Foro: Moving Beyond the Geographic and Methodological Boundaries of Latinx Studies

Abstract: Foro contributors A. K. Sandoval-Strausz (Penn State University), Iliana Yamileth Rodriguez (Emory University), Lori A. Flores (Columbia University), and Sarah Fouts (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) all study Latinx peoples in unexpected places, but they problematize the concept of “newness” itself. This panel discussion reveals that their histories of Latina/o immigrants in eastern Pennsylvania, Atlanta, the US Northeast (including New England), New Orleans, and Baltimore stand on their own without the need for comparisons to the well-researched, “old” sites of Latina/o studies. By taking these local Latina/o stories seriously, the Foro panelists are pioneering novel methods, opening fresh archives, challenging familiar chronologies, and training untapped cohorts of student oral historians. The contributors discuss how they blend oral history with ethnographic fieldwork, draw on urban social science research, and develop intentional approaches that both reveal the utility of life history interviews and the emotional and practical challenges involved, especially when collaborating with vulnerable populations. Indeed, they suggest that some of the “best practices” of oral history should be reevaluated to better account for the quandaries presented by engaging in sensitive research with not “new” but previously overlooked Latina/o communities.