Cecelia Alfonso-Stokes, a PhD student in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, joins us as the new project assistant for Holding History. Her research examines twentieth and twenty-first century Latinx and American literature and popular culture, and she is invested in questions about the historical relationship between Latinx cultural production and the legal and political landscapes in which they emerge.
Ever invested in the superhero form, Cecelia’s own origin story is one of duality. As a second-generation Cuban-American who grew up in the non-descript lands located in the foothills of South Carolina’s mountains (not the beach), she recounts stories of her grandparents immigrating from Cuba in the 60s and relied heavily upon an archive of oral tradition to understand her place as a semi-diasporic subject. At the same time, Cecelia was homeschooled and often turned to popular culture–specifically film and television–to connect to American society, depending on her interests and “fandoms” to give form to her identity and become legible within social worlds. Altogether, Cecelia’s experiences influences her research as she draws from a myriad of archival sources, both orthodox and anarchic; her own archive ranges from legal documentation forms to comic books to podcasts to, regrettably, Reddit message board forums. One of Cecelia’s proudest achievements is passing on her love of reading to her kids, Rosa and Henry, and will bring them along to see some super old books with us, even if they won’t appreciate it until they’re much older.
Cecelia understands archives as sites of and testaments to communal knowledge and meaning making. Operating in archive spaces, be it in the stacks or online, she seeks to build knowledge in community to underscore the affective life of those indexed by the archive: how they feel when checking the “Hispanic” box, or how flipping through boxes of comic books at the pulga (flea market) influences people’s lives. Understanding the complex social lives of those on both sides of the archival process is what makes her so excited to be working with Holding History.
Given her belief in knowledge production as a social practice, she occasionally guest hosts on the MCUniversity Podcast where she shares both her academic opinions and thoughts as well as her silly ones, and even co-produced an episode for the podcast’s Patreon feed as part of her research into Spider-Man’s popularity amongst Latinos.
As she approaches the archives and texts with whimsy and curiosity, she hopes to continue fostering spaces where people can come and share those feelings in community, be it in person, in writing, or through our podcast.
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