Asia in Caribbean Literature and Art

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Friday, March 5, 2027 | 6pm to 7:30pm

25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Suite 1000
between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan

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In Asia in Caribbean Literature and Art: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad (Escribana Books, 2026), Prof. Araceli Tinajero explores dynamic Transpacific cultural exchanges while illuminating the historical and creative connections between Asia and the Caribbean. The volume begins with an analysis of Indian heritage in Trinidadian poetry and visual arts, followed by an examination of how Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican writers depicted their firsthand experiences of the Vietnam War.

Further investigating East Asian influences, subsequent sections examine the adaptation of haiku in the Dominican literary tradition and representations of Japan in contemporary Dominican art. Prof. Tinajero also highlights the reciprocal flow of culture, featuring an interview on the rising popularity of Dominican merengue and bachata in Japan, before concluding with broader reflections and proposed trajectories for future research.

Purchase Book: https://www.amazon.com/

Author Bio

Araceli Tinajero is professor of Hispanic Literatures at The City College of New York/CUNY and the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Orientalismo en el modernismo hispanoamericano; El Lector: A History of the Cigar Factory Reader; Kokoro: A Mexican Woman in Japan; and A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan. Tinajero is the editor of Cultura y letras cubanas en el siglo XXI; Exilio y cosmopolitismo en el arte y la literatura hispánica; and Orientalisms of the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian World. She has co-edited Technology and Culture in Twentieth Century México (with J. Brian Freeman) and Handbook on Cuban History, Literature, and the Arts: New Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Social Change (with Mauricio Font).