ABOUT THIS BOOK

The essayist and cultural commentator Ilan Stavans and the analytic philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia share long-standing interests in the intersection of art and ideas. Here they take thirteen pieces of Latino art, each reproduced in color, as occasions for thematic discussions. Whether the work at the center of a particular conversation is a triptych created by the brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Andres Serrano's controversial Piss Christ, a mural by the graffiti artist BEAR_TCK, or Above All Things, a photograph by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Stavans and Gracia's exchanges inevitably open out to literature, history, ethics, politics, religion, and visual culture more broadly. Autobiographical details pepper Stavans and Gracia's conversations, as one or the other tells what he finds meaningful in a given work. Sparkling with insight, their exchanges allow the reader to eavesdrop on two celebrated intellectuals—worldly, erudite, and unafraid to disagree—as they reflect on the pleasures of seeing.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. He has written, edited, and translated many books, including Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, and The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature.

Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His many books include Painting Borges: Philosophy Interpreting Art Interpreting Literature, Images of Thought: Philosophical Interpretations of Carlos Estévez's Art, and Latinos in America: Philosophy and Social Identity.

REVIEWS

"While there are moments at which the writers arrive at a fresh viewing, they more often use the art as a platform to speak broadly of human life, preferring the wide aperture of much philosophic writing that can lend itself to generalizations. Usefully, the sweeping nature of many statements is offset by the dialogic mode, with both writers as comfortable disagreeing as they are bolstering each other’s insights. While there are moments that lag, there are also moments that shine, especially when Stavans and Gracia draw on their own lived experiences, twining narrative with philosophy."

-- Publishers Weekly

“These multidisciplinary musings aimed at scholars of art, language, and identity will be enjoyed by those who are content to ponder, wander, and disagree alongside the authors.”

-- Lindsay King Library Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments vii
Thirteen 1
1. The Labyrinth of History: Einar and Jamex de la Torre, La reconquista 17
2. The Impostor's Mask: María Brito, Conversation 35
3. On Desecration: Andres Serrano, Piss Christ 49
4. The Death Game: Francisco Oller, El velorio 61
5. A Girl's Innocence: Marian Yampolsky, Elva 75
6. The Thereafter: Carmen Lomas Garza, Heaven and Hell 93
7. The Street as Art: BEAR_TCK, Chicano Graffiti 107
8. Desperate Escape: José Bedia, Siguiendo su instinto 123
9. The Horrors of War: Luis Cruz Azaceta, Slaughter 139
10. The Ambiguity of Madness: Martín Ramírez, No. 111, Untitled (Train and Tunnel) 153
11. I Laugh in Your Race! Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (Skull) 167
12. American America: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Above All Things 181

13. Twisted Tongue: Adál, La Spanglish Sandwich Bodega Bag 195

Thirteen Plus One 209

The Artists219

Index 227

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