Introduction: Reflecting on the legacy of the Pan-American-Spanish axes of cultural influence

Abstract

Beginning with a review of the research in Art History and literary, cultural, and diaspora studies that challenges colonial narratives of metropolitan hegemony, hierarchical models of influence, and one-directional cultural flows from Europe to the Americas, the Introduction theorizes the distinctive outlines of the Pan-American-Spanish imaginary mapped in the volume's essays. While this imaginary shares elements with Paul Gilroy's black Atlantic, which focuses on cultural exchange and formations structured by the slave trade, it also develops along somewhat different Pan-American and transatlantic axes. Key elements of postcolonial revision include pre-Columbian art, Spanish language, multilingualism and translation, internationally significant events, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Mexican Revolution, and influential figures such as Federico García Lorca. The introduction links the art historians who contribute to the volume to a line of Art History research that has traced the multidirectional networks of influence circulating through Pan-American-Spanish corridors throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, rendering pre-Columbian art a significant source of solidarity and innovation for Pan-American anti-colonial, countercultural, and avant-garde production during these periods and in the formation of Chicano and Latinx ethnicity in the US. A multidirectional transatlantic triangle of exchange also plays a crucial role in innovation among the Modernist and Cold War avant-gardes. The Spanish Civil War and Latin American revolutions, as well as García Lorca's writing and assassination, resonate powerfully across the next century, inspiring mobility, literary and artistic allegiances, fruitful literary friendships, and politically engaged art. Following this review, the Introduction summarizes the book's chapters, revealing an intercontinental Pan-American-Spanish imaginary as a fertile site for horizontal patterns of blending and transculturation among Spanish, Latin American, and US writers and artists. The Introduction concludes with an explanation of some editorial decisions on names and terminology.