This panel explores the transnational flows of art, labor, resistance, and identity that have shaped the Americas. It puts into dialogue four papers that examine how hemispheric connections and global crossings fostered new, previously unthinkable ways of imagining the people, places, and history of the Americas. From the Manila Galleon trade to mid-20th century factories, from revolutionary poetry to global modernism, these papers challenge nationalist narratives and chart the politics of cultural exchange. One paper examines how lacquerware and tin-glazed pottery, shaped by Asian and American trade, were later reimagined and claimed as symbols of Mexican identity. Another uncovers the overlooked labor of Mexican and Mexican-American women in Fender’s guitar factories, using spatial history to highlight their lived experiences and underscore the dislocated foundations of American music culture. A third paper traces how Phillis Wheatley’s poetry influenced Francisco de Miranda’s revolutionary vision, linking African American literature to South American processes of independence. The final paper follows Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias’ work between China, Mexico, and the U.S., showing how visual culture mediated cross-cultural understanding, history, and diplomacy.

By foregrounding diverse methodologies and a global approach that focuses on marginalized voices and contested objects, this panel reveals the entanglements of material culture, labor, and ideology across oceans and centuries. It offers a space to rethink how the movement of people, words, art, goods, and ideas in shaping histories of the Americas. Taken together, the papers illustrate the power of images, literature, and labor across boundaries for bringing imaginable pasts, presents, and futures into being.