Latinx Digital Memory: Identity Making in Real Time

Abstract

Recently, there has been an increase in cultural Latinx social media platforms, leading to a renaissance of digital visual cultural memory work around Latinidad. This work focuses on how Latinx digital memory participates in an ongoing identity formation in real time, both in resistance to and collusion with American cultural values. By looking at popular visual Latinx social media accounts, this article explores how Latinx identity is constructed and adapted in real time, through Latinx social media platforms. Three main trends are noted as arising from Latinx social media: nostalgia around Latinx identity, the corporate sponsorship of Latinx memory, and the resistance to hegemonic Latinidad narratives.