Making Face and Latine Neurodiversity : A Liberative Ethic

Concerned with how neurodivergent Latines combat the intersection of racism and ableism, this book explores methods of dismantling racialized neuro-normativity. Chapters reveal how ableist arguments are used to justify the discrimination and marginalization of people of colour. This use of ableist logic in service of racism leads to the disavowal of disability by communities of colour. In order to challenge these issues, the book explores Latine neurodiversity through a Christian ethical perspective.

‘Haciendo cara’, or ‘making face’, is a Mexican American expression to describe an expressive face. Building upon the work of Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa, this book uses the metaphor of haciendo cara, as an ethic for resisting neuro-ableism. The metaphor draws upon the wells of Latine culture, understanding and challenging the invisibility of neurodivergent Latine oppression.

Rudolph P. Reyes II interoperates this metaphor as a tool to not only ‘make’ one’s own face or identity, but also to begin ‘making’ a more just society. To ‘make face’, as we learn, is the continual process of being unapologetically neurodivergent, transforming oppressive realities, and imagining neuro-futures.