Juan Flores (professor)
Encyclopedia
Juan Flores is a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and director of Latino Studies at New York University
. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College in New York, and both his Masters and Ph.D from Yale University
in German Literature
. Flores' major areas of interest include social and cultural theory, Latino and Puerto Rican
studies, popular music, theory of diaspora and transnational
communities and Afro-Latino culture.
).
. He focuses specifically on the transculturation
that occurs as groups move from their homeland to the U.S. and back (see Fernando Ortiz
).
colonial standards and how this categorization changes according to location (see Coloniality of Power
).
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College in New York, and both his Masters and Ph.D from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in German Literature
German literature
German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...
. Flores' major areas of interest include social and cultural theory, Latino and Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
studies, popular music, theory of diaspora and transnational
Transnationalism
Transnationalism is a social movement and scholarly research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states....
communities and Afro-Latino culture.
Social and cultural theory
Flores’ work articulates how culture is represented, identified, produced, consumed and regulated within Latino diasporic communities in more recent times (see circuit of cutureCircuit of culture
The Circuit of Culture is a theory or framework used in the area of cultural studies. It was devised in 1997 by a group of theorists when studying the Walkman cassette player. The theory suggests that in studying a cultural text or artifact you must look at five aspects: its representation,...
).
Theory of diaspora and transnational communities
In his book The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning, Flores distinguishes between “new diasporas” and those of earlier time periods by noting the difference in “the intensity and reciprocity of the ties between emigrant or exiled populations and their countries of origin” (Flores, 2009). Flores regularly uses the analogy of seeds being spread and growing where they land to describe the Latino diasporic experience. Flores describes the culture formed in the communities where they reside as dynamic and continuously changing due to the exchange of cultural remittancesCultural remittances
Cultural remittances are the ensembles of ideas, values, and expressive forms introduced into societies of origin by emigrants and their families as they return home, sometimes for the first time, temporary visits, or permanent resettlement...
. He focuses specifically on the transculturation
Transculturation
Transculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures....
that occurs as groups move from their homeland to the U.S. and back (see Fernando Ortiz
Fernando Ortiz
Fernando Ortiz Fernández was a Cuban essayist, ethnomusicologist and scholar of Afro-Cuban culture. Ortiz was a prolific polymath dedicated to exploring, recording, and understanding all aspects of indigenous Cuban culture...
).
Afro-Latino culture
Much of Flores’ work on the Afro-Latino culture has focused on its progression in the United States. In The Afro-Latino Reader, he analyzes the way in which Afro-Latinos are racially categorized according to EurocenteredEurocentrism
Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
colonial standards and how this categorization changes according to location (see Coloniality of Power
Anibal Quijano
Anibal Quijano is a Peruvian sociologist and humanist thinker, known for having developed the concept of "coloniality of power". His body of work has been influential in the fields of post-colonial studies and critical theory....
).
Awards
Flores has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including:- Casa de las AmericasCasa de las AméricasCasa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world...
Prize Insularismo e ideologia burguesa en Antonio Pedreira (1980) - Ford grant for The Afro-Latin@ Project (2002-3)
- National Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
(NEH) Research Fellowship (2007) - Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
Latino Legacy Award (2008) - Casa de las AmericasCasa de las AméricasCasa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world...
Prize (2009) for Bugalú y otros guisos: ensayos sobre culturas Latinas en Estados Unidos (2010).
Selected Works
- 1970: Poetry in East Germany
- 1980: Insularismo e ideologia burguesa en Antonio Pedreira- Premio Casa de las AméricasCasa de las AméricasCasa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the rest of the world...
, (Americas Extraordinary Prize for studies on Latinos in the United States) - 1993: Divided Borders: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity - a collection of the essays on Puerto Rican culture, history, and literature.
- 1997: La venganza de Cortijo
- 2000: From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity - In this book, Flores describes and celebrates the unique role of Puerto Rican culture in the music, literature and other pop culture in their more recent history in the United States.
- 2004: Cortijo's Wake - Juan Flores translated this piece by Edgardo Rodríguez JuliáEdgardo Rodríguez JuliáEdgardo Rodríguez Juliá is a Puerto Rican essayist and novelist.- Bibliography :* La renuncia del héroe Baltasar...
, describing the funeral of Puerto Rican musician Rafael CortijoRafael CortijoRafael Cortijo , was a Puerto Rican musician, orchestra leader, and composer.As a child, Cortijo became interested in Caribbean music and enjoyed the works of some of the era's most successful Plena music musicians...
. - 2007: Companion to Latino Studies - A collection of 40 original essays written by leading scholars in the field, dedicated to exploring the question of Latino/a identity.
- 2009: The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning - In this book, Flores examines the “new” diasporic process and the effects that this transnationalInternational----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
movement has on the home country. - 2010: Bugalú y otros guisos: ensayos sobre culturas latinas en Estados Unidos - Describes Latino culture in the United States.
- 2011: The Afro-Latino Reader - Includes a selection of more than sixty scholarly essays, short stories, newspaper and magazine articles, memoirs, interviews and poetry that discuss the unique social and ethnic categorical position of Latinos of African descent in the United States and throughout the Americas.
- His current projects include: Companion to Latino Studies (co-edited with Renato RosaldoRenato Rosaldo-Life:He graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in 1971.He is emeritus professor at Stanford University.He teaches at New York University, and is a New York Institute for the Humanities Fellow....
).