A Conversation with Cynthia Cruz

Institute for Latino Studies

Available on-demand

Born to a father whose education was severed at grammar school for field labor, Cynthia Cruz transformed feelings of shame into a determination that earned her a Ph.D. in philosophy and fueled the publication of nine poetry collections and a novella. Listen in to a conversation between Cruz and Notre Dame M.F.A. student Adriana Toledano Kolteniuk about how Cruz’s dismantling of the myth of the “late start” became a hallmark of her prolific ascent, offering a roadmap for redefining your own intellectual horizons.

Cynthia Cruz is a visiting assistant professor in Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program for the 2025-2026 academic year, and will be returning for the 2026-2027 academic year as well.

For more information on Letras Latinas at the Institute for Latino Studies, please visit the Letras Latinas website.

The Myth of the Late Start

Cruz confronts the neoliberal obsession with early achievement by recontextualizing her own “delayed” academic ascent as a deliberate expansion of the self. Her origins in a “working poor” household—where her father, one of thirteen children, was forced to leave grammar school to drive a tractor—meant that elite intellectual spaces were not merely distant; they were invisible. Cruz describes her path as “eclectic and strange,” a bittersweet realization of horizons only discovered when she “bumped up against them.” Now a PhD with nine poetry collections and a novella, she dismantles the shame of being “behind,” arguing that intellectual maturity is not a race against a clock but a persistent strike against predetermined limits.

Beyond the Monolith

In her critical work, Cruz offers a sharp critique of the “Latina” label as it is currently deployed in the United States. She expresses a profound ambivalence toward her anthology, Other Musics, describing it as a project she is “glad she made, but wishes she hadn’t.” Her frustration stems from the “symbolic tropes” and “aestheticized expectations” imposed by a white middle-class readership that seeks a homogenized, marketable identity. By highlighting variations in geography, religion, and class, Cruz seeks to dismantle this monolith, warning that any categorization risks “ghettoizing” the artist rather than allowing the work to exist as a formal and spiritual dedication to craft.

A Poetics of Refusal

Transforming the discussion of anorexia and silence, Cruz explores a “poetics of refusal” that functions as a strike against the demand for endless consumption. She distinguishes sharply between chosen stasis—the “no-way zones” of hotel rooms and malls where one can find a temporary cocoon of freedom—and the forced stasis of asylums and prisons. For Cruz, the state’s “protection” of the mentally ill often masks a punitive solitary confinement that protects the institution rather than the patient. In this framework, silence becomes an active mode of resistance, a refusal to be named or destroyed by the language of the state.

The Architecture of Repetition

Central to Cruz’s methodology is the concept of “Sweet Repetition.” Drawing on the “Hegelian habit,” she distinguishes between the stagnant “capitalist habit” that traps us in loops of the same and a structural repetition that seeks a “glitch” in the system. By engaging in the mechanical and the rudimentary—the archive, the collage, the rudimentary task—the conscious mind is momentarily frozen. This “symptom of language” creates a rupture, allowing the unconscious to enter the work. For Cruz, freedom is found not in the rejection of the loop, but in the deliberate repetition that creates a path toward genuine, unscripted rupture.

The Political Nature of the Apolitical: Art that claims neutrality or ignores material crises is a political statement in itself, reflecting the luxury of the “neutral subject” and the alienation inherent in power.
The Epistemology of Unlearning: To enter a state of true discovery, one must “undo” previous certainties. Approaching a problem with the assumption of total knowledge short-circuits the capacity for genuine learning.
The Intersectionality of Class and Origin: We must resist the “ghettoization” of identity. Reducing individuals to singular labels ignores the complex, often traumatic tensions between class background and current professional milieu.
Repetition as a Structural Rupture: Utilizing the “Hegelian habit” involves more than just routine; it is the deliberate use of repetition to create “glitches” or interruptions that break the loops of capitalist stagnation.
The Strategic Engagement of the Unconscious: By performing “rudimentary” or mechanical tasks, the conscious mind is bypassed, allowing the unconscious to surface more profound and authentic insights into the creative process.

“I didn’t know about my horizons or what was there until I bumped up against them.” — Cynthia Cruz
“Years of labor pressed like a miracle into the shimmering oracle of his dark countenance, warped and damaged like a map held underwater for centuries.” — Cynthia Cruz
“To write poems that don’t have any relationship to the material world is political.” — Cynthia Cruz
“You have to see the extreme violence that’s necessary for this system to function.” — Cynthia Cruz
“If you know something, that actually short-circuits the ability to know anything.” — Cynthia Cruz