Decolonial Feminism in Latin Améfrica: An Essential Anthology, a special issue guest edited by Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, is part of the recently launched Feminism in Translation feature. Readers will recall that the feature seeks to unsettle the asymmetry evident in the impact of literatures, debates, and reception histories of feminist theory produced beyond English-speaking contexts, especially in the so-called Global North. As the Co-Editors write in the editorial note that launched the feature, it is clear to us that, while works written in English that gain some traction with a significant audience are often translated into other languages, it is much less common for translations to go the other way. Alternative genealogies of a work and its reception history, we also write, are thus likely unknown beyond their context, especially if they develop counterhegemonic perspectives.
Decolonial Feminism in Latin Améfrica introduces English-speaking audiences to some strands of the development of and debates within decolonial feminism in Améfrica, to recall Afro-Brazilian feminist Lélia Gonzalez's key term. This special issue moved beyond Hypatia's usual format in two ways. First, as an issue devoted to translations, the special issue proposal, approved by both the Co-Editors and the Associate Editors, did not yield an open call for submissions. Rather, the proposal detailed the context and intervention of a set of texts selected by the guest editor.
Second, Hypatia hired translators directly or marginally linked to the intellectual and social movement that the issue explores. This decision not only aimed at addressing matters of epistemic justice, securing translators that have the deepest knowledge of these alternative genealogies and reception histories. It also hoped to address, however minimally, the political economy of knowledge production. It is common that counterhegemonic perspectives are produced outside of academic spaces or are linked only marginally to the academe. This means that many times collectives as well as individuals navigating economic precarity take on the added labor of securing resources for the production and dissemination of their theoretical work.
The Co-Editors hope that the Feminism in Translation feature will continue to grow, offering a space that addresses forms of epistemic injustice and attempting to find ways to offset, as much as possible, the political economy in which they are rooted.
