Immigration, Popular Culture, and the Re-routing of European Muslim Identity

By studying the re-mapping of Europe as a topography of immigration, and by investigating the cultural production that has translated and mediated traditional Mediterranean identities, this book examines the creation of new "European," new "Moorish," and new "European Islamic" identities, with a particular emphasis on the changing role of Spain and the transnationalization of its heritage of Al-Andalus. Central to this study is the concept of traslado, used here to trace the translation and transfer of cultural memory and national identity through a focus on immigrants who have been moving between and transcending national spaces. Through critical analysis of novels, film, and hip-hop produced by and about immigrants, Dotson-Renta demonstrates how traslado works in the lives of contemporary North African immigrants to Spain.