Includes bibliography, contributors and index

Introduction (Theresa Delgadillo, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, Geraldo L. Cadava, and Claire F. Fox). Emergent futures; Unsustainable environments and place in Latinx literature (Theresa Delgadillo); Radical hospitality in a small Iowa Town (Claire F. Fox); Chicago Tropical: Fausto Fernós´s transloca drag performances (Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes); Finding mexirican placemaking in Michigan (Delia Fernández-Jones); A chicagolandia zine community (Ariana Ruiz). Practices of placemaking: Creating la estación gallery (Sandra Ruiz); Testimony: A welcoming spirit (Carmen Hernandez, PBVM); Creating latinx arts networks in Chicago (J. Gibran Villalobos). Scale and place: Festival de las calaveras and somatic emplacement in Minnesota (Karen Mary Davalos); Refugees, religious spaces, and sanctuary in Wisconsin (Sergio M. González); The ratio of inclusion in East Chicago, Inidana (Emiliano Aguilar Jr.); Ohio latinx festivals create new new publics (Theresa Delgadillo, Laura Fernández, Marie Lerma, and Leila Vieira); Is the Chicago Latino film festival a latinx place? (Geraldo L. Cadava); Living lakes; Performing latinx and black history (Ramón H. Rivera-Servera).

Latina/o/x places exist as both tangible physical phenomena and gatherings created and maintained by creative cultural practices. In this collection, an interdisciplinary group of contributors critically examines the many ways that varied Latina/o/x communities cohere through cultural expression. Authors consider how our embodied experiences of place, together with our histories and knowledge, inform our imagination and reimagination of our surroundings in acts of placemaking. This placemaking often considers environmental sustainability as it helps to sustain communities in the face of xenophobia and racism through cultural expression ranging from festivals to zines to sanctuary movements. It emerges not only in specific locations but as movement within and between sites; not only as part of a built environment, but also as an aesthetic practice; and not only because of efforts by cultural, political, and institutional leaders, but through mass media and countless human interactions.A rare and crucial perspective on Latina/o/x people in the Midwest, Building Sustainable Worlds reveals how expressive culture contributes to, and sustains, a sense of place in an uncertain era.