The Central American Transnational Imaginary: Defining the Transnational Gendered Contours of Central American Immigrant Experiences

In this article, I explore recent cultural production about and by Central Americans in the United States, including the independent film Sin nombre, Sirias’s novel, Bernardo and the Virgin, and the autobiographical account, December Sky: Beyond My Undocumented Life by Cortez-Davis. Drawing on José Saldivar’s conceptualization of a “transnational imaginary,” I contend that these cultural works contribute to the formation and continuous redefinition of an emergent Central American transnational imaginary. In so doing, they provide insight into the identities and multiple subject positions taking shape among Central American immigrants in the United States. Moreover, because in all of these texts women play a central role, these works also call attention to the gendered dimensions and implications of such processes.