Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Nhora Lucía Serrano’s review of the edited collection Graphic Borders: Latino Comic Books Past, Present and Future (University of Texas Press, 2016) was published in the fall issue of the Journal of American Ethnic History. Edited by Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher González, the book is the inaugural volume in a University of Texas Press series on World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction.
With a foreword by Rocketo cartoonist Frank Espinosa, Graphic Borders presents 13 thought-provoking essays that address a wide scope of topics from Latinx superheroes and nonfictional memoirs, to immigration and Los Bros Hernandez.
Serrano remarks that the book is “a long-overdue critical volume because it earnestly embraces the vital multicultural facet of comics and demonstrates that Latinx comics are a rapidly emerging area of production and study.” She says she recommends the book because it acknowledges the prominence of comics by and about Latinos as well as the scholars who introduce them to the global multicultural stage.
For Serrano, “Graphic Borders heralds in a new era where Latinidad and Latinx comics are a force to be reckoned with, admired, and studied with rigor and enthusiasm alongside mainstream comics.”
The Journal of American Ethnic History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, addresses various aspects of North American immigration history and American ethnic history, including the background of emigration, ethnic and racial groups, Native Americans, race and ethnic relations, immigration policies, and the processes of incorporation, integration, and acculturation.
