Nepantla, Audiotopia, and the Role of the Creative Imagination: A Theology of Selena Quintanilla-Perez
Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza has had an undeniable influence on particular communities. For the Latinx community, this text has been utilized—and continues to be utilized—as a resource from which identity formation can be gleaned. One example is Lara Medina, who credits much of her work, as a Chicana theologian, historian, and activist, to Gloria Anzaldúa, whose book was published during Medina’s time as a graduate student. Medina “considered the book to be ‘a new Chicana bible.’” Pertinent to this paper is Medina’s understanding of Anzaldúa’s interpretation of nepantla; while most scholars argue that great confusion abounds in this in-between space, Medina argues that in this space of duality and complementary opposites, meaning-making and healing occur.
Arguably, one of the most famous Chicanas of our time was Selena Quintanilla-Perez. Selena lived in nepantla, straddling a life between borders yet traversing them. Through her music, she was able to touch the lives of both Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Her music became a source of power and hope and gave agency to people on both sides of the border. Janet Muniz describes this utopian-like experience as an audiotopia.
Putting Medina and Muniz in conversation with one another, this paper will: 1) identify Medina’s understanding of nepantla; 2) affirm that Selena lived, wrote, and performed in nepantla; 3) argue that Selena’s artistic expressions became a source of hope and empowerment, bringing fans into a space of audiotopia. Lastly, this paper will look at the contextual deployment of such a theology. Our current political climate is filled with anti-immigrant rhetoric, xenophobia, sexism, and racism. Can Selena, a young artist from nepantla, help one to make meaning in such a hostile environment?
Armando Estrada is a PhD Candidate at Boston College.
Forms of Justice 