of the ahuehuete tree (the Montezuma cypress), the engineering and renaming of the acocoxochitl (the dahlia), the "invasion" of the cotorras argentinas (Monk parakeets), and the exhibition of the caimán (the alligator) as a conquered object.
Critical theory and historical cultural studies meet to remap the Atlantic world through the "Xs" of arrival, circulation, and transformation. By examining how LatinXness inhabits the Spanish capital, Milian breaks open LatinX Spain and global LatinX studies. The X Catalogue resists containment, mirroring its objects of study and challenging categories such as native, foreign, or authentic. It advances a more-than-human, transatlantic understanding of LatinXness within empire studies, environmental humanities, and the critical study of tourism.
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Review Quotes:
"Claudia Milian succeeds spectacularly. The X Catalogue is a strong and vital contribution to the nascent but growing scholarly literature that places Latinx presences and possibilities at the critical conceptual juncture of historical cultural studies, environmental studies, and diasporx studies." --John Morán González, coeditor of The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature
"A brilliant and original journey through Madrid as a living archive of Spanish/Hispanic American presence, colonial memory, and migrant life. Through the dahlia, the caimán, and the Spanish/Hispanic migrant body, Claudia Milian reveals the erased histories of displacement, classification, and survival carried by plants, animals, and people. Bold, dazzling, and deeply inventive, The X Catalogue invites readers to see Madrid anew--as a LatinX, colonial, botanical, animal, and human archive alive with hidden presences. It is a work that transforms our perception of Madrid while deepening our understanding of the silences and survivals that continue to shape the modern world." --Walter D. Mignolo, author of The Politics of Decolonial Investigations