Marcos Gonsalez is an essayist and assistant professor of English living and working in New York City.

.He is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent and identifies as a MexiRican.

.Pedro’s Theory Marcos’ book of autotheory features literary criticism, cultural analysis, and memoir writing. The essay “Pedro of the Americas” belongs to this collection.

.He’s currently writing a book on queer and trans-Latinx indolence.

Understanding the essay

Content

“Pedro of the Americas” searches to establish a poetics of Latinx writing/literature. It moves beyond the borders of the US, and takes into account Latin American heritage, diasporic creations and tensions, and a multicultural network of references. It displays a profound reflection on the ongoing impact of colonialism and coloniality (non-legal legacies of colonialism) in Latinx lives.

Form

Gonsalez built the essay as a contrapunteo of interconnected sections. It is a back-and-forth between descriptions of his first trip to Mexico (his ancestral homeland) as an adult; reminiscences of his life in the US; his readings of literary, historical, and cultural works from Latin America and the US, and his conceptualization of the tourist as an embodiment of colonialism.

Key Concepts

The tourist- the surveyors of lands and their pleasures. The tourist wants [colonialism looks to create] a landscape fit to be consumed with little or no resistance from the environment [and the indigenous population]. (259)

Land- through the lens of colonialism, the land is something to possess, claim ownership of, domesticate, and exploit for profit (see Colon’s description 262). Indigenous people ecologically think of the land as a site to interact with, respect, and honor. From this perspective, there is no ownership of land; instead, there are experiences of and with the land.

The Americas- a space created by the history of colonization, imperial expansion (war), slavery, and genocide of Indigenous and African people. Hence, the writing that emerges from the Americas showcases both accommodations to the demands of colonialism/coloniality and also the clashes and dissent to the West. Gonsalez understands the West as a normalized system based on individualism, monetary accumulation, and lawful exploitation.

Analytical Practice in Groups

Division of labor: one person reads; one or two people pick and analyze quotes from the essay; one person summarizes the group’s discussion.

Prompts:

Analyze D.H. Lawrence and the mozo story as an analogy of colonialism and writing in the Americas (251-253).

What ethical considerations does Gonsalez establish regarding tourism and diaspora? What is his notion of “belonging” (pages 259-261)?