The Art of Afro-Latina Consciousness-Raising in Shadowshaper

Abstract

Drawing on popular trends of zombies, magic, and superheroes in young adult fiction and blockbuster film franchises, author Daniel José Older presents Sierra Santiago, an Afro-Latina hero in Shadowshaper (2015) who combats local forces of cultural appropriation and gentrification in her Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. This chapter focuses on the critical role of street art in her analysis of Shadowshaper and, specifically, the community muralists that, in the late twentieth century, established urban spaces as Latina/o and Chicana/o barrios. By positioning Sierra at the center of community muralism, Older disrupts the absence of Latina/o artists and, particularly female artists, by foregrounding moments of artistic processes throughout the novel, including descriptions of Sierra’s stream of consciousness as she makes art that reflects Afro-Latinidad.