Project Website: Comics and Race in Latin America (CORALA)

This website provides information about Comics and Race in Latin America (CORALA), which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK. The research project was originally scheduled to run from March 2021 to February 2024, though this was extended by four months due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project had two main goals: (i) to trace the representation of different racial groups in comics produced in three Latin American countries, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, from the end of the nineteenth century up until the present day; (ii) to work with contemporary comics artists from those three countries to produce new explorations of racial identities in and through comics in the light of the research undertaken in (i).

Research was undertaken in a range of different public libraries, archives, and private collections in Latin America and Europe, as well as online. A range of material was consulted, including newspapers, comics magazines, zines and other ephemera, graphic novels, comics anthologies, and websites. Though the project's research team was based at the University of Manchester, they also worked extensively with researchers, artists, producers, festival organisers, and art spaces in Latin America as part of the co-production of comics looking at issues of racialised representation.

The project website, which is available in both English and Spanish, provides more detail about the focus and goals of CORALA. In addition, it provides information about:

People associated with the project:

• Research team based at the University of Manchester, including the Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, and the Postdoctoral Research Associates
• The six Artists based in Argentina, Colombia, and Peru who worked on the project
• • Lucía Brutta (Arg), Grupo Kalay'i (Arg), Wilson Borja (Col), Michael Guetio (Col), Cristina Zavala (Per), Jesús Cossio (Per)
• The project's Collaborators, that is, the institutions and individuals with whom the project worked to co-create events and zines related to CORALA in Latin America
• Project Advisors, experts who provided advice at different stages of the project

Creations produced over the course of the project:

• Zines created by the project artists in collaboration with the research team (the zines are available to download alongside transcripts in Spanish and translations into English)
• Writings produced by the research team as short reflections about selected comics
• Online Exhibition, scheduled to be finalised in early 2024

Events organised by the project:

• Research trip and associated events - Buenos Aires (June 2022)
• Research trip and associated events - Lima (August 2022)
• Research trip and associated events - Bogotá/Cali (March 2023)
• Project Conference 'Comics and Race in Latin America' - Manchester (January 2024)
• Additional talks given by members of the research team