Hierarchies established by the Conquest continue to color Latin American culture, often along racial lines. Independence often meant replacing Iberian bureaucrats with rich white Creoles. And abolition never managed to abolish the habits of racism practiced so long they can seem normal, unremarkable. But literary liberties unsettle norms; they trouble complacent readers and authorize minority subjects. Art disrupts structures and wields agency.

Authors include: El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Guamán Poma de Ayala, Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Rigoberta Menchú, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, José María Arguedas, Aníbal Quijano, Catalina de Erauso, Manuel Ramos Otero, Teresa de la Parra, Juan Francisco Manzano, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, W.E.B. Dubois (selections), José Rizal, José Julián Acosta, Oswaldo de Andrade, Fernando Ortiz, Antonio Luna, José Martí, Junot Díaz, Gloria Anzaldúa, Mario Vargas Llosa, Emmanuel Levinas, J. Lyotard, R. Barthes