The Return of the Decolonized: The Legacies of Leopoldo Zea's Philosophy of History for Comparative American Studies

Leopoldo Zea's philosophy of history constitutes a cogent interrogation of the colonial legacy in Mexico and thus also serves to demonstrate the importance of Latin America as a site of theoretical enunciation. This essay addresses Zea's early work on Mexico and his “Discourse on Margination and Barbarism,” putting them in dialogue with Gloria Anzaldúa's more recent theoretical engagement of border culture in order to assess their value as models for what Raewyn Connell calls “Southern theory.” This essay concludes with a discussion of several theorists who present models of comparative American studies compatible with the Southern theory discussed in the previous pages.