Monthly Archives: March 2023

I found it most interesting that Dr. Lara points out the inability for US-readers to fully ‘immerse’ ourselves into the contents of the ofrenda, even if the reader is also queer and Black. Outside of the text itself, I guess … Continue reading →

Anna-Maurine creatively uses the word “body-land” to emphasize the connection between the body and land and its meaning regarding indigeneity, queerness, and black sovereignty. She uses colons to connect different layers of meanings of body-land to articulate how inseparable the … Continue reading →

Ana-Maurine Lara’s ethnography on queer, black, and indigenous life in the Dominican Republic was different from the ethnographies we’ve read before in that Lara writes in a more poetic and literary style. Her use of footnotes also differs from other … Continue reading →

I think the concept of an arrivant state is particularly insightful as it highlights the intersection of colonialism, indigeneity, and violence. It is a state of affairs that exists in the United States, but we fail to consider these intersections … Continue reading →

Garcia’s ethnography on pastoral clinics and rural heroin addiction in New Mexico humanizes heroin addiction. She emphasizes the societal, familial, and systemic issues that contribute to pastoral clinics’ purported failure by measures self-discharge and relapse. Garcia’s quote in Chapter 5 … Continue reading →

In regards to content, I enjoyed this reading as it reframes the issue of drug addiction, which is highly stigmatized in the United States. Garcia goes against norms and stereotypes of addicts to look at alternative factors in drug usage and relapse. … Continue reading →

Garcia’s The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande provides a fascinating look into the lifestyle and challenges faced by people in New Mexico, tracing complicated histories of heroin addiction, detox resources, overdoses, and structural violence. Methodologically, the … Continue reading →