“I was a monument to immigration—now I’m a border control cop.” So admits the Statue of Liberty in Giannina Braschi’s United States of Banana, a rollicking and nakedly political allegory of US imperialism and Puerto Rican independence. Illustrated by Swedish comic book artist Joakim Lindengren and based on Braschi’s epic manifesto by the same title, the story takes us along on the madcap adventures of Zarathustra, Hamlet, and Giannina herself as they rescue the Puerto Rican prisoner Segismundo from under the skirt of the Statue of Liberty. Throughout their quest, the characters debate far-ranging political and philosophical subjects, spanning terrorism, global warming, mass incarceration, revolution, and love. The Marx Brothers, Pablo Neruda, Barack Obama, Disney characters and more make appearances in this stirring call to overthrow empire, liberate the imprisoned masses, and build a new country rooted in friendship, art, poetry, and laughter.

Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican writer based in New York City. Her works encompass poetry, fiction, manifesto, and drama and include the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams and the experimental Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing!
 
Joakim Lindengren is a Swedish cartoonist, illustrator, and artist whose celebrated titles include the Captain Stofil series and Ugly.

Amanda M. Smith is Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she researches twentieth- and twenty-first-century Latin American cultural production.
 
Amy Sheeran is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Otterbein University. She specializes in early modern Peninsular literature.

 

Introduction    United States of Banana: A Graphic Revolution

            Amanda M. Smith and Amy Sheeran

United States of Banana

            Giannina Braschi and Joakim Lindengren

Discussion Questions

About the Editors