Latin London: Representation of Life in The Diaspora. The Latin American Community In London –1970s Onwards.

This thesis sets out to explore the representation of Latin Americans in London through a conceptual analysis of visual narratives produced from the 1970s onwards. The contribution to knowledge of this thesis derives from understanding the representational dynamics of the Latin American diaspora in London, including the characteristics of the diasporic group as transcultural and women-led, with a solid political agency. It presents archival research from Southwark and Haringey libraries, visual practices produced by NGOs with community groups, amateur or independent, and my own contributions to different interventions and calls by the communities I was inserted in whilst doing this research.

The thesis provides a theoretical framework around migration, diaspora, and identity; it also contributes with an analytical groundwork using concepts such as transcultural subject, mobilising identities, the rate of assimilation, and visual activism to understand constructions of Latinidad in the context of gentrification in London. It does so through a series of case studies, each of which raises interesting and significant questions about the urban, community archives, and feminist activism.

Methodologically, the thesis combines both an original analysis of visual culture and a take on Visual Methodologies (Rose, 2022). It draws on the production of arts-based tools like the Podcast Latin London and the audio-visual production Esporas/Spores. As a creative approach to knowledge, it engages in methodological analysis using the visual as essayistic, which interrogates the capacity to reproduce a discourse through images that feature persuasive elements.

It presents Latin Londoners (Román-Velázquez, 1999) as those in the diasporic formation of a community, who have gathered forces and created manifestations of feminised resistance towards urban planning policies in London, and the hostile environment for migrants.